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Why is #FreeAyo the number one trending topic on X today? Who’s Ayo? Why are X users clamouring for his freedom? What’s the role of Toyin Abraham in this situation? This is a full explainer.
Around 8 PM on June 9, 2024, X user @jefferybest11 tweeted that Nollywood actress and film producer Toyin Abraham sent some Nigerian police officers to arrest his mum over a tweet he claims to know nothing about. They took his mum to the Panti police division.
In subsequent tweets, user @jefferybest11 stated that the police came to look for him on account of Toyin Abraham’s statement that he bullied the actress. The police didn’t find him, so they arrested his mom and sister instead.
As the situation unfolded, @jefferybest11 contacted a friend and another X user, @47kasz, to share the confusing details. @47kasz went to the Panti police station to verify the story. While there, actress Toyin Abraham called the station to clarify that @jeffreybest11 wasn’t the bully but @47kasz. The story becomes unclear as @jefferybest11 tweeted that @47kasz turned himself in as Toyin Abraham’s bully. The actress requested the police to release the arrested mom and sister, but the mom refused to leave unless the police released @47kasz, whose real name is Ayo.
Toyin Abraham also said that the arrest of @jefferybest11’s mum and sister wasn’t her intention. She only gave the police @jefferybest11’s phone number, which was traced to a phone held by his mum, and they apprehended the woman without her knowledge.
A tweet Ayo (@47kasz) made about Toyin Abraham on June 3, 2024, has now come up. He accused the actress of collecting Tinubu’s money to make her husband’s hair grow again. It’s still unclear if this tweet is evidence of cyberbullying he’s been held for.
In a now-deleted tweet, Toyin Abraham said she planned to forgive Ayo and let the issue go until @jefferybest11 took it to X.
Since this news broke, his mutuals and some other X users have been using the hashtag #FreeAyo to highlight the injustice of his illegal arrest and detainment. They aim to create awareness and garner support for Ayo’s plight. This is what Nigerians are saying about the situation.
Some furious X users took it further and sent emails to Netflix and Prime Amazon, reporting Toyin Abraham’s abuse of power to the streaming giants and asking to remove her films.
Today, Toyin Abraham took to her Instagram Live to debunk arresting @jefferybest11’s mom. In the same breath, she vowed to make the “bully” face the law’s wrath; if she goes down, she’s going down with all her bullies. “I want to kpai, I’m ready to kpai, and all my bullies will kpai with me,” she said on IG live.
At 3:40 PM on June 10, 2024, @jeffreybest11 tweeted that a bail process for Ayo (@47kasz) is ongoing.
This is a developing story.
Media personalities on radio, television and the internet are some of the most impressionable people. They bring real-time news, entertainment, and real-life issues closer to the masses. They’re the voices accompanying our information and documenting our society. They’re not just exciting, they’re culture.
In today’s look into women in media, we compiled a list of seven female presenters who are killing it from television to radio, YouTube to TikTok, Instagram, and X.
Abuja-based Chinasa Anukam, the host of the popular YouTube show Is This Seat Taken? has a casual but intentional way of interacting with her guests. It’s a first-date setting. She draws out her subjects’ playful side without skipping details about their professional and general lives.
Nancy Isime is one of the most famous faces on Nigerian TV. From presenting a gossip show called The Squeeze to handling the backstage segments of MTN Project Fame Season 7, presenting HipTV’s #Trending segment (2016 – 2023) and co-hosting The Headies award shows in 2019 and 2020, she’s put herself in faces. She also has her TV show, The Nancy Isime Show. Exclude her blooming acting career; you’ll see she remains one of Nigeria’s top female presenters.
Ojy Okpe has continually evolved around cameras from modelling to film to journalism. She is a co-host on Arise News’s The Good Morning Show. She hosts her segment known as What’s Trending With Ojy Okpe. If you want verifiable updates on the conversations in the Nigerian socio-political and economic space, don’t miss her segment every morning.
Earlier in her career, Folu Storm did radio at 92.3 Inspiration FM. Not long before she became a presenter and content producer for NdanniTV’s award-winning The New Africa documentary, she was an MTV Base Africa’s top-three VJ finalist. She’s in more movies and series these days, but TV and radio still serve as Folu Storm’s medium.
In 2010, Toke Makinwa made her first major media appearance as a co-host on Rhythm 93.7 FM’s The Morning Drive Show. Since then, she’s appeared as co-host, host, and presenter on 3 Live Chicks, HipTV’s #Trending, EbonyLife TV’s Moments, and her Talk With Toke Makinwa Show. Through her vibrant television host and radio personality career, Toke Makinwa has built one of the biggest brands in the Nigerian media space.
Kemi Smallz’s career began at 14 as a kid presenter for old Nigerian TV programmes like Tales Africa, Kiddies Island, and Generation Next. She was an OAP at CIty 105.1 FM (2013-2017). She co-hosts the Good Morning Nigeria show on Cool 96.9 FM every weekday (5 AM-10 AM). She also officially hosts Basement Gig if there’s a Nigerian on-air personality (OAP) to ring about music commentary. The person is Kemi Smallz, AKA Radio Rat.
Tolu Oniru, AKA Toolz, is a radio personality, talk show host and presenter. From The Juice talk show to hosting the X Factor West Africa (2013) to the Midday Show she hosts on The Best 99.9 FM, Toolz has stayed a top voice in the African media space—little wonder she’s now a director of programmes at Megaletrics, the company that owns Beat FM.
Adenike Lanlehin’s journey into the media industry started with a three-month internship at Ogun State Broadcasting Corporation during her Polytechnic days. Since then, she’s worked at Splash FM and Cool FM. Adenike brings all the front page news and reviews to radio listeners on Fresh FM’s Freshly Pressed programme.
Ghana has always been popular for its thriving Hip-Hop and rap scene on the African continent. In 2020, the wave of drill music crashed on the Gold Coast, specifically Kumasi, and birthed a local sub-genre of rap music called “Asakaa” or Ghanaian Drill. It’s a blend of drill music and hiplife, characterised by red bandanas (an imitation of Los Angeles’ Blood gang), gang signs, streetwear, and the Indigenous elements of Kumasi.
Drill music is a youth-driven culture. Much like street-pop music, drill dives deep, painting a vivid picture of street life and activities.
Although many collectively refer to the music as “Asakaa”, the sub-genre shouldn’t be mistaken for the nine-man group and pioneer known as Asakaa Boys. “Asakaa”, coined by DJ and producer Rabby Jones, comes from the “Saka”, an informal pronunciation of “Kasa”, the Twi word for “talk.” Heavily influenced by the US culture and lifestyle, Asakaa Boys americanised their hometown Kumasi with a code name: Kumerica. It became a movement for these Kumasi drillers and inspired other famous Ghanaian artists like Black Sherif and Yaw Tog.
Ghanaian drill music became viral with Asakaa Boys’ Akatofoc single in 2020, a year after the group made Big Flex, their first drill jam. Drill music soon became trendy across cities, and more young Ghanaian artists started to hop and dragon-glide on it.
Four years after Asakaa, once considered underground, gained ground in Ghana, it has produced promising young music exports. It’s received global stars’ support from the UK’s Stormzy and Headie One. Ghanaian drill or Asakaa’s now also included in the popular genres in the new Grammys’ Best African Performance category introduced in 2023. So far in 2024, Asakaa playlists on Spotify have over two million streams and feature over 38 million user-created playlists.
Just like the 234Drill movement is growing to be the next big thing in the Nigerian music scene, Asakaa is gaining momentum in Ghana. If you want to get familiar with it, here’s a highlight of drillers making waves in the Asakaa movement.
reggie, AKA Reggie Osei, introduced drill music to Asakaa Boys, the Kumerica group credited for pioneering Ghanaian drill. With four projects (“Straight Outta Kumerica 1-2”, “2 TIMES A GUY”, and “Most High”) to his name, reggie has built a reputation as one of the most consistent drillers on the scene.
Black Sherif went mainstream, singing about emotional pain on drill beats. “Of course, I fucked up / Who never fuck up, hands in the air” is arguably one of the most quoted lyrics in Nigeria and Ghana in 2022. Second Coming (original and remix) by Black Sherif buzzed so much that it won the Best Hip-Hop Song of the Year at the 2022 Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMA). His successful “The Villain I Never Was” (2022) debut album is a bag of emotions and melodies— a proper introduction to Black Sherif’s music.
One of Ghana’s youngest music stars is Yaw Tog. Fame found him at age 17 in high school in 2020. Directly influenced by the Asakaa Boys, he became one of the Ghana drill’s torchbearers. Yaw Tog’s breakout single, Sore remix, features Kwesi Arthur and Stormzy. He’s witty, fierce, and unapologetically Ghanaian.
Jay Bahd’s strongest lyricism is street tales, youthful exuberance and new-found successes. If you dig that, add his music to your playlist. One of his recent singles, Hate, features African Hip-Hop legend Sarkodie.
O’Kenneth was featured on Yaw Tog’s Sore and Kawabanga’s Akatofoc, the records which helped propel Ghanaian drill to prominence in 2022. Since then, he’s released four albums and put himself in conversation. Spotify recognises him as one of the top five most streamed Ghanaian drillers on its platform.
Thanks to the baddies movement and Simi’s “Lost and Found”, the vacancy for a new Afropop girl-next-door is temporarily closed. Since the “Ojagu” days, Simi owned that bubbly space that Nigerians kink for its humble and friendly traits. Now, her OG artist and motherhood statuses outclass that. Simi said her new album “Lost and Found” is a tribute to things we continue to find and rediscover. The cover of her sixth album interprets that premise with a fantasia of Simi opening a rediscovered magical treasure chest, reclaiming her chemistry with music, melody and love stories.
The party starts in earnest with a reflective performance of the album’s title track. Lost and Found is a sobering, honest ballad that corresponds with the confessions of a regular Christian repentant. “Who am I not to count my blessings one by one, by one, by one? / And I’ll learn my lessons ‘cause I was lost, and now I’m found,” Simi sings. “Who knows freedom like someone who was once a slave?” Simi has some ruminative rhetoric to launch at herself and us. “Grateful for wisdom when I remember my foolish ways,” she continues to sing. “Na person wey fall go fit to rise.”
She’s known for producing and mixing her songs and featuring one or two collaborations on her previous projects. But she brought more hands on deck this time, from the Afropop-centric melodies of rising producer LOUDAA, who produced nine tracks on the album, to the sultry r&b of Estarlik Big Fish to FUNWON’s juju-inflected r&b. Their well-tempered productions maintain the consistent laid-back tempo associated with Simi’s music. The sound direction explores nothing unfamiliar; only a songwriter of Simi’s skills, scope and indigenous interpretations would dare walk aboard it, with familiar experiences, and strut away.
This is Simi’s rejuvenation from the absence her music created during the two years she was away, primarily catering to motherhood. If we’re talking cheesy, funny, real lover girl content and currency, Simi has r&b relevancy on “Lost and Found” although it may not resonate much beyond core listeners. On Know You II, she relishes and recreates extends the magic handed in Know You, her first collaboration with Ladipoe. This magic is nowhere as spellbinding as the refreshing, for-the-new-skool jam with Lojay on Miracle Worker.
The naughty girl-next-door Simi plays on Gimme Something and All I Want. Without losing sight of romance, the music gets more playful on One of One. Romance Therapy is an appreciation of a (finally) understanding lover. Borrow Me Your Body with Falz should’ve made it to the archives. It’s a leveller in comparison to the “Chemistry” they created. The bad-girl tactic assisted by Tiwa Savage on Men Are Crazy hits the goal on social listening and patriarchal capitalisation. It’s not a bad song, but it’s the type to get skips. [ad][/ad]
Words of affirmation are prevalent in Simi’s songs. She needs assurance on RnB Luv and its screams for a seductive Seyi Shay verse. Woman to Woman is a beautifully orchestrated salute to the women folk. The album’s zinger comes in the form of Alafia with Bella Shmurda. “Baby, ma j’oju mi o, baby ma j’oju o / Ma je kaye riwa / Oun a ni lan na ni / Baby, ma j’oju mi o, baby ma j’oju o / Funmi lalaafia, funmi lalaafia o.” Simi asks for lifelong commitment and peace, not emotional hurt, betrayal or messy drama. It catches Simi in her most honest form. Bella Shmurda’s tenor rings through the song with a romantic Afrobeats glossary.
Messiah is an exciting collaboration between Simi and Asa, who has inspired the former since she was a youngin. The song’s a mellow rejection of the weighty burdens of others, a bob-and-weave track. It’s every man for himself. Call it selfish, but no one gives others what they need for themselves. Jowo featuring Ebenezer Obey could have been another beautiful track if it worked with the original material or takes a bite of the guitar instead of recording the Juju legend’s vocal decline.
From self-searching to lifelong commitment and feisty Men Are Crazy, Simi explores different versions of herself. Although it feels like a reinvention, the girl-next-door narrative remains and has yet to age well in her biography. It makes the music feel like she’s comfortable with the victories delivered in the past. “Lost and Found” is reminiscent of her previous works, “Simisola” (2017) and “Omo Champagne Volume 1” (2019).
“Lost and Found” is a dizzying package of unfiltered love confessions and unapologetic romanticism, young-wifey melodies, subtle girl-next-door vibes, Owambe special numbers, and comeback attempts: Simi gives no power to let consumerism dictate her music choices. She finds comfort in her strength again, then makes another good album out of her rediscovery.
Academic activities at the University of Benin have been suspended indefinitely following an announcement from the school’s Public Relations Officer, Doctor Benedicta Ehanire.
