The Resurgence of Nigerian R&B

Adekunle Gold & Johnny Drille / amped illustration

Johnny Drille is a star. Over the past weekend, I begrudgingly went to a Johnny Drille concert because a girl that I liked was going and had invited me. I got there late and I was shocked by the shear number of people in attendance. At the gate I couldn’t even get a tag or a pass or anything of that sort, they had run out of tags and tickets so they just made a sign on my finger nail. During the Show Mr Drille explained how shocked he was by the amount of people at the show. Almost five thousand people came to see Johnny perform and though none of them was named Yemi Alade they all found him amazing singing every word to all of his songs and were completely into it.

I left Johnny Drille's show thinking to myself that there’s still room for Nigerian R&B in the current music climate. We are far removed from the time where R&B acts where occupying prime real estate in the mainstream of music. Acts like Darey Art Alade, Banky W, Omawumi dominates and sold out venues all over the country but the same can’t be said for some of the current acts in R&B. But that doesn’t mean the genre is completely dead.

Adekunle Gold is the one act that has seemed to reach the heights close to those mentioned before. With two albums deep into his career,  he’s already a certified star and has proved that it’s possible to do R&B and be successful, there are also examples of how big R&B could be everywhere with artistes like Johnny Drille, Nonso Amadi, Odunsi (The Engine) and Ric Hassani amongst others all having mainstream success In the past year. I am convinced that there's a R&B uprising in Nigeria and we are just about ready for it.