It's Been a Good Year For Nigerian Hip-Hop

Over the past weekend South African rap superstar AKA tweeted that South Africa is the leader when it comes to African Hip-Hop and to my surprise there was no umbrage about, most  of the Nigerian Hip-Hop community  seemed to accept it in stride, they have given up on the claim to being the kings of hip-hop, because the man that was perceived to champion us into a new age of Nigerian hip-hop, Ycee is in a legal battle with his label. This has reduced the music he puts out and simultaneously slowed down his buzz.

Nigerian hip-hop is far from dead as I believe it experienced one of its best years in a long while, I might go as far as saying it’s currently in the best place it’s ever been in 5 years. The reason I’d say this is because the acts are dropping their projects and not chasing afropop success. They are staying true to their core and at the same time not trying to prove to anyone that they can out rap everybody. The artistes have found ways to profit from their fan base.

There was a flurry of hip-hop releases this year from both old acts and new acts, here are some that stood out to me.

M.I dropped two full albums with completely difference concepts, which is an absolute flex if you think about it and then led Choc City when they did their version of 3 albums in 3 weeks. Blaqbones showed that he has what it takes to be a star in this game with his debut, A-Q and Loose Kanon showed us that there’s still space in Nigeria for hardnose lyrical rap. Ice Prince gave us an E.P that showed us he still has a lot left in the tank and that he’s far from done. Dremo also put out an EP that showcased his talents and showed him trying to experiment with different sounds. It doesn’t stop there, highly rated rapper Poe dropped his first project and reminded us his fans why we believed in him in the first place and ShowDemCamp continued their hot streak releasing a follow up to their critically acclaimed project PalmWine music.

AKA may be right about South Africa currently being the Mecca for hip-hop in Africa, but the Nigerian hip-hop scene is thriving on a low and it’s only a matter of time before it takes it position at the top of African hip-hop.