On July 3, 2024, Uniben students seized the Benin -Ore highway to protest a power outage and lack of water in their hostels and campuses. The university has been struggling with power cuts, thanks to a new 200% increase in its monthly electricity bill — from 80 million to ₦200-280 million. This new energy cost came after the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) cut the university’s power supply over a ₦300 million debt, forcing the university to work with power generators.
The students say they took to the street because light now comes up for only an hour a day, compared to the 20 – 22 hours they usually got. As a result, studying without electricity has become unbearable for them.
The university statement, announcing the closure, states that the university’s senate considered the students’ demand for 24-hour electricity and stable water supply in their hostels and the two campuses unrealistic. It instructed all students to leave the school hostels immediately. Academic and non-academic staff on primary duties are unaffected.
Power outages aren’t limited to Uniben alone. In a report by Punch, rising energy costs are crushing Nigerian universities.
“Some of the institutions have been disconnected from the national grid owing to millions of unpaid electricity bills to DISCOS while others who are still connected are currently grappling with huge amounts of debts running into millions of naira.”
The College of Medicine, University of Lagos, is struggling with its migration to Band A, which has increased energy costs to ₦253 million. The University of Ilorin’s electricity bill jumped from ₦70 million to ₦230 million. Kano Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCO) disconnected the power supply at the Aliko Dangote University of Science and Technology due to a ₦248 million unpaid debt. The University of Jos has an electricity bill debt close to ₦126 million.
For Uniben, this isn’t the first time it’d shut down over students’ protests. In 2021, the university closed for 24 hours following a protest over a ₦20,000 late registration fee.
This is a developing story.
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The rejuvenation of Hip-Hop music has been visible across Africa in terms of sound evolution, more diverse styles and unique voices, and newer stories and perspectives. But it’s still redundant in proper representation of some of its contributors—the women in the genre. As popular as this issue is, it won’t remedy itself without intervention from the industry, fans, and the media.
For this week’s Zikoko coverage of women in pop culture, we introduce ten female artists who’re popping with the Hip-Hop art form, from Nigeria across Africa to the rapping African babes in the diaspora.
As you discover Reespect‘s music, keep in mind that you’re getting raps with soul. Human emotions and fragility laid down at her mic check. Although Reespect’s music connects primarily in reflection when noises are dead, and the party’s over, jams like Jungle, Twinkle and Hotline highlight her unboxed artistry.
I found Rosa Ree, a Bongo Flava rapper, on my radar after watching her on the 2020 BET Hip-Hop Cypher. Her single One Time is a message and shot sent through the rung of the Tanzanian music industry that women also exist in Hip-Hop. Staying true to her voice and image, Rosa Ree takes a clear stance on I’m Not Sorry (2023). Aside from discussing women’s experiences in her music, she’s skilled to go bar for bar with any challenger. Peep her latest In Too Deep (2024) to catch in her emotional bag.
Elisabeth Ventura is also among the rappers I watched at the 2020 BET Hip-Hop Cypher, and what stood out to me were her switchable flows and breath control. Her music concept prides itself on femininity and her natural hair. In 2023, she teamed up with Cage One to release a collaborative album titled “King Raising a Queen,” on which she explores various sounds like Afropop and Drill and showcases her singing abilities.
If there’s a popular word to describe the energy that jumps out of SGaWD‘s music, it’d be “hot girl.” Her sound selection, wardrobe choice and choreography are proof of that. Since she left her legal career and released her debut EP “Savage Bitch Juice” (2021), she wields her art form as a unifying tool of comfort, sexuality and the female experience. SGaWD’s music is experimental and the nuanced details of her romance and sex life are enjoyable flows on her list of singles including POPSHIT, Boy Toy, Dump All Your Worries On the Dance Floor and Juicebox.
Accessible wordplays, punchlines, storytelling and versatility are the major components that make rap music pop. Eno Barony has all these and has distinguished herself with them. Songs like Wats My Name and Argument Done prove she’s battle-tested. Her women-focused “Ladies First” album exemplifies her hit-making and braggadocious abilities. With significant music awards like the 3Music Award and African Muzik Magazine Awards, Eno Barony sits in conversations with the best rappers in her country. [ad][/ad]
Eno Barony may not be a familiar name outside of Ghana, but she’s held down the Ghanaian rap scene as strongly as her male counterparts. Get familiar.
Straight out of Nairobi, FEMI ONE’style of Hip-Hop style sports, humourous and fire-breathing bars, football references and fun production. From being one of the first female rappers to win the best rapper award at the AFRIMMA 2022 to performing at Boomplay’s Boomfest 2024, FEMI sets herself aside as a wavemaker in Kenya’s music scene. Are you looking to hear something different and fierce in African Hip-Hop? Her albums “Greatness” (2021) and “Dem Kutoka Mwiki” (2023) will serve you.
Ami Yerewolo is a conscious artist: check her album titles and lyricism. Gender equality and the fight against violence and oppression are messages in her music. In 2014, she got significant attention with her sophomore album, “Naissance” (meaning “Birth”). The album is considered the first female Malian rap album, and it cemented her as the first female Madinka rapper. Since then, she has made her third and fourth albums, “Mon Combat” (meaning “My Fight” (2018)) and “AY” (2021). In 2018, she also started a festival called “Mali a des Rappeuses” (meaning “Mali has female rappers), giving a platform to younger female rappers on that side of the world. She remains consistent, giving her voice to African rhythms and social causes.
Maryama Cham is a rising, diverse artist and activist from Gambian. When she’s not doing soul music or mixing Gambian traditional elements or Reggae, she’s rapping about societal issues like female genital mutilation, climate change and human trafficking. We don’t see a young, cool musician conscious of her world and generations-deep in her ancestral history.
If you call ZuluMecca a rapper’s rapper, you aren’t wrong. Her grasp on conscious messaging, braggadocious lyricism and emotive topics is outstanding. Get Mecca on boom-bap beats; she’ll deliver head-knocking performances. Put her on trap, alternative or any sound, and it’s a toast for that instrumental. If you’re searching for soulful raps with street confidence and fashionista swag, ZuluMecca says yo.
Although Pongo was born in Angola, she lives in Portugal. Her music is hip-hop perfectly blended with Kuduro (Angola dance music), pop, dancehall and electronic dance music. With a sensitive voice and passion for African stories and her diaspora experiences, Pongo invokes impressive and breathtaking sounds.
Honourable mentions:
Odeneho Cannella (Ghana)
Freda Rhymz (Ghana)
thellO (Nigeria)
Deto Black (Nigeria)
MonaQueen (Nigeria)
Patty Monroe (South Africa)
From unexpected call-outs to headline-grabbing feuds and a crypto scam, the landscape of Nigerian pop culture has been anything but a whirlwind of controversy in the first half of 2024. As the year breaks into its second half, here are the craziest events that have shaped the scene so far.
In January 2024, singer Prettyboy D-O accused the Native Record label boss of owing a videographer $200-$300. Although the situation got messy and turned into a back-and-forth between Prettyboy D-O and OdumoduBlvck on X, Teezee never addressed the issue.
It’s wild to think that after making music and shooting a video with Skepta in London, Portable was back in the country getting in trouble. Portable flew over the gate to escape the police’s arrest over a debt case. He even made a song titled Spiderman out of the situation.
If you see your future in jumping fences, the viral Portable’s video should be a top watch.
On April 3, popular socialite Bobrisky was arrested for mutilating some naira notes, AKA spraying money. By April 12th, she was sentenced to six months in jail without an option of a fine. October is so far away, please return our “Mummy of Laygus.”
After a photo of Davido and a US model known as “pinknative” on IG went viral, the lady grew uncomfortable with the harsh comments. She retaliated with a funny and weird video of Davido on his knees. He was begging for what some online users thought was sex. It’s all speculation, and we don’t know what happened. But it has served the public as a meme.
Even Wizkid posted that Davido’s video to troll Davido during their back-and-forth on X. Davido suggested that Wiz is a sick man after Wiz called an unnamed songwriter of Davido a pant washer and bragged they couldn’t match him musically. I thought they would finally have their Kendrick Lamar vs. Drake moment, but they fumbled it. It’s only banger tweets they have.
Wizkid possibly tweets according to the strain he’s smoking. In June 2024, he called Don Jazzy an amazing human. But less than a month before then, he was a banger boy on X who delighted his Wizkid FC with a mockery attempt at Don Jazzy.
An overzealous fan tagged Wizkid to reply to Ladipoe trolling Afropop artists for going through a hit recession in H1. Wiz replied with a shot at Don Jazzy, saying he’s “never chatting to anyone signed to an influencer.” The public, in turn, praised Don Jazzy and listed out his impacts and achievements.
A video of an angry Portable ranting that Zlatan told him to behave and not act dramatically around Davido during a dinner went viral. Portable felt offended and warned Zlatan not to mess with him or speak to him like a kid.
As if the Racketerli business Davido endorsed in 2019 didn’t hurt people enough, he recently promoted a cryptocurrency meme coin called $DAVIDO, which severely dipped without 24 hours of launch. Immediately, Nigeria’s Securities And Exchange Commission (SEC) flagged it as a “rug pull” and issued a disclaimer to alert investors about the coin. This situation would make part of the public wonder if he needed money for his concluded wedding.
Trigger Warning: Sexual assault
On June 30, 2024, X user @Theariaspeaks posted a Twitter thread to raise awareness about an epidemic of sexual assault at the University of Lagos, sharing anonymous texts from victims and the university’s unwillingness to punish the offenders. In the hours that followed, perpetrators who’d escaped punishment for this act were called out.
This is everything we know about the reported time and dates of the sexual harassment cases flying around the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, and some parties involved.
On June 29, 2024, Oluwagbemileke Otokiti, a 200-level pharmacy student, was called out for allegedly sexually assaulting a 200-level female medicine and surgery student. According to the anonymous messages sent to X user @Theariaspeaks, Oluwagbemileke had been involved in another incident in March 2024. He got caught, and Unilag’s House of Lords — the student legislative council — fined him ₦5000, asked him to write an apology letter and provide a guarantor to “vouch for his conduct”.
The victim reported that Oluwagbemileke assaulted her in the early hours (2:55 AM and 3:05 AM) of March 10, 2024, while studying in a classroom. During a conversation with Oluwagbemileke, he hugged her from behind without consent. Despite her expressed discomfort and attempts to get away from the situation, Oluwagbemileke persisted, “making inappropriate sexual comments and exhibiting aggressive behaviour.” She reported to the House of Lords later in the day.
According to a statement released by the House of Lords, upon the report of the assault incident, a committee was formed to investigate the situation. During one of the meetings, Oluwagbemileke confessed to the crime and issued a recorded apology. The victim asked for a written apology letter to be sent to all group chats of the College of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences Students (COMPSSA), stating what happened while keeping her anonymous. At the time, she didn’t want the matter to get to the school authorities.
As of March 20, Oluwagbemileke had paid the ₦5000 fine and asked for a week extension to find his guarantor. However, he eventually failed to do so, and the matter escalated to the Dean of Student Affairs (DSA).
The victim stated that Oluwagbemileke is a repeat offender and something similar and non-consensual had happened between them in 100 Level.
On March 22, 2024, the Pharmaceutical Association of Nigerian Students, Unilag Chapter, wrote to the Dean of the Pharmacy faculty about Oluwagbemileke’s sexual misconduct.
Oluwagbemileke, however, participated in a faculty sports event despite several complaints from women who didn’t feel safe around him.
On June 28, 2024, another male pharmacy student was reported for sexually harassing a female radiography student.
At approximately 1:00 AM on June 26, when the victim had fallen asleep in a Cold Room where she was studying, Samuel inappropriately touched her. The victim pushed Samuel away and called her friend, who confronted him, but he wasn’t bothered. He allegedly claimed that “it was mutual”.
She reported the case to the House of Lords, and an investigation was launched immediately.
In response to the sexual assault report, Unilag’s Sub-Dean sent a warning message directed at the male students in the 400 Level pharmacy group chat.
A 300-level male Pharmacy named Ajibola was also reported around the time for the same crime. Many of his victims have come forward to report incidents where he flashed his penis or inappropriately touched them. Although he was once reported to the faculty, he’s yet to face any consequences.
One of the messages sent to @TheAiraspeaks also exposed Chibueze Nwanmah, a 600-level male medical student, as an abuser who has allegedly assaulted over thirty female students. Under the guise of checking on his victims’ academic progress severally, he allegedly takes advantage of them, forcing them to hug him and rub his penis against them.
In October 2023, Chibueze was reported to the school authorities over sexual assault involving at least eleven female classmates and an unknown number of students in younger classes. A petition was written and signed by fifty-four people. The authorities formed a panel, but there has been no update.
Currently, the University of Lagos and the Faculty of Pharmacy are yet to address the issues. Meanwhile, Lagos State parastatal and organisations like Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency (DVSA) and Stand to End Rape (STER) have picked up the case.
In an effort to mandate accountability for sexual harassment cases at the College of Medicine, Unilag, a petition has been launched, trending with the hashtag #EndSACultureInCMUL.
On July 2nd, X user @Theariaspeaks announced in a tweet that she and another X user, @BigBadReni, had a meeting with Unilag’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Folasade Ogunsola. The VC has agreed to the demand to punish the perpetrators, and she has pledged to create a safe space for students to report issues of abuse anonymously and make a new sexual abuse policy for the College of Medicine, Unilag.
This is a developing story.
Every day, the double lane in front of the Sabo-Yaba Police Station buzzes with speeding tricycles, cars and buses controlled by Inspector Justina. And when school children cross the Sabo-Yaba intersection, her two steady hands reach out to guide them.
Since she was transferred from State Traffic, Ikeja, to the Sabo-Yaba Police branch in 2022, Inspector Justina Rita Omogbai has served the children in the area alongside her pledge to the badge.
