I’m a huge music lover,, catalogue of about 70GB and counting,, and of course my favourite genre remains hip hop, Its main appeal to me was my curiosity because when I was younger it was forbidden at home, I tried bumping 50 Cent`s smash hit `in da club` on the radio one time and was told by my Mum and Aunt that’s its music for thugs, and I thought, damn thugs must have a really good taste..
I started mainly around 2006,,the lil wayne,kanye,lupe fiasco,jay-z,nas,50 cent era,,damn the good old days, my senior secondary school was the moment I became an addict, even formed a rap club with my best friends, if you didn’t listen to rap, you couldn’t walk with us, bumping rap songs at the back of the balcony alley during breaks was the happiest times, other folks looked at us like we were crazy. I guess they couldn’t relate to us..
I didn’t listen to Nigerian hip hop much at the beginning ,in those days, we always thought it was edgy to hate on 9ja rap, how wrong were we, first time I heard M.I on Mo Gbona Feli Feli remix, I was like damn,,I been sleeping on M,I was blown to smithereens,, I became a fan after then, M.I 2 is probably my most played album till date, A friend of mine gave me a Dagrin C.D, and it was one of the best gifts ever, I loved Dagrin`s attitude and rhyme schemes even though my Yoruba was kind of sketchy, till Then I liked a few other 9ja cats, Mode 9( a bit,,)El-dee, Naeto C,Iceprince,Vector ,Olamide,Phyno,Phenm,YoungSix, Eva ,Errigga,Boogy and a few others l and finally got that appeal for Nigerian hip hop,,
Then came the era of the Naija Hip Hop drought,,y`all know what I’m talking about, Nigerian beats got 1000x better, Thanks to Sarz,Don Jazyy, Pheelz,Legendary Beats ,Young Jon,Sess etc,, The production became way more better and as a result more important than the actual lyrics, Don’t get me wrong,, I think Production counts for 40 % of a song, if your song has a bad beat, I wont care if it’s the deepest thing ever, If its not sonically pleasing, I wont like it, but that doesn’t mean we should throw lyricism to the winds, whatever happened to writing a dope 16 bars, having cyphers, recording dope freestyles for the fans.
In my opinion, Rappers forgot all about rapping and started jumping on the latest party tracks, selling out like a bunch of b****s,, I mean even my favourite rapper MI made a sell-out album, `Called it the Chairman`…sigh baba rap for us, Thank God he came back with Illegal music 3 to save his reputation, which is easily the best mixtape in naija this year,, ,sigh. I mean I find rappers on party tracks awesome because I would rather enjoy my favourite rapper`s music at a party than a random singer ,,but that should be it, a few party tracks for the fans, making an album of party tracks/releasing 10 party singles consistently is absolutely ridiculous,, `Trigger fingers turned to Dancing fingers???`. With everything going wrong in Nigeria in the couple years, the Entertainment sector continues to boom but unfortunately that can`t be said for rap music, some argue that the market isn’t just here, but we continue bumping Foreign rappers, that’s really hypocritic,Even South African rappers are taking over our sound, Thank God for Casper Nyovest,Nigga got bars for days, listened to his Composure reply freestyle and was clapping non stop.. Wish these naija cats could be more like him, instead of shoki beat all the time
There is a saying that `In between the trash, you’re bound to find diamonds ` ,,In between all this ,,2 artists have stood out to me lately . The first artist is Dremo, I First heard Dremo around last year or something ,,was randomly looking for new music then I saw this track,,Dremo-Dremo vs Drake, I was like who the fuck does this guy think he is,,`vs. Drake? `probably another wack rapper looking for attention but weirdly enough for reasons I didn’t understand,, I downloaded it, then I played it, heard the beat, wow future`s sh!t beat, good instrumental at least, not a total waste of my precious megabytes, then he started rapping, damn ,his lyrics looked like exactly what I was looking for in a song, a powerful voice, adequate braggadocio balanced with interesting rhymes ,decent punch lines (Few corny lines but forgivable) and an incredible flow and I understood the concept of the song. I knew immediately that this guy wasn’t here to play ,,Months later I heard Davido signed him, I was like finally that’s the first wise decision the HKN boss has made in a long time,,
