Who killed Hip-Hop in Nigeria?

Hip-hop culture in Nigeria can be traced as far back as the mid 80’s. It advanced in Nigeria because of the impact of the American culture spreading all around the world.

In Nigeria, hip hop initially picked up its ground in Lagos when individuals like DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambata and Grandmaster Flash made hip hop beats implanting the afro-culture into it. In those days, the funding wasn’t available as a large portion of the acts were indie producing music with their desktops and free softwares, however, as the 90’s approached, the quality of hip-hop music expanded, prevailing upon the Nigerian audience.

Acts like Junior and Pretty, The Remedies, attempted at making hip-hop recognized in Nigeria. Weird MC is also one of those act who truly acquired the American hip-hop style as she mixed it with Afro-beat in her track titled “Allen Avenue” off her Simply Weird album which has unarguably been known as the first full-length rap collection in Nigeria.

Music groups like Swat Roots which comprises of Modenine, Overdose, Terry Tha Rapman, 6 Foot Plus; The Thoroughbreds which had Elajoe, iLLBliss, B-Elect, Obiwon; The Trybesmen which quite had eLDee the Don and Ruff Rugged n Raw literally paved way for the likes of M.I, Naeto C, Ikechukwu, Ice Prince, Jesse Jagz, A-Q, Vector, Yung6ix just to mention a few.

It is 2018 now, a lot of things has happened, and in particular, Nigerian hip-hop music is on a steady decline.

Definitely, someone has to succumb to this. Who do we allay the blame to? Absolutely it’s a lot for one individual alone. So who is to be blamed for the decline?

Indeed, Olamide and Phyno would flawlessly fit into these shoes. Coming up as guys who had their eyes on the objective, the objective of making good hip-hop music and not making party sounds with practically no significance.

Everyone says hip-hop can’t be commercial enough however we disregard the part where individuals like Junior and Pretty made hip-hop commercial enough for fans to chime in with the straightforward and clever lyrics in their songs. M.I has constantly done same, Ruggedman, even Terry Tha Rapman with his BANS development.

Wasn’t Olamide’s first single, Eni Duro commercial enough? The record mustn’t be a party sound before it’s commercial. Catchy lyrics could be commercial Ice Prince’s Oleku was commercial, isn’t that so?

In the industry at this moment, Olamide and Phyno could be tagged as the most relevant rappers yet absolutely, they aren’t doing what’s needed. Olamide’s decrease in the rap music began from the arrival of the following records, First Of All” and “Stupid Love”, though the album YBNL turned out to be a very successful one but Olamide as a rapper had stepped down on his lyrical genius.

Working with Phyno on Ghostmode appeared to like a reawakening and the dropping of their joint collection “2Kings” yet another collaborative effort “Fada Fada” made it obvious that these two kings may very well leave their positions of thrones to be ordinary people in the pop market.

After the much discuss resurrection where Olamide bragged of a full rap collection, the “Lagos NaWa” album wasn’t near a full length rap collection.

You may disagree with me, yet Olamide and Phyno who were once viewed as the rap rulers have gotten a steady decline in the rap culture, even Vector who was once one of Nigeria’s praised lyricist ran extremely tranquil with his 2016 release of the “Lafiaji” album.

The culture where the likes of Lord of Ajasa and Nigga Raw promoted, this is only a slap on the face of these veterans.

With Olamide and Phyno utilizing this course, what do we anticipate from the more youthful age, rappers like Davolee, Oladips and a ton of youthful acts underground who may have been sitting tight for the baton to be passed on to them.

Ideally, Phyno may very well correct this impression in his next studio album in the event that he remains consistent, but until then…