“When you get to the police station, ask for Too Sure, that’s me,” she reminded me over the phone the day we set to meet.
Two weeks before, a youth corp member had told me about an outreach his Community Development Service (CDS) did in Sabo-Yaba to sensitise school kids about cleanliness. They planned to raise funds for a police officer who supported underprivileged children with school items. I was intrigued; not because it’s new, but the presence of Nigerian police is widely known to inspire panic not admiration.
To the Sabo-Yaba community, Inspector Justina is a disciplinarian and hero. “This is my calling,” she says, “To assist and improve living, especially for the needy.”
The Inspector ties her earliest memory of service to her secondary days at Shasha Community High School, Egbeda. She’d list the concerns of underprivileged fellow students to her parents, making them buy items like socks and notebooks to give to her mates when they could afford to. That concern for others turned into decades-long benevolence for the “leaders of tomorrow”.
When Inspector Justina arrived at the Sabo-Yaba division, she noticed kids in clothes and school uniforms loitering around newspaper vendor joints, food canteens and game houses during school hours. One morning, she couldn’t overlook how much they played and made noise around where she controlled traffic, so she decided she had work to do.
“Inspector Justina sees past busy roads, moving vehicles and lawless drivers. She’s on the lookout for disadvantaged school kids.”
Her first step was to kick them out of these places that indulged them. She began to push them to return to school; the use of canes made the persuasion faster than word of mouth.
Inspector Justina earned her nickname, Too Sure, at her former station. The drivers there grew to depend on her kindness to avoid getting into trouble with her colleagues. Even when they did, she always applied empathy to their cases. Road users who got into trouble for driving offences in Ikeja could count on her to not extort or treat them unnecessarily harshly, just like the kids in Sabo-Yaba do now.
On duty, Inspector Justina sees past busy roads, moving vehicles and lawless drivers. She’s on the lookout for disadvantaged school kids.
In the morning, she’s on the road with motivational charges and school items for the kids. On sunny afternoons, she shares biscuits and cold bags of pure water to quench their thirst on their way home. “Most of these kids go to government schools. Many live with relatives or fictive kin. They’re disadvantaged, but they deserve a chance at life,” she says.
Sometimes, all people need is a push to do better. Most of the kids she provides for now take their education seriously. They pass her route and say their greetings when going to school and coming back.
Inspector Justina’s intervention cuts from their education to personal hygiene. Not only do some of the kids wear neat uniforms now, she makes sure they don’t run out of deodorants.
Yet, serving the community inevitably invites ridicule.
“I’ve had challenges from vendors who feel I’m pushing away their customers. My colleagues have lodged complaints and reports to my Divisional Police Officer (DPO) for disciplining these kids.”
Cane is an enforcer in the Nigerian setting, and though Inspector Justina isn’t one to use it on the kids, she holds it because it makes them behave.
She’s not bothered about the criticism, and fortunately, her boss (the DPO) supports her work. Her conversation with the man was more a commendation than a query.
“He also believes that children need guidance, and if there’s an opportunity to provide it, so shall it be.”
Financially, this little mission is mostly Inspector Justina. After one-third of her salary is enveloped to her church as tithe, she divides the remaining into two: one for her family and the other half (with an addition from her husband) for the kids of Sabo-Yaba. Sometimes, people contribute. Some even join her on the road to share items with the kids who pass by.
12 years to her retirement, Inspector Justina Rita Omogbai hopes to do more for these kids. She admits there’s been a notable reduction in the quantity of items she distributes due to the nation’s current economy. But she’s determined to continue ensuring there are fewer torn uniforms, polythenes disguised as school bags and haggard-looking students on the road.
Credits:
Photographer: Francis Alagbe (SNKFA Films)
Illustrator: Keziah Bassey
Editor: Lolade Alaka
With few remarkable projects churned in the year, Nigerian music’s first six months of 2024 ended with an impressive note of the underground sound. Some of our favourite songs so far have come from up-and-coming artists. So, we shortened our listening history to ten of the hottest jams released from January to June by rising Nigerian artists.
The culture of smoking in Nigeria now perches class with an expensive cannabis strain called Canadian Loud. Kaestyle and Omah Lay crush their inner thoughts, feelings and stress into a blazing escape. My Dealer is more of than a stoner anthem; it’s about vices and escapism.
Whether it’s a youthful exuberance, drug epidemic or mental awareness, Ayo Maff and Fireboy DML beautifully portray the emotional wreckage of the average Nigerian youth. They can’t wait for a new day to break; their first to-do is to call their dealer to fix what they think is broken. This song’s popularity among young Nigerians is all you need to know about our culture of substance indulgence. Sweet jam still.
Muyeez’s self-titled EP is still pulsating in the streets. But his first single Instagram is where the heart is. It’s cute, holla-at-your-boy-esque and stuns with a Seyi Vibez verse. The song gets one in a hyper sing-along mode; then an afterthought hits that Muyeez would likely serve punishments for being too young to say these lyrics in an African household. But it’s playing everywhere and will be in steady rotation throughout the year. He has his talent, distinctive voice, and charisma to thank for this.
TML Vibez released Wells Fargo the same day Muyeez released Instagram, both as part of the rollout for the “Vibez Incorporation Mixtape Volume 1” project. Wells Fargo is a hustler’s anthem, echoing the ethos of street hustlers and scammers on a grand, slowed-down, pop-kissed Fuji production dangling in Maracas.
This Drill music collaboration is nature-threatening. DWS (short for Don’t Want Smoke) shells out a smug hook and three rounds of shootout verses by rappers TDB, VRSD and Droxx. Their delivery is potent; it’s fade-to-black for whoever looks for these guys’ smoke, AKA trouble.
In Better, Bizzonthetrack and Malik Abdul remind us that there’s no life better than yours, but you mustn’t forget you’re not as special as the next man. Life lessons and a good time all in one song—inject it.
On Sakura, ShineTTW sings in a self-possessed and breathy soprano about devotion to romance and intimate bedroom activities in Afrobeats. He’s a rising Afropop artist currently popping in the Lagos music scene. With Sakura, Hiiii and a few other definitive tracks on his EP, “THE CHOSEN ONE EP”, ShineTTW shows readiness for a bigger audience.
Although Yinka Ayefele’s Tota E Mole, the interpolated song on Left Right, is about fighting spiritual warfare, Keys the Prince’s song stomps on haters just to flex on them. It’s a bop.
It’s a turn-up on oSHAMO’s Life of the Party. From signal to the opposite gender to money-spending and subtle broke-shaming, this jam’s an active Friday night for ballers in an audio form.
If you’re stagnant and left behind or worried about your progress and life trajectory, Toyé speaks for you on Quarter Life Crisis. Instead of making the song an extension of your brooding, Toyé’s single lightheartedly lifts the spirit in optimism.
Listen here:
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We’re here for the new crop of Nigerian female actors making waves and the older ones flipping scripts and delivering excellence in Nollywood.
If you have yet to pay attention to the names on this list, here’s a chance to know the female actors on your radar in 2024.
Adunni Ade’s appearance in Kunle Afolayan’s Ijogbon indicates she’s back on the big screen. From Funke Akindele’s SHE Must be Obeyed TV show to Bolanle Austen-Peters’s Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti film, one can only perch for what’s next up her sleeve.
Older Nollywood fans may recognise Najite Dede from her roles in 30 Days and Gidi Up, but she’s also applied her talent to the latest films and TV shows. This year, she stars in Grown after appearing in other recent releases like Unbroken, The House of Secrets, and Riona. She’s proof that talent and experience are recipes for relevance.
You can only count some of the critically reviewed Nollywood films in the last two years, like Adire, Sista and Funmilayo Ransom-Kuti and leave out Kehinde Bankole. In 2022, she won the Best Actress in A Drama award at the Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards (AMVCA). This year, she’s the Best Lead Actress at AMVCA. Tell me, who’s the GOAT again?
My first onscreen encounter with Ruby Okezie was in Netflix’s Far from Home TV series (2022), and I knew I’d be there when she features in a new film. Two years later, she appeared in Taiwo Egunjobi’s A Green Fever and is currently starring in Showmax’s series Chetam. My earlier suspicions about her were confirmed.
Her time on screen dates goes back to the Lunch Time Heroes film in 2015. Since then, notable films like Perfect Assistant and Flawsome (2022) have cast her. She’s also cast in upcoming productions like Kemi Adetiba’s To Kill A Monkey and Chee Keong Cheung’s Son of the Soil—an exciting time in her career.
When Geneveva won the Best Supporting Actress award at the 2024 AMVCA for her role in Breathe of Life, it felt like a special nod to her previous works, from One Night Lagos to Blood Sisters, Far from Home, and Crime and Justice Lagos. She’s a legend in the making.
Fans have praised Sharon Rotimi for her range in films like The Artifact and TV shows like The Wives and Chronicles. From acting as a baddie to a trophy wife during the day and a fighter at night, she always gives impressive layered performances.
If you haven’t seen this young female actor’s work before, her new short series, The Secret Lives of Nigerian Women, is convincing that she’s following up in Nollywood. Kanyinsola Eros’ name rings among the cast of the latest Nollywood films like Muri & Ko and upcoming productions like Murder on Space X.
Blessing Oreva played the gangster babe character in Kill Boro, which made her the film’s breakout star. With such a fierce embodiment of a complex character, I expect to see Blessing bodying different roles on TV.
She made her name known to viewers after her performance in I Do Not Come to You by Chance, and any serious director and writer will send her scripts as soon as possible.
Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, and body odour lingers in the nose of whoever catches the whiff. You have your bath before stepping out of your house every day, but you’re always shocked to find yourself smelling funny within a few hours. Here’s why:
Sorry to disappoint you, but your natural musk isn’t anyone’s favourite deodorant flavour.
Water touches your body only when there’s an outing or a visitor. Please remind me not to enter your house.
Body odour and perfume can’t go aura for aura. Otherwise, your funky smell will pollute that sweet, innocent fragrance.
Except your body odour has chased your friends away. Real ones would tell you about the stank and gift you some deodorants, preferably the Rexona 72-Hour Deodorant.
You’re not too big to talk to people and ask them how to tackle body odour.
Instead of buying any deodorant you see, here’s a recommendation; Rexona 72 Hours Deodorant. It’s the new boss in town. It keeps you dry and fresh for long hours, no matter how much you move.
Keep aside the fancy things you’ve heard about deodorant. It’s literally one of the cheapest body care items. An affordable and effective one like Rexona 72 Hours Deodorant will serve you. Invest in yourself.
The impact of Nigerian pop music cuts across language and communication so much that it churns out new words and slang every day. And because they move so fast, it’s hard to keep up with what’s new and cool.
So, we compiled an official list of new and old terms peculiar to Afrobeats. Although they’re a bit chaotic, they’re exciting communication chops.
This list will help you learn 50+ Afrobeats words and phrases. You can use the book yourself, without a song or teacher. You can do the units in any order you like.
Alaye: If you’re an influential person, this is a title. If your name is unknown, this is also what you’ll be called in the street.
Aza: Your bank account. It’s credited as a Bini word.
Azaman: A rich spender, if you like. But in the street, an azaman provides the bank details which G-boys use to pick funds. It’s also a Bini slang.
Bankulli: This is the name of a famous key player in the Afrobeats world. If anyone calls you this, you’re more likely to be connected than God.
Folake: This is the friend of Halima, Funke, Dolapo and Aisha, all the beautiful girls Nigerian artists will never stop singing about.
Idan: This means magic. If your boys call you this, you’re a smooth operator.
Maradona: This isn’t a footballer. Here, Maradona is a casanova.
Omo ope: You always have money to give and spend. This is your name.
Omotena: This is a term for a fine babe.
Azul: a critically-acclaimed overpriced liquor sold in Nigerian clubs. It’s Afrobeats artists’ favourite elixir since Champagne, Hennessy and Moet.
Cana: This is short for Canadian Loud, an expensive cannabis strain.
Coco: This is also known as codeine, a pain reliever widely misused as a recreational drug. Some call it Coco Melon.
Eja nla: You use this to describe a big catch: a rich spender or a high-maintenance babe.
Turkey nla: AKA Big booty. You need to hear that Wande Coal.
Jollof: This is a rice dish from West Africa. Some say Nigerian jollof is the best, though.
Shekpe: A local gin for consumption.
Ginger: It means to motivate or stay motivated. It’s spelt “Jinja” sometimes. Remember that Olamide song?
Gbera: To move with speed like a dog. If you don’t believe me, play Small Doctor’s Gbera.
Gbe body e: Get your dancing shoes.
Japa: To travel overseas or escape (Nigeria).
Ji masun: Wake your ass up.
Jonze: This means to get high.
Shack: To drink alcohol.
Jogor: To get drunk.
Soapy: This means to masturbate. It went viral after Naira Marley’s Soapy song.
Tesojue: This translates to “Put it there.” Reminisce’s Tesojue song explains this word in a bigger context.
Trabaye: It means drunk or high. Figuratively, it means to level up.
Whine: Although in usage across races and cultures, this means rhythmically and seductively grinding the waist. Your babe can explain better.
Wire-wire: To send out a huge amount of money. Or to receive it. Hence 9ice’s Living Things.
Shey normal: Behave accordingly.
Comot body jor: Mind your damn business.
Penkelemesi: This is a local pronunciation of “peculiar mess” popularised by former Nigerian minister Adegoke Adelabu.
Kapaichumarimarichukpako: A meaningless word coined by rapper Zlatan, but something you can yell after completing a task.
Yawa: This means a problem.
Ayii: When you get swept off your feet, “Ayii” expresses your satisfaction.