Then months later, He released Fela.. A song which used the instrumental of arguably the most popular and most remixed beat of all time-Desiigner`s Panda, Every rapper from MC Chinedu in the ghetto studio to the Grammy award winners remixed it ,,it got to a time, I didn’t care for panda covers, Nigerian or Foreign, it was simply exhausting, but only one stood out to me, Fela by Dremo,,to be honest, I`m shocked no rapper has done a rap song about Nigeria`s greatest export to the world sonically, Fela was probably rolling in his grave all this while and can now rest in peace finally ,his pride overflowing, many rappers home and abroad have named dropped him on multiple occasions but i`ve never heard a whole song dedicated to him, This is in my opinion the greatest dedication to Fela`s legacy, that Broadway play wasn’t even close,, Ever Imagined Fela rapping?/ This is what it would sound like, except for the fact that Fela would definitely throw multiple shots at the Government, Buhari and Nigeria`s economy, probably say something like `/ came to my land to kill my mama vicariously/now they killing my motherland`s economy/` which would make Buhari travel f to Indonesia or something for about 2 weeks on another `business trip`,,lol. `Felatious` bars on Panda beat, nothing else comes close
Dremo has shown serious long term traits and his work rate is impressive, but he doesn’t saturate the market with his music either, calculated releases and a very good record label ,he has murdered various types of beats but his expertise seems to be trap beats,,(Future-eque) beats but he still rides typical hip hop beats incredibly, The best thing about Dremo is his Flow, He adapts about 4 different flows on a verse, probably due to the way he structures his verses when writing, its refreshing to hear multi flows and it’s a very tricky technique which can go awry if not properly mastered. I see him becoming the next rap king in Nigeria, all he needs is a really good debut album to have legitimate claims to the crown and I hope he`s not wasting time either, we need it ASAP ,, A Nigerian trap inspired album would be a dream come true for my ear buds.
The secpnd artist that stood out is Ycee,, I first heard Ycee way back in 2012,,He had a low-key hit song `Smile on Me’, I was impressed with his talents,,Nigga knows how to carefully choose a beat and then kill it, he has this weird slow effectual way of bodying tracks and his drowsy voice makes his bars clear as daylight, When he raps, you know he`s having so much fun and he wants his fans to do the same ,His punch lines are hilariously interesting and interestingly hilarious and a few lines might generate chuckles. He kind of reminds me of Lil Wayne similar voice, they both rely heavy on punch lines and both know how to make a hit except for his work rate tho, Ycee is one of the most calculated artists in the industry .Then 3 years later came his breakout year,, He came with Jagaban,,God bless whoever made that beat, arguably the best beat that year, or second ,,to King Kong,, Lyrically Jagaban was quite simple but its just so dope and full of quotables and Ycee blessed us with a remix with Baba Olamide,,tbh Olamide killed him on the remix and made it his (I mean lyrics like `Jagaban, wan ma pe mi jagaban Mo wa connected pelu awon tanmo The real jagaban` were on our lips all year ,,but its hard to blame such a young cat, Baba Ola was more experienced, and Ycee won a well deserved Headies award., His next single Omo Alhaji,,my personal favourite has this distinctive beat made by E-kelly(Thumbs Up), This one`s for the clubs and is almost impossible not to dance to,,,It has this electronic sample that just sinks into your soul while you bump and grind to the drums,, leaving Ycee to do his slow jam thingy and an effectual hook that’s bound to stay on your lips
Ycee`s style might make you think he`s not a good lyricist but the boy goes in when he wants to. He was one of the first 9ja rappers to jump on Panda, and man did he kill it, abandoning the original flow by designer ,Ycee put his laid back flow and filled it with quotables and the result was genius, Imitators were bound to spring up, up untill the Panda remixes became saturated and exhausting,, His latest song Shots is another Club classic ,,In this, the beat is kind of laid back,( a surprise) while he actually does justice to the verses and delivers his usual drunken voice which is very seductive to the ears ,, Ycee knows how to make a hit, He probably could do it in his sleep.. A great debut album is enough to cement him as a hip hop legend in the making.
Dremo and Ycee just need to keep their head up, grind harder and carefully make a successful debut album, and the legacy is promising.( If you`ve not heard L.A.X.`s Ole ft Dremo and Ycee you`re sleeping on a jam. That’s arguably Dremo`s best feature verse ever., his energy was unreal, the middle of his verse has one of the best flows on a Nigerian rap song this year. And Ycee came in ,,direct opposite, Laid back flow, filled with quotables, entendres and punch lines as usual.. Overall nice effort. Legendary Beats really impressed with that trap beat. There is hope for Naija Hip Hop with producers and Rappers like these.
` Bankydd,
The Whimsical Rap Nerd,
IG –bankydd,Twitter –Bankydd
` Mail-officialtobybanks@gmail.com
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