Indigenous Rap Saved Nigerian Hip-Hop

Nigerian Hip-Hop artistes Dagrin, Olamide & Phyno / amped illustration

We could conclude that the genre of Rap music infused with “intelligent & witty wordplay” is not the ideal type of music, that could be likened to the music-consuming sect of Nigeria. However, as change being a constant thing, the people & the environment begins to evolve, and people move on from their old ways; getting Intune with the Culture. The early 90’s welcomed the emergence of the music duo of Junior & Pretty, who were vastly known for their famous hits like [Bolanle & Monica] in addition to being represented and the flagship artists of the legendary Record Label Music Executive; Obi Asika (Pre-Storm Records Era). They can be regarded as the Fathers of Rap & Hip-Hop in Nigeria, that paved the way for others to follow, to make their type of music, popular in mainstream Nigerian Music Industry. Which could subsequently, be accredited to the notable Rap powerhouse of Kennis Music, during the early 2000’s.

Indigenous Rap is simply the infusion of our local dialects in Nigeria, into creating substance in composing Rhythmic Applied Poetry into a proper engaging type of music. The fore runners of the early 2000’s era did their thing and garnered the clout and audiences around, to push their records. During this period of growth, it seemed like something was evidently missing and the public wanted more than the watered-down rap lyrics. Then came the arrival of the Hardcore rap artiste Mode9; who is supposedly the self-acclaimed best rapper alive in Nigeria. He did his thing and claimed the top spot, post the Kennis Music Era, on the back of the foundation laid forward by Trybesmen. Like anything else, there was an unexpected storm brewing in Jos, with the introduction of Chocolate City & the Abaga Family with M.I, Jesse Jagz & Panshak Zamani (Ice Prince) which took the helm of the entire music scene around 2008-2011. This was the peak time when M. I’s debut album (Talk About It) was on the rise and going well for him. A stretch where we had the peak period of Nigerian Hip-hop that we could boast of proper MCs, who were unapologetic in their craft.

2010 saw Ice Prince drop his debut single, off his newly acquired Chocolate city record deal with Oleku. It created an immediate impact and fast forwarded this once unknown rapper from Jos to super stardom. A period where all the rappers were on their toes and ready to cut bragging rights, saw them upbeat about this Oleku record, as they all decided to drop their own version of this hit-record. This prompted saw the proper-launch of Yungsix, who was already killing it in the southern part of Nigeria but left unattended to, but as soon as his Oleku cover came up, he had fans nationwide and gathered the attention of the record label power house; Storm records to hand him a record deal. The Nigerian Hip-hop Scene was sweet & exciting, with every rapper putting in work and flooding the market with mixtapes and other projects of some sort. “Don Jazzy”, which was a household name from that period, even went above his comfort zone, to put out the critically acclaimed Enigma beat, which prompted the [Enigma Rap Challenge] to cater for underground rappers. He basically had a successful outing in his attempt at CSR for the music scene as he dropped the beat for free and made the record easily accessible by the regular rapper with the sight of winning a Prize money. On the back off that, suddenly saw the decline in this environs as Pangolo Music, came on full throttle and was on blast and every recording artistes just wanted to blow-up with no basic direction. Even the rappers became lazy and started to sell-out; a mark which saw the sudden hiatus of the mega hip-hop musician; Naeto-C, depart with his distinctive rapper swag and saw a major decline in his music journey. As he and many others, were finding it difficult to Horne their craft, as it seemed like the consuming public were not paying attention to this genre of music anymore.

Well, A certain Olamide Adedeji came into the limelight as he was power hungry to prove his mark in an industry, that was filled with English speaking rappers. He got tired of bubbling under, where he was grooming his skill, under the ID Cabasa’s Coded Tunes label, that was also home to Reminisce. As he wasn’t the forerunner of the previous indigenous rappers, Olamide took it upon himself to bring back the rave caused by the Yoruba speaking rappers in Da Grin & Lord of Ajasa. As He also went full control to make sure people didn’t sleep on Yoruba Rap. On the side, was Reminisce who came off the back of Jahbless, and got his breakthrough single “Kako Bii Chicken” which made him confident to go forth and build his own fan base. There became the system that worked well, for both Olamide and himself as they showed desire and got every music lover, interested in the next record they were going to put out.

In the Eastern part of Nigeria, saw the breakthrough of Phyno, who decided to drop his producer hat and leave the console, to become a full-blown rapper under the tutelage of illBliss (OGA BOSS); who fostered his mentee to purposefully rebranding and getting a record deal with Clarence Peters. Phyno basically shed the much-needed light, on the Igbo Rap, that was already put forward by Nigga Raw who was already spinning heads in Abia State as he got his recognition afterwards, nationwide. Then in 2014, saw the indigenous rap powerhouses team up to put out the greatest rap record ever made in Nigeria; Ghost Mode, which did all the right things, as it effected the entire music industry immensely and became the biggest record in the country at a time, as it seemed like Hip-hop was officially back on the rise and even non-speaking Yoruba and Ibo music lovers were all music lovers of Olamide & Phyno. As it started the rise of bringing back the clout that was once submerged and gathered followership to hardcore rap & witty lyrics and saved Nigerian Hip-hop. And for a fact, the indigenous Rappers form a huge part of the best musicians out of Africa as a continent, now.