Arararara: This is a crowd-tester that checks if a party audience is engaging or boring. When the artist calls “Arararara”, the audience responds “Ororororo”. Femi Kuti is credited for the coinage.
Long thing: A time-wasting situation. If you value your time and others, you say “No long thing.”
Dey play: It’s a sarcastic statement for nonchalant folks.
KPK: Short form of “Ko Po Ke”, a term to express surprise.
Lamba: It means flowery words. It’s an exaggeration and big lies on appropriate occasions, too.
OPP: It means “O po pa”, translatable to “It’s plenty.”
No Lele: The meaning is “No problem.”
Uche’s Face: To look Uche’s face means to give a fuck about something. Uche is one guy with a face that can make the heart melt and forgive. Now you know why Nigerians avoid the guy.
STMS: This is the short form of “She Tell Me Say”. Sometimes, it’s a gist of what a babe tells you. Most of the time, it’s a filler word used by our Starboy Wizzy.
How far?: Aside from “Hello” and ” How are you?”, this is an everyday way to ask for an update on something.
Who dey?: It’s a question you ask when you see someone lurking around.
Gwagwalada: An unimpressive remote place in Abuja that Nigerian artists love to sing about these days.
Insta: This is Instagram, a social media app for a drips-and-flex lifestyle.
Lekki: This is an overrated “rich” area with brown water like Guinness on Lagos Island.
Lungu: This is a general name for the trenches. Let this entry prepare you before Asake storms the world with his forthcoming Lungu Boy album.
Southy: Nigerian music references South Africa in this way. Ask your favorite where he shot his expensive videos; “Southy” is a top-three location.
Evian: It’s anything you say it is, according to Shallipopi, who brought it to the mainstream. On some days, it’s even Shalli’s family name.
Kaluba: This is a term for money.
Little Money: Stable earning cosplaying as Odetola. Smh.
Vibes: An activity that’s running on dopamine without thoughts or preparation.
The new edition of the Olympic Games will run from July 26 to August 11, 2024. All qualified nations, including Nigeria, will be in Paris to participate in the upcoming international multi-sport event.
Since 1952 (except 1976), Nigeria has participated in all Olympic games, and despite having only 27 medals to show for it, we’re there again in this 2024 edition. As we look forward to Nigeria’s action at this year’s edition, this article revisits all the times Nigeria won at the Olympics.
Nigeria won her first bronze medal in Tokyo in 1964 through Nojeem Maiyegun. Nojeem won the bronze medal in the men’s light middleweight category.
Isaac Ikhouria, a Nigerian boxer in the men’s light-heavyweight category, won a bronze medal in München, West Germany 1972.
A five-person relay team won Nigeria’s first-ever medal in athletics at the Olympics in the men’s 4×400 metres race. The group, made up of Sunday Uti, Innocent Egbunike, Moses Ugbesien, and Rotimi Peters, won the bronze medal with a winning time of 2:59.32. The time record was an African record that stood until 1996.
Also in 1984, Peter Konyyegwachie, a Nigerian boxer, won a silver medal in the men’s featherweight category.
The Nigerian men’s 4×100 metres relay team (Oluyemi Kayode, Chidi Imoh, Olapade Adeniken, Davidson Ezinwa, Osmond Ezinwa) won a silver medal. The 4×100 metres relay for women (Mary Onyali, Christy Opara-Thompson, Beatrice Utondo, Faith Idehen) won a bronze medal.
Men’s heavyweight boxer David Izonritei won a silver medal. Richard Igbineghu also won silver for Nigeria in the men’s super-heavyweight category.
Nigeria claimed its first Olympic gold medal this year in the women’s long jump through Chioma Ajunwa (now a Nigerian police officer). The Super Eagles also won a gold medal in football.
A silver medal came through the women’s 4×400 metres relay (the first since 1984). The relay team had Bisi Afolabi, Fatima Yusuf, Charity Opara, Falilat Ogunkoya.
Mary Onyali and Calister Ubah won a bronze medal in the women’s 200-metre category. Falilat Ogunkoya, Fatima Yusuf and Bisi Afolabi won a bronze medal in the 400-metre category. Duncan Dokiwari won another bronze medal in the men’s boxing super-heavyweight category.
Nigeria claimed the gold medal in the men’s 4×400 metres relay, a silver medal in the women’s 100 metres hurdles, and another in the women’s weightlifting heavyweight category.
Nigeria won two bronze medals—one in the men’s 4×100 metres relay and the other in men’s 4×400 metres relay categories.
Nigeria won three silver and two bronze medals in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China.
The women’s team won a silver 4×100 metres relay. Blessing Okagbare got a silver medal in the women’s long jump, and the Super Eagles also got one in the men’s football category. Men’s taekwondo (Chika Chukwumerije) won a bronze medal, and so did Maryam Usman for the weightlifting women’s super-heavyweight category.
The Super Eagles won a bronze medal in the men’s football category.
Ese Brume won a bronze medal in the women’s long jump category, and Blessing Oborududu won a silver medal in the women’s freestyle wrestling light-heavyweight category.
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On June 11, 2024, Professor Akin Abayomi, Lagos State’s Commissioner for Health, issued a press statement that reported, confirmed, and warned about excess cholera reports in Lagos State.
Although the state government issued another official statement yesterday stating that the alarming gastroenteritis cases are contained, this is what’s been happening.
The data from the NCDC showed that from January 1 to June 11, 2024, Nigeria reported 1,141 suspected cholera cases, 65 confirmed cases, and 14 deaths across 96 local governments in 30 states. Ten states contributed 90% of the total numbers: Abia, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Imo, Katsina, Nasarawa, and lately Lagos.
According to the surveillance reports, Prof. Abayomi (Commissioner for Health, Lagos) revealed severe cases in areas like Ikorodu, Kosofe, Eti-Osa and Lagos Island.
The Lagos Health Commissioner’s report noted five deaths and nothing less than sixty hospital admissions.
The Ministry of Health Directorate of Environmental Health and the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency are alerted to investigate a likely water contamination source around Victoria Island and Lekki. These agencies have also taken in samples for confirmation.
Report suspected cholera cases in Lagos to the following emergency contacts: 08023169485 and 08137412348. You can also dial helplines 112 or 767.
In a press statement issued on X on June 13, 2024, the Oyo State government reported two admitted suspected cases of Cholera from Lagos state in a private hospital in Ibadan. However, the state’s health agencies are on it.
The government has established a multi-sectoral National Cholera Technical Working Group that comprises the NCDC, Federal Ministries of Environmental and Water Resources, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), World Health Organizations (WHO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and other partners.
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‘Summer’ is a warm season of recreational time and enjoyment. Agreed that it’s non-existent in Nigeria (the rainy season is what we have), but that hasn’t stopped Nigerians from weaving it into our popular culture like music.
One can call that an effect of Afrobeats’ globalisation and as well tie it to foreign culture adoption like almost everything we import. Over the last decade, Nigerian artists have actively put out songs between June and September to also engage in summer raves. Some of these songs have crossed overseas, ruled airwaves, clubs and streets, and climbed the charts, and they still maintain relevance for newer summers. Here are 14 summer jams that reflect Nigeria in 2024.
There’s no better summer song to kick off your summer than this one.
On behalf of all Nigerians with aspirations to buy cars, and houses, turn up and enjoy existence, Ye is the national anthem you need right now.
Since Seyi Vibez released this song, his music output has increased, and so have his feats and popularity. It’s your reminder to remind the gatekeepers that 2024 is the rise of new players.
Don’t waste time. If it’s love you have to chase or money to get, time is of the essence. Especially that money part.
In this economic state that we’ve found ourselves in, sleep is the cousin of death and the younger sibling of poverty. If you like, sleep.
“Life is all about the money eh” is a universal truth that hits close to home Nigeria, the poverty capital of the world. Do what you will with this gospel.
When every day’s work, it’s hard to lose sight of things. As money bags and soft living keep falling on you, remember to count your blessings.
As you ball this summer, the opposite of this song title is what I advise. Or hasn’t Nigeria taught you to save for rainy days?
Be honest: If you called yourself in this current depressing state of the nation, would you pick up your call or drop your location?
At every turn on X these days, it’s marriage proposals. It seems romance is up and the last person to marry in 2024 is a fool. Need a wedding vow? Keep Mr Eazi’s Skintight close.
As you work hard and make more money, make time for leisure too, and feel free to feel pompous.
This is for everyone: the liquidly rich, perceptibly monied folks and those hungry for better days. Don’t forget that you may get all the cash and still feel incomplete. But chase the money sha, at least you won’t be completely by yourself.
If you like, break your neck and legs in a hundred places to keep anyone, they’ll do whatever they like still. Even the “Emi lo kan” loyalists are not safe from Tinubu’s Nigeria.
Fia is Davido’s way of separating from a one-sided love. In a larger context, it’s a national protest song. Citizens love Nigeria but it doesn’t love us back. So, why continue to serve what isn’t serving us? That’s something to pick up here for OBO.
You might as well get high and forget the bones to pick with the economy, for a bit.
Life can be stressful, but you can always find your happiness in whatever you do.
Ayra Starr and Tems released their new albums, “The Year I Turned 21” and “Born in the Wild”, in the last two weeks and have since dominated most conversations in the Nigerian music scene.
Inching close to being the hottest Afrobeats artists of 2024 (so far), their new albums are meant to offer something rewarding. Here are nine subtle lessons that listeners draw from their long-awaited albums.
You can’t avoid bad-belle people entirely. The only way to become a no-nonsense pro max is intentionally and consistently telling them off like Ayra Starr and Tems did on their new albums (“The Year I Turned 21” and “Born in the Wild”). From Ayra’s Birds Sing of Money, Goodbye and Bad Vibes songs to Tems’ Wickedest and Unfortunate, they set a big “fuck you” tone for bad energy dealers.
Your business service is a product, and to attract target users and customers, you need engaging content that not only attracts but also gets them talking. That’s what Ayra Starr and Tems did. They were in everyone’s faces. Ayra’s album appeared on Chowdeck and some Nigerian bank apps, and users were urged to listen. Tems put out announcement visuals and even threw a party for music listeners and industry players a day before her album release. These babes put their new albums on everyone’s lips.
Ayra’s and Tems’ mums appeared on their albums to contribute to their process and album narratives and motivate them. These emotional features prove that parental support is just as crucial as making parents proud.
You don’t have to be told this, but you need a reminder to enjoy what you work hard for and have a good time sometimes. Somebody play Ayra’s Commas, Control, Jazzy’s Song and Tems’ Wickedest, Turn Me Up and T-Unit and turn the fuck up.
Carrying all your real ones with you (including sharing opportunities) shows that you value your friendship and are proud of it. This is how Ayra Starr feels in Woman Commando.
On Bird Sings of Money, Ayra says her past experiences have toughened her up in the trait of a gangster. She even made Woman Commando, and Tems made Gangsta. When the other gender is back on top, you’ll get the memo or not. For now, new lords are in town.
Don’t wait for your toxic partners to fly their red flags before you throw them out like bath water. You better get necessary updates from Tems’ Unfortunate and Ayra Starr’s Goodbye (Warm Up).
It’s okay to be sad or cry. But when a horse knocks you to dust, pick yourself up and push yourself to be better until you can ride it with a flex like Ayra on Last Heartbreak Song and 1942 and Tems on Burning and Hold On.
Ayra wanted to be a pop star before 16, but it only happened when she turned 19. Now she’s 21 and global. Tems had a 9-5 for a while but didn’t let her music dream die.
On her debut album, “Born in the Wild,” Tems pays tribute to herself and to her previous state of being. “Wild” suggests a Wild Wild West, perhaps an interpretation of Nigeria, rarely a place for dreamers. But Tems made it out. This album is her musings and good time draped in warm guitar strings, energetic summer vibes, hopeless romantic lyrics, and some busy music.
Tems opens the album with the titular folk ballad Born In the Wild. Coming from a place where showing emotions is usually and unfortunately taken for weakness, she peels back on the trauma endured.
Crazy and wild things may happen, but Tems sees them through to the end. On Special Baby (Interlude), her mum encourages her to continue to find succour in the strength of her name, Temilade (the crown is mine). I hear a mother’s prayer manifestation and moral support. You hear a reiteration of the Temilade Interlude from her 2020 EP, “For Broken Ears.”
The actualisation of one’s dreams and the juicy fast life of celebrity birthed one of Biggie Smalls’ most iconic lines, “It was all a dream.” A sentiment Tems shares about fulfilment on Burning. It soon flips into a brood about human inescapable suffering that’s susceptible to all regardless of fame and wealth. She choruses “Guess we are all burning,” interpretable to “Me sef I be human being o” in simpler language. Tems’ at her best here. I guess uncomplicated, ambivalent subject matters can be blissful and sufferable feelings are convertible to ethereal.
The music gets busy on the next three tracks. The bounce is as alive as her confidence on Wickedest. But the Magic System’s 1er Gaou sample fails to magnify the song. Perhaps that’s owed to the jumble recapture of the Makossa spirit and its tale of betrayal and ironies of success for a bouncy, braggart bop.
Her complete reimagining of Seyi Sodimu’s Love Me Jeje follows before Get It Right (featuring Asake) cues in. They’re party-ready. An adventurous Tems invites Asake into the familiar territory of Fuji-Amapiano-pop.
On Ready, Tems continues her search for higher frequency like a fiend relentlessly finds their high. “No fear in my mind, it’s a new story” and “All grass does is grow, don’t you think so?” are her declarations that she won’t hide anymore. In one word, her new story is “fearless”. She’s a bad girl in need of a badass partner — the persona she embodies in Gangsta, which interpolates Diana King’s L-L-Lies. But in Unfortunate, one can learn from Tems that to be gangsta isn’t throwing fits up and down; it’s detaching from situations where other parties can’t be trusted. She congratulates herself for avoiding an unfortunate issue; that’s gangsta enough.
