Nigerian pop sound has in all sincerity come a long way en route its transcendence to glory. Afrobeats has now become Nigeria’s Biggest export globally, with ground-breaking achievements, Grammy awards, hattrick BET awards by Burna Boy and most recently the billboard hot 100, scored by our very own ‘Star Boy’, Wizkid with help from the ‘Rebel’ herself Tems showing us the ‘Essence’ of being the first to hit this great milestone in the world of music for our great nation.
We are getting all the encomium, respect, acknowledgements, endorsements, awards, partnerships and most importantly the bag (money). There is a need for us to know our history, as this revolution did not start in this age, there were forerunners who set the pace for this to materialize. So, we should not get caught in hubris and should rather be amiable to all who seek our truth.
The earliest styles of Nigerian popular music were palm-wine music and highlife, which spread in the 1920s among Nigeria and nearby countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ghana. In Nigeria, palm-wine became the primary basis for jùjú, a genre that dominated popular music for many years. Little is known about Nigeria’s music history before European contact, although bronze carvings dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries have been found depicting musicians and their instruments.
It should be noted that the Church helped the concept of music as a contemplative art to receive widespread popularity in Nigeria, it was left to the efforts of formally trained composers and musicologists to forge new idioms and styles in their works to develop a modern tradition of Nigerian Art Music. While the earliest of them, T.K.E. Phillips, started composing in the 1920s followed by Fela Sowande in 1940, it was not until the early 1960s that several Nigerian composers, who chose to compose in the idiom of European classical music, emerged.
There have been many popular genres of music in Nigeria since the 60s from Highlife, Juju, Afrobeat, psychedelic rock, disco, Fuji, Reggae, Ragga, Rap and contemporary pop music popularly branded as Afrobeats by the Western media. Although these genres have had their respective degree of influence, Afrobeats can be said to be the major thrust of Nigerian pop culture to the world.
We should not forget to honour great forerunners who fought the good fight for the culture. They include Victor Olaiya, Bobby Benson, Chief Osita Osadebe, Oliver De Coque, Celestine Ukwu, Oriental Brothers, Sonny Okosun, Sir Victor Uwaifo, King Sunny Ade, Christy Essien Igbokwe, Onyeka Onwenu, Majek Fashek, Ras Kimono, Fela Anikulapo Kuti and many others.
The penultimate wave of the contemporary Nigerian music scene and business began in the late 1990s, led by Kenny Ogungbe and Dayo Adeneye co-owners of Kennis Music and Primetime Entertainment who sold Nigerians a new type of pop music coming from an unknown three-man band named the Remedies (made up of Eedris Abdulkareem, Tony Tetuila and Eddy Montana). Their first single, ‘Shakomo’ was an instant hit and hijacked the nation, resulting in them becoming instant stars and pathfinders for a whole generation of Nigerian pop stars.
The next class of Nigerian pop stars 2face Idibia, D’banj and Psquare had laid the groundwork for the new wave of the current Nigerian pop sound we now consume. Female acts such as Sasha, B.O.U.Q.U.I, Weird MC, Kel and Mo’Cheddah also led the charge in this new millennium accomplishing great wonders. They sang about love, life and living, artists like eLDee, Sound Sultan, Mr Raw, Timaya and African China used their art to remind the government and people about the state of the nation and why urgent improvements were of top-most importance. Also, during this period, their songs and music videos found their way to the diaspora in Europe, North America and other parts of the world thanks to the Internet.
As many music aficionados know the year 2010 was the golden year of Nigerian Hip-Hop and probably the greatest of all time but that is a story for another day. Fortunately, it also coincided with the popularity of Nigerian pop music that Wande Coal premiered with ‘Mushin To Mo’Hits’ album and Wizkid popularized with his entire swagger no thanks to hits like ‘Holla at your Boy’, Tease Me/ Bad Guys’ and ‘Don’t Dull’.
The entrance of phenomena like Ice Prince, MI Abaga and Jesse Jagz with their effortless fusion of pop with tenets of rap music indirectly diluted rap music. Together with the success of Da Grin, Olamide, and Phyno, fans found unique ways to consume Nigerian Hip-Hop/Rap Music. But Hip-Hop could not keep up the strive as it was badly hit by the emergence and virality of contemporary Nigerian pop. It seemed like destiny or mother nature taking her pound of flesh as it gave way for Wizkid, Davido and Ice Prince to emerge as leaders of the new school.
In 2011, a new wave of Nigerian pop music had fully emerged and there was a demand for homegrown pop music from the Nigerian community in the United Kingdom and the diaspora at large. We all know that led to the glory we all enjoy now. Over the years Nigeria has produced great stars like Naeto C, Don Jazzy, Waje, Omawumi, Yemi Alade, Tiwa Savage, Vector, Brymo, Asa, Illbliss, Reminisce, Patoranking, Chidinma, Flavour, Falz, Runtown, Banky W, Zlatan, Naira Marley, Ladipoe, Johnny Drille, Reekado Banks, Mr Eazi, Mayorkun, Peruzzi and a host of others.
Today’s stars Rema, Fireboy DML, Joeboy, Omah Lay, Bella Shmurda, Oxlade, Bad Boy Timz, Zinoleesky, Buju, Blaqbonez, Terri, Ayra Starr, Cheque, Ruger and Laycon are wasting no time in preserving the legacy of their predecessors. Another irrefutable wonder is the alternative scene, this ecosystem has grown a formidable roster of artists in Nigeria pop culture over the past six years. This convent is primarily united by the struggle of creatively expressing themselves without help from investors or major labels especially in a country like Nigeria. There is a need to appreciate and recognise the efforts of Alté guys (short for alternative), such as Jimi Abduls, Boj, Odunsi The Engine, Lady Donli, Tay Iwar and Santi. They helped to popularize the streaming of music in Nigeria and the acceptability of outlandish celebrity lifestyles with great help from their treasured ecosystem. Nigerians are now paying for music and all its related merch.
The Afrobeats Intelligence Head and music journalist Joey Akan aptly describes their everyday struggle when he wrote that “While other communities have investors and big budgets, the Alté crowd are mostly self-funded, scratching from corner to post, and denying themselves a lot of comforts to create music.”
We should give all key parties their roses. Today, the hits are bigger, the stars are brighter, the scene is more competitive and the pay glut. Who would have thought that a culture that took the world by storm thanks to economic conditions of the 1980s will today achieve global virality that is changing the game for Africa and putting Nigerian pop culture on the map. For a clime where corruption is endemic, and carriers masquerade as leaders, many young people have in all honesty begun to look to sports and entertainment stars for hope, advice, knowledge and inspiration. The politicians may be drunk on power, but it is becoming increasingly clear with each passing day that the real influence rests in the microphones of today’s pop stars. A clear example was last year’s #ENDSARS protests.