THE LOVE POST 2010

Here are five things I really loved about naija hip hop in 2010.

1. THE RESURGENCE OF NAIJA RAPPERS  

2010 will forever stand out as a year to be remembered in the history of naija rap. Only God knows what happened, maybe it was MI or something else, but all of a sudden every naija rapper worth his salt suddenly upped his game and we were blessed with an unprecedented number of hot and quality rap albums. From Eldee’s Is it your money to Modenine’s Da vinci mode, Sauce Kid’s African American, 2 Shotz’s I am William, Terry da Rapman’s Boyz are not smiling, Eedris Abdulkareem’s Unfinished Business, Ruggedman’s Untouchable, Dat Nigga Raw’s End of Discussion, MI’s MI2 the Movie, OD’s Hustle or Die, Pherowshuz’s Return of the Phero, all the way down to newcomer Vector’s State of Surprise. There was more than enough rap music to go round. I am not complaining.

2. THE RESTRUCTURING OF KENNIS MUSIC

Just when we were thinking that Kennis Music had fallen off, they restructured their whole label and immediately got back to winning ways. Collectively they scored more hits in 2010 than any other record label. From Jaywon’s gbon gbon gbon & filebe, Essence’s facebook love, Eedris’s calabar love, and Goldie’s you know it. Even their upcoming acts like Femi & The Pulse had Their own fair share of the limelight. All hail big bros.

3. INTERNET RELEASES

With online downloads now available for naija hip hop albums most notably via www.notjustok.com, it is easier and faster to keep track of naija releases and to have access to naija music, especially for people in diaspora. Within minutes of release, you can now get most Nigerian hip hop albums online. One other major benefit of this newly embraced trend is that it exposes our music to a wider audience. An internet release is also one of the simplest and fastest ways to market your music.

4. THE SISTAS MOVEMENT

Unlike in previous years when you will be hard pressed to find a song by a female artist on top 10, 2010 was quite different as the ladies went all out and moderately succeeded courtesy of Goldie, Essence and Asa. Peeps like Weird MC, KSB, Omotola, Mo Cheddah, Waje also put in work and made a case for the ladies thus showing us that the future of the naija female artiste is not as bleak as we once thought.

5. THE BEEN THERE DONE THAT MOVEMENT

2010 was the year that naija hip hop unofficially became the new national cake as everybody from Actors (Odunlade Adekola), Models (Munachi Abi), Actresses (Omotola) and Fuji musicians (Pasuma & Obesere) were jostling for a slice. All that didn’t surprise me, what surprised me most was how the been-there-done-thats were all coming out from nowhere with singles and in some cases albums reaffirming their love and allegiance to naija hip hop. When I say BTDT, I mean cats like Timi da Blackone, Eedris Abdulkareem, Tony Tetuila, Terry da Rapman, C-mion, olaDELe, Freestyle, etc  It wss really good and refreshing to see that, to all of them I say welcome back.