But this gangsta soon surrenders at the helm of love matters. Boy O Boy puts Tems through a scorned love for a despised lover. Forever burns with the same attitude but funkier. It makes juice out of the ex’s desperation. On Free Fall, Tems finds love again. But one can tell it’s just a forlorn hope robbing her heart. J. Cole’s verse, cute though not striking, doubles down that love experiences calm as much storm.
It gets clinical on the next interlude, Voices in My Head, as Tec — Show Dem Camp member and one of Tems’ managers — offers knowledge about experience, truth, love and motivation as tools to move through life.
The celebration continues on Turn Me Up and T-Unit, which puts Tems in her rap bag and gives a specific nod to 50 Cent’s Candy Shop. Me & U plays next and throws Tems in an upbeat soliloquy about finding faith, the god of self and connecting to the higher being. But looking back at when we first heard this as the lead single in October 2023, it’s more comfortable as an album track than the perfect album taster.
The vibe extends to You In My Face, which speaks to her inner child, a song to go to when everything’s falling apart. The album wraps up in optimism with the closing track. Even when the ship batters, the anchor can still hold. That’s the message Hold On holds onto. It’s giving modern-day negro spiritual with hip-hop and calypso twists.
As tone-setting conversations about Tems’ musical style continue, more critics agree that she’s excused herself from Afrobeats for a larger U.S. audience. But this is an effect of sticking every Nigerian contemporary singer to Afropop, a genre, as opposed to Afrobeats, an umbrella for popular music and culture out of Nigeria.
Released a week apart from Ayra Starr’s applauded sophomore release, “Born In the Wild” may be another cautious win for Afrobeats. It’s vintage R&B and neo-soul adorned in an African night of merriment. It’s enjoyable, and so is its mix. Its production, done majorly by Tems and GuiltyBeatz, is endurable. The lyricism is one-dimensional.
Without the snappy production, it sounds more like a genius’s ramblings, hard to listen to. This is nothing more writers in the room can’t solve. Due to its non-conformity to the Nigerian mainstream sound, the music is understandably unfamiliar — a dilemma homegrown listeners may struggle with. It sounds like a Siamese twin EPs, yoked by Tems’ high-pitched soprano. It can do without some tracks.
Is “Born in the Wild” a flawless album?
A flawless album is loosely defined as a body of work of a captivating and geographic cocktail of shape-shifting songs. By this definition, the answer to Tems’ preoccupation about her debut is in the affirmative: No, it’s not a flawless album. But perfection is subject to different ears.
If this is Tems’ music aftermath coming on top of personal woes, it’s an acceptable offering. She made it through the wild, and this is her post-trauma self-celebration.
Find out in this quiz:
The rise of female Nigerian music stars in the last few years isn’t only applaudable, it’s also sparked a conversation about a possible female takeover: Lady Donli put out one of the best albums of 2023. In 2024, Tiwa Savage released a first-of-its-kind, well-acclaimed soundtrack album and Ayra’s latest album, “The Year I Turned 21”, received even wider critical acclaim.
The girlies are up and creating their lanes. They bring newness to the game, and diversity in genre, vocal dexterity, delivery and lyrical content. We know seven on the come-up that should be on your radar.
The combination of a music producer and recording artist in one person is an advantage that usually distinguishes a super-creative individual from an average one. Her musical ingenuity and production skills set her apart among the new wave of Nigerian female pop stars. Her debut EP, “Alter Ego” (2022), expresses relationships, and her latest self-titled EP, “Yimeeka,” explores personal moments.
Syntiat is an impressive vocalist, producer and songwriter who graduated among the best of The Sarz Academy’s class of 2023. Get on her if you’re looking for music to play during heartbreak, as candles burn and you sip wine in a bathtub.
Mahriisah’s pop style interplays with African rhythms, R&B, Highlife and reggae. Her music is perfect for glamming up to go flex outside or in a speedy car ride with your girlies.
Since Amaeya moved from Delta state to Lagos to push her music dreams in 2020, she has done backup work for A-listers like Tems, Ric Hassani, Tiwa Savage, Asake and Lojay. But she’s fully focused on her thing now. Amaeya’s stories of love, relationships and identity are bold pictures of the spoken and unspoken emotions of a careful romantic turned into music. Since her debut on “The Voice Nigeria” in 2021, she’s stayed true to her soul-drenched Afropop and r&b sound. Singles like On My Own, Delusion and Too Much will get any new listener started.
From Aema’s solo releases to her notable collaborative work with fellow singer, Kold AF, it’s easy to tell that her alternative soul music won’t be underground for long. When she’s not conquering her ego on No Place to Hide, Aema’s protecting her mental well-being, addressing relationship issues and women’s places in society on “ALT SOUL, Vol. 1” and “No Pity.”
In recent times, Nigerian Afrorock music has been referenced to the likes of Neo, Modim, The Isomers and Clayrocksu, among the very few women making music in that scene. Clayrocksu’s style blends rock, metal and alternative with Afropop, with relatable tales of Nigerian dreams and hustle, love and romance, optimism and higher calling. Her new EP “Hate It Here” is a mirror of all these and fun experimentation. One of the tracks, Nu Religion, mixes atilogwu with rock. What’s more daring than that?
Reespect is a rapper who brings all her emotions to her songs. It doesn’t matter what kind of production she hops on; she’s going to spazz and bring out the soul in her bars. Her latest performance on Showoff Rap show (one of Africa’s biggest hip-hop platforms) is proof she’ll rap circles around the competition and still spit vulnerable lines if she feels like doing so. Put respect on her name.
Take the quiz:
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The list of needless Guinness World Records attempts may be unnecessarily long, but the impactful ones propel the participants into history makers. Now, Nigerian singer Isaac Geralds sets up in Washington, D.C., to make a new record of 110 hours of sing-a-thon.
On June 2, 2024, Isaac Geralds kicked off his attempt to beat India’s Sunil Waghmare’s 105-hour longest consecutive singing session set in 2012.
Isaac Geralds’ name is stickily carried by his music and performances. He’s an alternative singer-songwriter, music performer and voice coach. Some may recognise him from the MTN Project Fame season four. Some may know him from his songs with Tiwa Savage, M.I Abaga, Falz, Poe, etc. Many more will know him during his GWR attempt.
Only this time, he’s not doing it for just himself; he’s also raising awareness and funds for kids living with autism. Issac Geralds hopes to raise $500,000 to directly support the Efe Irele Autism Foundation of Nigeria and The Children’s Hospital in DC; two organisations that provide care and support to the autism community.
According to the Guinness rules, Isaac is allowed a set amount of breaks for refreshment and bathroom use. Other than those times , the singing goes on.
Isaac Gerald’s singing session is now on its second day and has garnered global support from American TV personalities like Tisha Lewis and Guy Lambert, along with TV network Fox 5, have rallied behind him. This international support lauds the importance of his endeavour and the widespread recognition of the cause he’s championing in Washington DC.
In the history of Nigerian music, teen stars have been few and far between. There was Wizkid, Davido, Korede Bello and a few less popular others. The year is 2024, and the number of teenagers springing up and running things is increasing almost daily. From music charts and playlists, notable stages and mainstream affiliations, we zoom in on the new youngins popping up in Afrobeats. Here are seven.
We got to know 16-year-old street-pop artist, Muyeez, when Seyi Vibez Incorporation was unveiled in April. Soon after, he featured Seyi Vibez on his first single, Instagram. In May, he released his self-titled EP, perhaps too soon after bagging his first hit.
When considering the Afropop stars who’ll impact the industry in 2024, Qing Madi should be a sure mention. From peaking on Apple Music charts to featuring global stars like Chlöe, the 17-year-old singer-songwriter and dancer is one to watch out for.
Street-pop artist Ayo Maff began getting attention after dropping Jama Jama and 7 DAYS in 2023 and 2024. He isn’t just 17 and creative; he makes music that brands him as “an old soul in a young body.” His new single Dealer features Fireboy DML.
When I profiled 18-year-old Vasa in 2023, he’d just gone viral on TikTok with his single Treasure. He has since bagged a Bella Shmurda feature on the remix of his song 50-50 and is putting in work on his forthcoming project. [ad][/ad]
Sensuality, toxicity and obsession are the major themes Anni3 (19) explores in her music. Port Harcourt remains the melting ground of music talents in the country, and she’s one of its latest exports with her mellow Afropop sound. Start with her single Toxic.
Thanks to the virality of Carry Me Go with Boy Spyce, 19-year-old Khaid is now enjoying mainstream attention and affiliation. His hit songs, Amala and Run Away (OMALICHA), boast big-name features like Zlatan, Rexxie and Gyakie.
Uloko is a 19-year-old artist out of Benue state, and he just joined Apex Village, which houses artists like PsychoYP and Azanti. He went viral with Nsogbu in 2023 and came back with his “Problem Child” EP this year. If you’re looking for a mix of Afropop and electronic music, Uloko is that guy.
Ayra Starr turned 21 in 2023. But like stars, her reflection is in retrospect. Hence, her second album, “The Year I Turned 21” (TYIT21), appears a year later, aligning perfectly with her birthday. In notice of this, her age-themed albums draw a specific parallel to the British music icon Adele. One can argue that Ayra Starr’s music and sonic concerns are different, but the universality of the experience of marking youth and independence is intact.
Age 21 was also a year of many firsts for Ayra. She came into 2023 with Sability and ended the year with appearances on two American movie soundtrack albums (Creed 3 and SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE) and a posthumous album of the legendary Bob Marley. She went on her first world tour. She was named Amazon’s Breakthrough Artist of 2023. She climbed the O2 stage for the first time at Rema’s “Ravage Uprising” show. A title doesn’t get more specific. “The Year I Turned 21” is a more profound title than a chronological buildup on her “19 & Dangerous” debut.
Now enjoying some career moments that surpass most of her predecessors’, conversations about Ayra’s music shift her to a trajectory that may transcend her into Afropop’s matriarch. Alongside Tems, she’s the anointed leader of the new uprising of female Afropop singers. These favourable speculations are fever pitches as her quick conferment majorly rests on the merits and success of her sophomore album.
“I learned to be gangster, way from these dark times,” Ayra shares in Birds Sing of Money, opener of “TYIT21.” She spends the rest of the album owning that fearless identity, finding and defining what it means for her to be 21. How does she separate a fugazi from true love, independent versus dependent? Does she want to express freedom or curb enthusiasm, be a baby or face adulthood, keep her guard up or be a goofy youth, be a people-pleaser or live carefree, workaholism or chill and enjoy the fruits of labour?
Ayra’s music blends styles — afrobeats, hip-hop, pop, R&B, ragga, dancehall, house, amapiano, indie folk — to probe her conflicting feelings. She plasters them all against the backdrop of her career, expanding celebrity and blooming 20s. Her lyrics can be saccharine, but don’t get to a conventional bore.
With numerous global achievements just four years into her music career, Ayra has built her universe so high that the chant on Birds Song of Money ceremoniously likens her to the stars that light up the night. Forty seconds into the song, whose also uneasy but organised violin, heavy hip-hop drums, breezy strings, chiming chords, and reggae undertones thump with a threatening assertiveness, yet it’s also calm and composed, one marvels at the pure sonic mastery. Fantastic production by London and Marvey Again.
Her melodies are flexible, as is the boomeranging flow she spins on the P2J-produced Goodbye (Warm Up), featuring Asake. Ayra shows a toxic partner the door out, while Asake plays the heartbroken, self-righteous partner who lowkey won’t let go. His verse’s almost introspective that it convinces chronic gossip blog readers that it’s likely his response to his recently broken relationship. Ayra and Asake share chemistry, but this song’s strangely a mellow track hatched for the TikTok girlies and intimate parties like aprtment life where she previewed the song in April.
The already-released Commas sports an upbeat composition, interestingly just a tone and pitch away from Tekno’s Peace of Mind. Exchange ataraxis for financial merit, and you have a testament to Ayra’s increasing multiple-stream incomes and quality mindset. Commas has joyful production and melodies, though those overshadow its simplistic message that charges listeners to fight dirty for their dreams if they have to. All there is to know about the commitment to excellence is in her lines: “Dreams come true, if na fight / Fight the fight, make you no go tire / Fire dey go.” Perhaps it’s why it took fifteen versions and three producers (Ragee, London and AOD) to get the officially released Commas, according to her revelation during a recent sit-down with Billboard.
“Commitment to excellence” is a watchword she carries to her interviews these days. An evidence of that is her passage into the global music scene that fully unlocked after her appearance at the 66th Grammy Awards, where she was an inaugural nominee for the Best African Music Performance category. Put that moment into a lyrics generator, and Drake’s “Started from the bottom, now here we here” will pop up. She was excited to be there. So were the Western press and industry players warmed up to the new African music star girl. But frankly, her trajectory to own a seat among existing envelope-pushers like Tiwa Savage, Yemi Alade, and Simi has taken shape since her savvy, critically acclaimed 2022 “19 & Dangerous” debut album. It has a few national hits that pushed her over to international eyesight.
In Woman Commando, featuring Anitta (Brazil) and Coco Jones (U.S.), Ayra brags about flexing her squad and carrying everyone along, sounding confident and pleased as the production reverberates Ragee’s bass-heavy house instrumental. It’s a straight jam.
The album’s upbeat energy descends as Ayra segues into a lover’s mood. She flirts in Control, which interpolates Shakira’s Hips Don’t Lie, and she’s tipsy and ebullient on a potential one-night stand. She opens herself up to emotional attachment, but it soon gets tiring on the Lagos Love Story that sounds like a love song that’s trying too hard. It’s mechanical and an unnecessary segue into the lively Rhythm & Blues (produced by Sparrq). [ad][/ad]
On 21, the album’s theme song, the weight of emotional distress, adulthood, self-reliance, boundaries and (it goes without saying) enjoying the fruits of her hard work weighs on her. It’s a niggle of new baggage, not a pity cry. When Ayra’s on an R&B production, her command of her emotions grip. It’s no surprise she’s convinced she writes better sad songs. This production by Fwdslxsh, KillSept and Mike Hector is a convincing ambience. Hopefully, an R&B album is in her future.
It gets fragile on Last Heartbreak Song. Ayra throws away a one-sided love while American brittle-baritone vocalist Giveon chides himself for letting a real love slip away. This song dates back to the “19 & Dangerous” recording session with Loudaa, but is there a heartbreak song that retains the prospect of intimacy? It’s the Last Heartbeat Song.
Still laid-back, Mystro takes on the next production. Bad Vibez featuring Seyi Vibez slides us back to Afropop. It’s bouncing over a plush R&B ballad to ward off negative energy, likely the internet moralists that police her short skirts and experimental fashion. It’s an exciting collaboration that elitist listeners would enjoy if they were open-minded to the magic of street-pop. To close out the song, she rhymes that she’s still eating off her last hit. It makes an arguable case for the boldest line in Afrobeats in recent times since Asake’s “I know I just blow, but I know my set.”
The songs hop from youthful exuberance to love matters and mental well-being. As Ayra presents herself as a success model, she also grounds herself in her reality as a curious adolescent who knows she has time to learn from more mistakes and has her whole life ahead of her.
Orun is a cry to the heavens. It’s as evocative about personal longings and celebrity pressure as it’s declarative about forging ahead, past mistakes, and regrets. It’s a confessional, mezzo-forte track that draws hips into a slow whine.
Jazzy’s Song (cooked by PPriime) comes next, and it’s a turn-up song that unexpectedly samples Wande Coal’s You Bad and alludes to it as Don Jazzy’s likely favourite song rather than a tribute to her jolly label boss and influential music producer. Indeed, it’s a hit but feels out of place between two mid-tempo, emotionally charged tracks. This arrangement hardly lets listeners fully unpack and tie up emotions. It throws the listener in the middle of mood swings.
She trusts Johnny Drill to soundtrack the following 1942. It’s a delicate cut that expresses Ayra’s and her brother Milar’s fear of losing everything they’ve worked hard for. Their duality picks up here: the despair of loss drowns them in a pool of liquor, but they still hold to their faith like an anchor.
The closing track is a letter to her late dad, hoping she’s making him proud. Ayra’s mum’s voice starts the song by encouraging Ayra to live a full life. Her siblings also recount their ages and strides. One can hear the pain and pride in their voices, the kind that desperately hopes that their departed one sees what they’re making out of themselves. The song, produced by Remdolla, echoes out with a proud statement from Ayra’s mum that translates to the track’s title: The Kids Are Alright.
The bonus song, Santa, thematically has no place on this album. It’s just an expansion and numbers strategy that’ll drive up streams and cement Ayra as the first female Nigerian artist to hit 20 million monthly listeners on Spotify. Get your money, girl!
Looking outside in, being young and successful is one of the coolest things one can be, but it can also be an overwhelming position. Aside from squaring with life and the natural struggle to maintain success, being a female recording and performing artist means working multiple times harder and smarter than the other gender. If this is the evolution of the girl superstar who was once 19 and dangerous, it’s partially true. Most of her story thrives in gaiety, youthful innocence, vulnerability and self-affirmation.
With 15 songs, “TYIT21” arrives as a lengthy, nuanced moment Ayra’s having with herself. Rather than a conceptual and narrative album, it’s a string of songs linked by recurring themes: heartbreak and love, happiness and melancholy, openness and boundaries, self-promise and tributes. This is the music you get when endeavouring to memento vivere because personal moments are fleeting, fond memories become distant, and emotions get unhealthily managed. This is the music that makes Ayra feel 21. It’s tough to say the same for the listeners, though.
Compared with her coming-of-age “19 and Dangerous”, “The Year I Turned 21” is her most poignant and impressive work — an album of the year contender. Throughout the album, Ayra stays the dominant voice, in control. Its writing is sustainable, production is high-value, and there’s no Americanisation of the features. It’s just real and bad Afrobeats music. Although the arrangement could have been smoother, not moving tempo to tempo without consistently keeping the listener grounded.
“TYIT21” would garner facile praise and embrace, considering its Zeitgeist hype, convincing rollout, major anticipation, and the currently uninspiring music year. But it’d need time to find its place as that crowning sophomore. This is subjectively a premature evaluation anyway.
According to Polish poet Stanislaw Jerzy Lec, youth is the gift of nature; age is a work of art. Hopefully, Ayra Starr continues to stay alive to her feelings, with more virtuosos to craft them into songs at every juncture of her life.
Time flies. The 90s kids that grew up watching Wale Adenuga Production’s Super Story are now someone’s parents, married, tight in a seat with capitalism or all three.
Super Story was more than family drama and moral lessons; it was a cultural staple that kept Nigerian households up and glued to the TV from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursday nights.
Remembering this popular TV series makes nostalgia hit like a tidal wave. But thanks to YouTube, the legend of Super Story lives on, and we can still watch them again without NEPA’s interference. If you’re looking for something to binge-watch today, here’s a list of seven evergreen episodes from Super Story in no particular order.
In the first season of Super Story, an unemployed Suara convinces his wife, Abike, to sleep with the wealthy businessman to secure a job Sobowale). Suara got the job abe began cheating on his wife with a happening babe who eventually shows Suara the spiciest shege of his life.
This one is a story of good and evil focusing on Corporal Francis, a corrupt police officer who wields his powers to terrorise the people of Gbede town. From extortion and bribery to justice alteration, no one is free from Francis and his sergeants, who have no idea that a secret police officer has been planted to rattle their criminal den.
The series features veteran actors like Kehinde Bankole and Wale Adebayo, popularly known as Sango.
Too Blind to See is a fascinating tale of betrayal and revenge. A wealthy lady called Genevieve falls into the hands of gold-diggers disguised as a friend (Tina) and a lover (Francis) attracted to her billion-naira inheritance. Unyielding to caution and advice, the smitten Genevieve takes a long while to realise that her man and friend are using her. If you’re also a fan of Kelechi Udegbe, you can’t miss his performance here.
This story is a profound social commentary on sex-for-marks. A married university lecturer pesters his female students for sex and fails them if they refuse. But he soon runs into his waterloo after having his way with a particular student who claims that she’s been cursed and any man who sleeps with her automatically shares in it. Has he bitten more than he can chew? Will the curse be lifted? Will the shameless lecturer die and make his innocent, pregnant wife a widow? You’re in an exciting throwback treat.
A lady named Bose gets pregnant after a sexual abuse incident and is pushed to the streets by her employers. Her daughterIreti, didn’t have a smooth life either until she got married to a doctor. Ireti, too, gives birth to a daughter, Ronke, who falls in love with an unsuspecting gold-digger who’s after her family business. Zack Orji, Jide Kosoko, Rachael Oniga and Claron Chukwuma are cast members of No Pain, No Gain.
This season of Super Story is a love and crime story that follows the married life of Segun and Efe. The wife, Efe, tries her hardest to make a faithful husband and better man out of her partner. Will Efe’s efforts be in vain or not? I recommend The Secret to people in relationships.
A man called Mr Wiliki kills a young Nnenna in a hit-and-run. Little does he know the revenge from beyond is inescapable. The determined ghost of Nnenna and her troubled friend Akin roam the streets of Lagos to avenge her death. No sinner goes unpunished.
An innovation you didn’t think you needed is currently happening around phone batteries and charging. If your devices keep dying before your eyes, you don’t have fuel in your generator to burn for long hours, or the Neps remembers your Band F area for only two hours daily, a solution has found you—a new option that gives you control over your phone’s battery life.
Thanks to the All-Round FastCharge 2.0 tech on the Infinix Note 40 Series, there are five exciting ways to do that.
Also, there’s no better place and time to buy an Infinix Note 40 Pro than in Nigeria right now.
Are you in a rush? An Infinix Note 40 Pro’s Hyper mode will charge up to 50% in 16 minutes. Its Smart mode balances fast charge and mid-temperature and gives up to 50% in 20 minutes. Low-temp mode has a slower charging process, but your phone will be cooler to touch. Now do the maths: In less than an hour, the Note 40 Pro can have a full battery.
Mind-blowing
What’s cooler and more convenient than being tied down with your phone and charger at the socket? Omo, it’s wireless charging. With the MagPad device with Note 40 Pro, you can use your phone around the house and charge it simultaneously. Just make sure your MagPad is plugged into the power source somewhere.
Yo, it gets cooler. Imagine a phone that doesn’t heat up while charging and is actively in use. The charging power goes directly to the motherboard and automatically disconnects when fully charged. The people that can’t do without their phone for two minutes will be the most thankful for this feature.
Imagine being able to charge your friends’ wireless charging-enabled devices, such as smartwatch, earbuds, and iPhone with your Note 40 Pro. You can be the coolest of your friend group with Infinix’s Reverse wireless. All you have to do is enable the reverse charging feature on your Infinix Note 40 Pro, place the other device on the back, and witness the greatness of reverse charging.
This feature is the most interesting. For example, if you’re the type to press the phone all day and sleep all night, the Note 40 Pro’s AI analyses your usage habits and prevents overcharging overnight by intelligently capping the battery to 80% charge until closer to the time you get up in the morning. What a phone.
Since childhood, Tobi Amusan has dreamed of running the world. Born in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, she took an early interest in football, but it didn’t matter if she tactically passed the ball or dribbled like Jay Jay Okocha; she did another thing better—tirelessly running around. Her football coach recognised her talent and advised her to switch to tracks. Thankfully, Tobi found a track coach who took her under his wing after. That marked the start of her career in Ijebu-Ode.
Since coming into national consciousness in 2013, Tobi Amusan has gone from a local champion to a national sensation. She is now a top world runner. Her trajectory has taken an upward flight and this is a look into her career and growth.
In 2013, the first edition of African Youth Championships, a bi-annual competition for African athletes aged 15 to 17, kicked off in Warri, Delta State. Tobi Amusan participated and won the 200-metre silver medal. In the same year, Tobi competed at the World Athletics U18 Championship in Donetsk, Ukraine, but she was disqualified for lane infringement. This setback didn’t hold her back, though; she bounced back the following year.
By 2014, Tobi Amusan had switched to hurdles and debuted at the African Youth Games in Botswana, where she won a silver medal in the 100 metres hurdles. A year later, Tobi claimed her first African U20 gold medal at the African Junior Athletics Championship in Addis Ababa and her second gold at her debut at the All-Africa Games in Brazzaville, Congo.
Tobi received a scholarship to study at the University of Texas at El Paso in 2016. There, she earned the 2016 Female Track Athlete of the Year award, won two golds in 100m and 200m hurdles,a silver medal in long jump, and broke a 33-year-old hurdles university record.
Subsequently, she participated in the 2016 World Junior Championships and came fifth in the final. Then, she participated in and reached the semi-final of the 100m at the Rio Olympic Games.
Tobi Amusan spent 2017 setting more hurdles records at the University of Texas, El Paso, where she met her new coach, Lacena Golding-Clarke, a three-time decorated Olympian from Jamaica. Later, in August 2017, she represented Nigeria at the IAAF World Championships in London.
In 2018, Tobi reached the final at the Birmingham World Indoor Championships in London, where she represented Nigeria. She also won the final race at the Commonwealth Games hosted at Gold Coast, Australia.
Later in the year, Nigeria hosted the 21st Africa Championship in Athletics for the second time in Asaba and Tobi won a gold medal and her first African Championship title, becoming the first Nigerian to win gold for the country in the 100m hurdles since Judy Bell-Gam at the first edition in 1979.
Tobi defended her title at the 22nd edition of the Africa Championship in Athletics in Rabat, Morocco. Despite the winning streak, she came fourth place at the World Championship in Doha, Qatar in October 2019.
Tobi Amusan competed at the Zürich Diamond League, got to the final, and set a new African record of 12.42 seconds, becoming the first Nigerian to win a Diamond League trophy. It was an incredible feat.
In June, Tobi successfully defended her 100m hurdles title at the African Championship.
Tobi was at her new best at the 2022 World Championship. She ran 12.06 seconds at the final and emerged as the first Nigerian world champion at the World Athletics Championships.
Not resting on her oasis, Tobi retained her title at the Commonwealth Games and a second gold medal in August. She ended 2022 by winning the 100m hurdles to defend her Zürich Diamond League championship title successfully.
Tobi Amusan spent 2023 fighting anti-doping charges and suspension. Eventually, she was declared not guilty. Though she returned to the track in the same year, her performance wasn’t impressive.
In January, Tobi set an African record of 7.77 seconds at the Astana Indoor Meet in Kazakhstan. One month later, she set a new African record of 7.75 seconds at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston. Three months later, she won the women’s 100m hurdles at the Jamaica Athletics Invitational where she defeated World champion Danielle Williams and set a world lead time of 12.40 seconds, becoming the world’s fastest woman in 100m hurdles.
22-year-old Layi Wasabi, born Olayiwola Isaac, is one of Nigeria’s most popular digital content creators. On the night of May 11, 2024, he won an Africa Magic Viewers Choice Award (AMVCA), the annual show that awards excellence in African cinema and television.
Since he went viral in 2021 for his skits on social media, Layi Wasabi has come to take a seat at the mainstream table. This is a timeline of his journey.
In December 2021, Layi was a law undergraduate at Bowen University when his comedy video about blocking your mum from viewing your WhatsApp status went viral, thanks to Instagram bloggers like YabaLeftOnline and Tunde Ednut. Since then, he has launched popular video characters like Professor, The Law, Officer Robert and Life Coach.
Throughout the year, he made viral videos with his comedy characters. He was also featured in various paid campaigns with big brands like Chicken Republic, Flutterwave, Laughing Out Loud Naija, Ladipoe, and Trophy Lager beer.
On June 23, 2023, Layi Wasabi went from handling his content creation business to being signed to Penzaaraville Africa, a talent management company known for working with brands like Bolt, Red Bull and Wema Bank
Layi won the Emerging Force award at the 2023 Trendupp Awards, an award ceremony for Nigeria’s digital content creators.
Layi caught the attention of the Wale Adenuga Production’s Nigerian Comedy Awards and won their Revelation of the Year award. The same month, he was nominated for The Future Awards Africa’s Content Creation prize.
On February 1, 2024, Layi Wasabi announced on his page that he would star in the TV series spin-off of Kunle Afolayan’s hit movie, “Anikulapo”.
On March 14, Layi was among the five Nigerian content creators selected by the Instagram and Meta communities. 11 days later, Layi was nominated for Best Digital Content Creator at the 2024 African Magic Viewers Choice Awards (AMVCA).
The Africa Magic Viewers Choice Award (AMVCA) is among the biggest African film awards. In its 10th edition, Layi Wasabi won the Best Digital Content Creator award.
The African Magic Viewers Choice Awards (AMVCAs) 2024 is a double celebration — a celebration of excellence in the African film industry and the marking of a decade doing it. These are the nominees for the foremost Nigerian film awards as it marks such an important milestone.
National Treasure – Adebola Adeyela (Lizzy Jay)
Medical Negligence and Copyright Infringement – Isaac Ayomide Olayiwola (Layi Wasabi)
Hello Neighbour – Elozonam Ogbolu, Lina Idoko and Jemima Osunde
The Boyfriend – Maryam Apaokagi-Greene
Mami Wata (CJ Fiery Obasi)
Jagun Jagun (Femi Adebayo)
Ijogbon (Kunle Afolayan)
Orisa (Odunlade Adekola)
Nana Akoto (Kwabena Gyansah)
Where The River Divides
Ormoilaa Ogol (The Strong One)
Wandongwa
Nakupenda
Itifaki
Service To Heart
Uncle Limbani
Motshameko O Kotsi
Grown
Her Dark Past
Somewhere in Kole
Full-Time Husband
The 11th Commandment
Mfumukazi
Slum King
Half Open Window
Itura
The Passenger
Magic Room
What Will People Say
The Irabors’ Forever After
Nwuyee Bekee (Foreign Wives)
Date My Family Zambia
Royal Qlique (Season 2)
The Passenger
Nana Akoto
Apo
Irora Iya
Love Transfusion (Kiapo Cha Damu)
T’egbon T’aburo
Broken Mask
Eighteenth Year
Man and Masquerades
A Place Called Forward
Alexx Ekubo (Afamefuna)
Demola Adedoyin (Breath of Life)
Ibrahim Yekini (Jagun Jagun: The Warrior)
Gregory Ojefua (This is Life)
Timini Egbuson (A Tribe Called Judah)
Levi Chikere (Blood Vessel)
Ropo Ewenla (Over the Bridge)
Joke Silva (Over the Bridge)
Fathia Williams (Jagun Jagun – The Warrior)
Bimbo Akintola (The Black Book)
Genoveva Umeh (Breath of Life)
Eliane Umuhire (Omen)
Tana Adelana (Ijogbon – Chaos)
Ejiro Onojaife (The Origin: Madam Koi Koi)
Wale Ojo (Breath of Life)
Stan Nze (Afamefuna)
Marc Zinga (Omen)
Gideon Okeke (Egun)
David Ezekiel (Blood Vessel)
Richard Mofe Damijo (The Black Book)
Adedimeji Lateef (Jagun Jagun – The Warrior)
Gabriel Afolayan (This is Lagos)
Segilola Ogidan (Over The Bridge)
Lucie Debay (Omen)
Omowunmi Dada (Asiri Ade)
Ireti Doyle (The Origin: Madam Koi Koi)
Adaobi Dibor (Blood Vessel)
Evelyne Ily (Mami Wata)
Kehinde Bankole (Adire)
Funke Akindele (A Tribe Called Judah)
Mami Wata
Blood Vessel
Over The Bridge
Breath of Life
Jagun Jagun (The Warrior)
Ijogbon (Chaos)
Omen
Chuka Ejorh And Onyekachi Banjo
Holmes Awa
Alex Kamau And Victor Obok
Dayo Nathaniel
Antonio Ribeiro
Nathan Delannoy
Ava Momoh (Over the Bridge)
Daniel Pellerin and Amin Bhatia (Kipkemboi)
Grey Jones Ossai x2 (Breathe of Life and Blood Vessel)
Samy Bardet (Mami Wata)
Blood Vessel (Victor Akpan)
Over The Bridge (Abisola Omolade)
Breath of Life (Okechukwu Frost Nwankwo, Kelechi Odu)
The Black Book (Pat Nebo and Chima Temple)
Jagun Jagun: The Warrior (Tunji Afolayan)
Mami Wata (C.J Fiery Obasi)
Omen (Eve Martin)
Over The Bridge – Demola Adeyemi
Fumilayo Ransome – Kuti (Bolanle Austen- Peters, Ituen Basi, Folake Coker, Clement Effanga)
Jagun Jagun (Lola Awe)
Mami Wata (Bunmi Demilola Fashina)
Breathe of Life (Daniel Obasi)
Over The Bridge (Francesca Otaigbe)
Mami Wata (Campbell Precious Arebamen)
Mojisola (Hadizat Gambo)
Jagun Jagun (Hakeem Onilogbo)
A Tribe Called Judah (Feyisayo Oyebisi)
Skinny Girls in Transit (S7)
Bunmi Ajakaiye
Ifeanyi Barbara Chidi
Abdul Tijani- Ahmed
Wura (S2)
Jeffery David Musa
Olumide Kuti
Esther Oyiza Kokori
Visa On Arrival
Bovi Ugboma
MTV Shuga Naija
The MTV Staying Alive Foundation
Volume
Mona Ombogo
Masquerades of Aniedo
Timendo Aghahowa
Motunde Akiode
Slum King
Donald Tombia
Ifeanyi Barbara Chidi
Fatimah Binta Gimsay
Xavier Ighordje
Breathe Of Life – BB Sasore
Over The Bridge – Tosin Otudeko
Fumilayo Ransome Kuti – Tunde Babalola
Jagun Jagun – Adebayo Tijani
Afamefuna – Anyanwu Sandra Adaora
ATCJ – Funke Ayotunde Akindele, Collins Okoh & Akinlabi Ishola
Mami Wata – CJ Obasi
Ormoilaa Ogol (The Strong One)
Lobola – A Bride’s True Price?
Empalikino (Forgiveness)
The Water Manifesto: Osun (Water For Gold)
Sowing Hope
Volume
Wura (s2)
Slum King
Itura
Chronicles
Lol Naija (s1)
Nightlife in Lasgidi
The Real Housewives of Lagos
GH Queens (s2)
Mutale Mwanza Unscripted (s1)
Moses Inwang (Blood Vessel)
Adebayo Tijani & Tope Adebayo (Jagun Jagun)
BB Sasore (Breath of Life)
Johnscott Enah (Half Heaven)
C. J. Fiery Obasi ( Mami Wata)
Kayode Kasum (Afamefuna)
Tolu Ajayi (Over The Bridge)
Breath of Life
Over The Bridge
Blood Vessel
A Tribe Called Judah
The Black Book
Mami Wata
Sometimes, friendships get messy and “Had I known” becomes an earworm. I reached out to a couple of people about their bad friendship experiences. From being thrown out without a heads-up to offering assistance and getting blocked, these six Nigerians had some wild stories to tell.
When I worked on the Island, a friend I’d known since university would pick me up for work in the morning, especially when the staff bus got too full or I missed it. One day, we were in his car driving to work, and he was speeding like a deranged person behind the wheels. I reacted with a soft punch and told him to slow down. That led to an argument, and he slapped me. I told him I wanted to get down. I got down, and he had the nerve to ask me if I was angry. I blocked him everywhere after that silly incident.
Two months later, he called me to congratulate me on my new job and ask if what happened was why I ghosted him. I felt weird because I didn’t communicate how I wanted to. I wanted him to know I ghosted because he’s an abusive person. So, I called him the following day, and his first words were: “Why did you call me back? I thought you were moving like a mad person yesterday.” He was screaming on the phone and said he didn’t even mean to call me the previous day. I dropped my phone in embarrassment. Now, I’m more cautious with my relationships.
In early 2021, the world was still in disarray from the COVID-19 lockdown. Things had changed financially. I was a student and had to survive on the little I got from home. I had a couple of friends who had it rough, too. We were desperate to get money because of the rise of the “Benefit Boys”. That wasn’t like us at all. We looked stupid, but we went ahead. After two months, I opted out. I made zero naira and wasted my money on data, fuel to power the generator and “updates” that didn’t click.
I decided to go full throttle into selling adire round necks, hoodies and so on. I told my friends my plan, but they shot it down preferring the promise of riches through yahoo. So, I went and did my thing solo. I learnt from business owners and mentors who attended seminars and business development programmes. Six months in, I began to make money. My friends noticed and asked me to put them on. I agreed and taught them a few things.
In 2022, one of these friends asked that I give him the supplier’s contact information. I was the middleman in the supply chain, so it didn’t make sense for me. But he disturbed me a lot and became pathetic about it, so I gave him the contacts. Then I made a deal with my supplier that his arrangements with my friend wouldn’t disturb my business. After this friend got the supplier’s contacts, he blocked me on all social media platforms and the supplier broke our agreement. He stopped paying me as the middleman and cut me out. I won’t lie; it still hurts AF.
A friend started a business, and I carried it on my head. I advertised the business and pitched it to potential customers until I finally got someone to purchase a product from my friend. When the ordered product got to the customer, it wasn’t what she wanted, and a back-and-forth ensued. I got caught in the situation while trying to calm them down and sort the issue. My friend blamed me for bringing a problematic buyer to her. I was dumbfounded because I only wanted to support her business. I quickly accepted that I was probably too nice and washed my hands off her business. We still talk, but I’m not carrying anything on my head again.
Let me mention that I’m big on malice. I can go on for months or years, if necessary. However, I made a conscious effort to fix this as I grew older.
In the spirit of peace, I penned a lengthy message to my friend after about six months of not speaking. I wanted us to move past our issues and repair our relationship. This brother read the message and AIRED me. Still, I sent a check-up message two days later, and he still aired me. After about a week, I realised he wouldn’t respond, and I was mad for playing myself.
Around 11:30 p.m. on April 26, 2024, a friend and former hostel mate called me and asked for monetary help (₦8,000). She was travelling from Abuja to resume school in Ilorin, and the commercial bus she boarded broke down. Another bus asked for a higher total price, and she didn’t have a choice as she was stranded. I sent all I had as a 200-level student.
I called her the following day to check in. She said she arrived safely and promised to return my money. It’s been over a week since she resumed school and no word from her. Her WhatsApp status shows she’s active online, but she airs my messages whenever I text her. When I call, she doesn’t pick up, and her line has been busy since this week started. I’m pained because she’s my senior, both in age and academics, and she’s supposed to be better.
There was a time in uni when I was stranded and didn’t have a place to live. My church president told me to come and stay in church until I got back on my feet. Instead, I carried my coconut head and approached a friend. I told her I wanted to stay with her for two months and she didn’t complain.
After a month, she must’ve complained to her other friends. I returned from the lecture to meet my things on the balcony where her friends left them. They said “my friend” doesn’t want me living with her anymore and she doesn’t know how to tell me. I called her, but she refused to pick up. It was getting dark outside, so I eventually took my things to church. Whenever I think about it, I shake my head and realise that the situation was my fault.
Cinema lovers are still drooling over the fantasy of a boy band member who fell in love with a 40-year-old mum in the latest Hollywood film, The Idea of You, which began trending on May 4, 2024. If Nollywood decides to execute this storyline, these actors should get the scripts first and be on set without question.
Can you believe THE Anna Hathaway is now playing a mummy role? If there’s someone Nollywood should cast that’ll give us similar cause for alarm, it’s Genevieve. She’s in her 40s too, but iconic for her youthful female lead roles of the past.
Gbemi (Battle on Buka Street, Clinically Speaking and The Aside) will be perfect to play Genevieve’s daughter in this film. Her “mummy’s girl” style will nail this character.
Georgia is the shy girl who’s Izzy’s inseparable friend, and coming-of-age roles come natural to Susan. Just watch The Johnsons and It Blooms in June to confirm.
A friendly, teenage schoolboy character? Emeka will eat up it like creamy pasta.
Solène’s friend could be Rita Dominic. They have similar comedic timing with a “good friend” and “big aunty” vibe.
Their lanky stature, grey beard and mannerisms are just too similar. Dan can be nice, but he’s an old and arrogant rich asshole. Sounds exactly like most of Wale Ojo’s characters.
The role of a beautiful lady who can get her boss to fuck up his marriage and marry her while maintaining innocent vibes goes to Sharon Ooja. No one else.
Kanaga Jnr is a fine boy and a dancer. And in his Big Brother Naija days, he even had enough rizz to date an older housemate. So, he has the experience. A little acting class and he can be a popstar rizzing up our Queen Genevieve.
No Nigerian actor has been as much of a young and annoying asshole as Chuks Joseph in releases like the Madam Koi-Koi series and Afamefuna in a long time. He’ll easily pass as the annoying Oliver, in The Idea of You.
Eronini shares a similar look with Viktor White, the actor who plays Simon, with the jerry-curls. All he has to do is play the band boy role, stay at the back and make cute faces.
Take the quiz:
In 2001, when Eldee and the Trybesmen, Modenine, Terry tha Rapman and Swatroots were heavily adorned in customised triple XL tees and snapbacks, baggy jeans and Timberlands, a young Ice Prince had just transitioned from a consumer into a recording Hip-Hop artist. Following the footsteps of his predecessors who were in music groups, he formed the short-lived Ecomog Squad alongside his friends. When this group died within the first year, Ice Prince formed Grip Boyz with other guys from Jos: J Milla, Endia and Yaadman (FKA Yung L).
By 2004, Ice Prince’s debut solo single was out. He had also engaged one ‘Migrep,’ now known as M.I. Abaga, in a rap battle and was subsequently homies with M.I and younger brother Jesse Jagz, becoming a part of their Loopy Music group.
The Plateau State native had a dream to be a mass appeal. Ice Prince believed in his abilities, as did M.I and Jesse. He didn’t walk alone; he had two musical geniuses in his corner.
Come 2006, the year of “Pentium IX,” Ice Prince appeared in Modenine and Terry tha Rapman’s Spazmodic music video shot in Jos — a testimony of his affiliation with the country’s best MCs. But he was still unknown to the core rap audience outside Jos. Under the wings of the Abaga brothers and Loopy Records (which later became a sub-label under Chocolate City Music), Ice Prince found a lifetime family and brotherhood. He learned to write songs, arrange vocals, and structure music, knowledge for which he consistently credited M.I.
In 2008, while talent hunts and reality shows snowballed in Nigeria, the lemon-lime beverage Sprite grabbed Ice Prince to host the first Sprite Triple Slam, a talent show that took Nigerian artists and their music around the country.
According to culture journalists Motolani Alake and Osagie Alonge, a music manager at the time, Ice Prince did over thirty national shows and began to build his name off that. But this didn’t happen by sheer luck.
Ice Prince was green on the scene, but a dope rapper is a dope rapper. Earlier that year, he’d appeared and gained some recognition from Blaze, the eighth joint on M.I Abaga’s debut album, “Talk About It.” Ice Prince passed the mic around at the time with three other already-known MCs (Jesse Jagz, Blaise and M.I), cleverly rhyming about smoking pot. Rolling with the group, his dreams of making it to Lagos to level up his talent and craft eventually came true.
In 2009, Ice Prince won the Hennessy Artistry Club Tour against Skales. The following year, Ruggedman’s She ‘N’ Swagga listed Ice Prince as a guest artist. By then, he was already in his early artist development phase and had signed with the mother label, Chocolate City Music. In 2010, his instant hit Oleku, originally meant to go on one of Sarz’s beats, ended up on Jesse Jagz’s production. It’s a cool, obtainable song that still dances on the lips of the old and young. It became a hit in the country immediately after it dropped. It was the biggest record of 2010 and 2011 and arguably the first of its kind by a Nigerian rapper, and the rewards came quickly. Ice Prince rose from a C-list artist to a superstar. Even after Superstar, Ice Prince’s follow-up hit, Oleku stretched for a year, built the ladder Ice Prince climbed to stardom, and made him the rave of the following four years.
At the 2011 Headies, Ice Prince had the most (six) nominations and won the Song of the Year award. Oleku also earned him other awards, including the Nigeria Entertainment Awards’ Hottest Single of the Year, Young Artist of the Year, and City People Awards’ Song of the Year. To date, Oleku remains one of Africa’s most prominent rap songs and most covered Nigerian songs.
Oleku and Superstar were eargasms. Add these to the promise of Ice Prince’s debut album, and listeners had something to look forward to. In October 2011, his debut album, “Everybody Loves Ice Prince,” was a commercial success.
The rapper sprouted from the legacies of Jay-Z, Nas and local heroes like Modenine, Eldee, OD, Sasha, Solo D, Jeremiah Gyang and M.I Abaga. Upon becoming a big tree, he threw a thoughtful honourary party for “those that came before him” on Remember, the album intro. Other highlights on the album, like Juju, Baby, Magician and Somebody Lied, introduced and distinguished Ice Prince as a hybrid artist. He raps, sings (his hooks) and endeavours to ragga, a complete artist.
Like fellow rappers Olamide and Phyno, Ice Prince balanced his deep-rooted Hip-Hop influence with a commercial appeal and sleek aesthetics accessible to the high and low classes. They’re the honchos who succeeded in the golden era of Nigerian Hip-Hop.
Time is a factor that shaped criticisms of “Everybody Loves Ice Prince”. Journalists, writers, critics and major listeners from that time grew up in an era of hip-hop music that embodied hardcore lyricism, consciousness, and substance. Looking back, “E.L.I.” wasn’t the delight of the critics, and listeners had mixed reviews. Ice Prince’s raps were called ‘corny’ — that may be true. But the M.I-wannabe label was a reach. Ice Prince, in turn, became one of Nigeria’s top pop acts in the 2010s, surpassing Eedris Abdulkareem and M.I’s heights of commercial success. Rap heads may say “E.L.I.” isn’t their fulfilment of hip-hop, but it has songs that started parties, and many people sang along and turned up to it.
Cheesy lines are hard to ignore, but the influence of music spreads beyond that in the case of Ice Prince. His coolness, charisma, delivery, Hip-Hop fashion and lifestyle carry everything else. If Ice Prince didn’t say his debut title came from the act of love and support he received after his mum’s demise — a few months before “E.LI.” came out — it’d still hit like a prophecy. His coolness is as untameable as a wild North polar bear. He made young listeners love clothes and look fantastic like his pop counterpart Wizkid made youngins shorten their names and add “kid” as a suffix to make cool nicks—E.g, Marvkid, Joshkid, etc.
Every period has its style. Just like there are dread-headed artists in baggy clothes and buff designer sneakers now, the 2010s had Ama Kip Kip tees, Supra sneakers, Obey caps, wide-frame pop glasses, colourful G-Shock wristwatches, Shambala bracelets. These and Blackberry phones were the accessories to ID Ice Prince. He had a strong sense of fashion and was big enough to influence the culture to dress like him. He made Agbada and Jalamia look super cool in sneakers and wore a pair of sneakers in different colours. He had a swag of a sophisticated style that didn’t fit the typical Northerner stereotype, making him more interesting to watch and listen to. His style set a male fashion trend that influenced artists and young guys until the Alté fashion came circa 2015.
The mixed reviews of his debut continued to support his rise. Many songs had verses from Ice Prince for the next two years, as if he was their missing component. From Samklef’s Molowo Noni to YQ’s Efemile (Remix) to Reminisce’s 2 Mussh (Remix) and Bez’s Super Sun (Remix), he built a ‘resume’ off of the songs he featured on.
Singles like More and Aboki preceded his 2013 sophomore album, “Fire of Zamani.” The album also features popular songs like Whiskey, Gimme Dat, and I Swear. The Aboki remix didn’t make the album, but it’s one of Africa’s biggest musical collisions, featuring Wizkid, M.I., actress Mercy Johnson, Sarkodie from Ghana and South Africa’s Khuli Chana. Its impact tipped the album forward as another one of Nigeria’s hottest. But that was all.
It’s an excellent second album with a few tracks that got more spins than the whole body of work. Some songs stuck, some hit but didn’t hold, and some were skips. “FOZ” is a continuation and upgrade of his first album rather than a collective idea. After winning the BET Awards 2013’s Best International Act: Africa award, the album’s guest appearances from Chip (UK), Wale and French Montana (US) are attempts to export globally. He even met Hip-Hop icons like Jay-Z and Birdman.
His reputation as a singer and rapper has made him a better music maker than a lyricist, but even musically, little has stuck since his classic debut. His 2015 “Trash Can EP” seemed like a resurgence, but it produced a sleeper hit like Mutumina. It promised a comeback but delivered half-assed music; one could even take the EP title literally. It’s like drips of ideas that turned into icicles. It offered nothing new but was good enough to keep his music lovers in bed with him.
A corner of the critic’s community theorised that the comfort of wealth and lack of passion have regressed Ice Prince’s artistry. But that’s a narrow observation without the added layer of Chocolate City Music’s decline and Choc Boiz’s collapse. M.I’s time as the label president didn’t scale the artists on the roster. Choc Boiz, the last Nigerian musical group that had a family type bonding after Mo’Hitz and P-Square fell off. In an interview from 2023, Ice Prince stated Jesse Jagz, the group’s producer, should have done more to keep the group together by getting them busy with piles of music. That sounds convenient, but history shows that they were already in different places musically at the time. M.I was busy with Chocolate City operations. Jagz had started his imprint. Ice Prince looked forward to his label while he served as M.I’s vice president.
Ice Prince thrived among conscious rappers in the 2010s who drew in the middle class audience. He was the most pop among his peers and got handsome rewards for it as he outsold them all, but his peak came at the wane of US-centric Hip-Hop in the mainstream. By 2016, when he independently released his third album, “Jos to the World,” under his Super Cool Cats imprint, Local Rappers (2015) had happened. A paradigm-shift occurred in the consumer attitude toward Nigerian rap — local hip-hop songs and movements delivered in native tongues became the audience’s taste. Like many English-speaking rappers that lost relevance during the “Ibile” insurgence, except for M.I with consistent, strategic comebacks and a dedicated fanbase, Ice Prince’s throwbacks excited more than fresh drops. But it wasn’t for long.
M.I, Ruggedman, YQ, Jahbless, etc., put Ice Prince on earlier. He began to pay it back on “C.O.L.D,” a music project released in 2018. Ice Prince switched his style to try something new, evolve with time, and tap into the younger rap audience. The tape features the then-newcomers JethroFaded, Straffiti, RemyBaggins, PatricKxxLee and old-timer K-Switch. The music on this eight-track project is an intimate expression of Ice Prince’s heart-on-my-sleeve, melancholic and relationship issues phase, although meshed in heavy bass and funk, moody chord riffs, smoky emo-trap and jiggy dancehall. “C.O.L.D” is hot ice, but it went under the radar due to zero promotional push and its earlier exclusive release on Soundcloud. After that, it was single releases, fly Instagram posts and occasional public appearances.
Five years later, Ice Prince’s effort to follow up resulted in “To Be Continued,” the second instalment after his 2015 “Trash Can EP.” Without sacrificing his rap roots for the exploration of Afrobeats, Ice Prince celebrates his wins and sheds his vulnerability. It felt good to hear the OG on wax again, but the music failed to hold the listeners. Kolo with Oxlade in 2021 was huge, but Ice Prince was forgettable on it. But he didn’t touch a new ceiling. It’s why his 2024 singles like Bank Alert and Untitled should have stayed longer in the kitchen, cooked it a bit more and let it sauté. We’ve had a taste, and the full meal, a new album titled “Fire and Ice,” is in view with a tingling promise of exciting listeners, especially day-ones. In the last few days, his X activity has been up. His tweets have paid respect to his old and new teams, fans, and influences. “Fire and Ice” is the duality of the J-Town rapper explained. “Fire” is Panshak Henry Zamani, and “Ice” is a deeper layer of the Ice Prince we know.
Listeners can easily conjure greater appreciation for Ice Prince’s music now than in the past periods they first dropped. The songs are crafted for celebratory timelines of the average Nigerian life. Ice Prince rarely puts listeners in the philosopher’s zone like Whiskey or outs their insecurity like on Juju. But when you get your first big check, Superstar is a big mood. When you step inside a gathering with stacked pockets, I Swear suffices and Mutumina shouts out your guys. Olofofo tells haters to fuck off. Jumbo and More hit when you’re on lover’s time. Can I Talk is everything in-between, blessed with two lyrical verses from M.I Abaga and US rapper Joell Ortiz. Even when Ice Prince’s new music fails to stick around, they rub listeners like old acquaintances.
Ice Prince influenced fashion looks, charisma and fly rap music. Although the top of the top is relative, he’s had a hassle-free career, cultural acceptance and international successes marked by numerous accolades. Ice Prince was the dream of living life like rappers do. Now he’s a certified OG, ageing with grace.
Take the quiz:
Nigerian men may claim that they’re not natural skincare geniuses, and they’re not wrong, but there are some products they hate to run out of.
Nigerian men would rather save the money and energy required to own and apply eight different products to have one magic bottle to do it all.
We all know pink lips are synonymous with looking good in Nigeria. Apart from the confidence boost from your fellow men when they say, “See as you fresh, guy,” women find it attractive. It’s a win-win situation.
This is basically the 8-in-1 body wash for skincare. Name a better all-rounder. It can replace hair cream, body cream AND lip balm, and that’s why it’s a winner for Nigerian men.
Nigerian men and their perfume oil? They love their appearances, but when they smell better than their good looks, they reach their final forms.
Grooming is all that differentiates an unkempt man from a member of the beard gang. Buy a man some beard oil today, and he’ll rub it up and want to step out in a second. Why? Fresh beard, new flex.
If there’s an inanimate object that Nigerian men have an intimate relationship with, it’s shaving sticks. When they need a quick shave for an impromptu outing, or they’re expecting a sneaky link, it delivers faster than their barbers. But it has to be a good one, like BIC Flex 2, for extra smoothness.
