Patrick Ezema

Native — With Street Pop now packaged in colourful, ready-to-dance wrapping, it has sauntered into its most commercial lap.

The Republic (Nigeria) — From local to global stardom, Wizkid has established himself as a preeminent star, with a footprint unmissable in the sands of Nigerian music. As Afrobeats continues to coast into and conquer new territories, Wizkid has established himself as an artist whose immense talent and star power helped connect Nigerian music to the rest of the world.

Culture Custodian — In all of DJ Dope Caesar's videos on her Instagram and TikTok pages, there is none without her in front of her controller, feverishly sliding knobs on a mixer and tapping pads. While fun-see...

More Branches — Far From Home is the latest offering from Netflix and Nollywood, and it comes at the end of a year that has seen these two solidify their partnership across genres and media, including thriller series Blood Sisters, Yoruba epic movies Anikulapo, Eleshin Oba and The Griot and finally the teen drama series Far From Home.

Culture Custodian — Lifesize Teddy appears on screen seated in the passenger's seat of a car. She is just returning from the airport after her first performance as a Mavin star in Port Harcourt, her home city. T...

Culture Custodian — Adekunle Kosoko has been through a few eras in his eight year music career. Each has been accompanied by its own nickname, so that Adekunle Gold the Ankara-sporting, folksy, Yoruba singer was repla...

More Branches — As dust settles over the Nigerian presidential elections, young Nigerians are confronted with a reality where their least favourite candidate may become their next president. It’s all done, INEC crowned 70-year old Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Tuesday while the country slept, and the ex-governor of Lagos has already accepted INEC’s result, even as his campaign council urged his major competitors to accept the obviously flawed verdict, and put across a congratulatory call to Nigeria’s new president-elect.

Culture Custodian — Burna Boy's seventh studio album, his 'Big 7', appears directed at the Nigerian audience, supposedly a tiny subsection has doubted his talent and world conquering credibility at every step, that he...

thebounce.net — Rihanna took to the stage for a performance at the National Football League's (NFL) Superbowl's halftime show, six and a half years since her last major performance at the 2016 Video Music Awards and even longer since her last album.

More Branches — T. I. Blaze was one of a number of up-and-coming street artists to benefit from Olamide’s benevolent return to the genre in late 2021. The street pop don and rapper had found success in a rebrand as a RnB sweet talker on his last album, with which he made a crack at foreign markets and dominance. The final quarter of last year, however, signalled a homecoming of sorts for him, which he achieved in verses for a number of street acts – including Portable, Bad Boy Timz, Asake, and T. I. Blaze.

More Branches — Ayra Starr unveiled her first effort of the year, “Sability”. As its name suggests it’s an extension of last year’s “Rush”, blowing up the very first word of that song into a personal franchise. The lines of connection run deeper than just the nominal, though, and only a few listens reveals she intends to remain firmly on the Nigerian Pop channel, priotising rhyme sequence and a banging beat over lyricism and purpose, perhaps due to the continual influence of their shared songwriter, Mbryo.

More Branches — Jeriq’s unapologetic embodiment of South Eastern hoods grants him a feel of relatability to indigenes of this region, especially its teeming young population who, like him, are working daily towards the eventual big payday. Impressively, Jeriq does this without alienating the rest of the country, as the spirits of ambition and brotherhood he preaches, the snatches of romance he squeezes between this, and even the confessions of the murkier parts of his history are very much universal themes.

More Branches — Pheelz’s transformation from music producer to recording artist was among the brightest spots of an eventful 2022 in the music industry, but the seeds of that successful year were sown much earlier. As a music producer he imprinted his signature tags on some of Afropop’s most memorable songs, beginning with tracks like “Durosoke” and “First Of All” for Olamide before his clientele widened to encompass modern day stars like Fireboy, Runtown and Teni. During this period he sharpened his own singing, lending his back up vocals to as much as 90% of his produced tracks and pushing out the occasional single like “Hustle,” (2015), “Gobe,” (2019), “One Life” (2020) and others in between.

More Branches — Vector’s long years in the game have all but eliminated the need for an introductory paragraph. The rapper, born Olanrewaju Ogunmefun David, released his debut album, State Of Surprise, in 2010, where he proclaimed himself “Legendary” among many other things, and has worked through the decade and more since then living up to that tag.

More Branches — “Soundtrack To The Good Life” is a title that would suffice for the entirety of Ajebutter 22’s discography. He released the brilliant What Happens In Lagos in 2017, which chronicled the ups and downs of the fast moving city in which dreams envisioned in the morning could be fulfilled or crushed by evening.

More Branches — Asake’s latest single and his curtain raiser for the year, “Yoga”, was released by 7pm on a Monday, and its only promo was a snippet he dropped six hours before. Having chosen an obscure time for its release and a laid-back marketing strategy, it was clear the artist banked on the strength of the new single, as well as star power he accumulated throughout last year, to carry his latest release to popular acceptance and familiar chart positions. For the snippet he chose not to reveal his hand, as the 20 second teaser stops just before the actual music begins. We were soon to find out why.

More Branches —

More Branches — Barely two months after the debut of Billion Dollar Baby, and only a month after its deluxe, Seyi Vibez is back with another project. This time a mixtape, Memory Card was released on the 6th day of the new year, and it is clear the Street Pop star intends to be the early bird that catches the worm in 2023. A lot of parallels have been drawn between Seyi Vibez and Asake, 2022’s breakout star turned artist of the year, but those accusations of copying are partly down to an eagerness of fans to drum up competition, and should ease when more creatives step into the neo-fuji–house range the artists currently operate in.

More Branches — Ten years ago, Nigerians woke to the most calamitous news: Mo’Hits, the cream of the crop of record labels, would be dismantled. As record label break-ups are often every bit as messy as romantic ones, accusations were quick to fly from (ex) label mates as fingers pointed in search of the exact reasons behind the end of an era.

More Branches — Ejoya, a Lagos-based music distribution, marketing and publishing company, has released the third iteration of its “Class Of” series. Each album in the sequence sports songs curated from artists based in places all over the world, but the music is always Nigerian. However, as the majority of Ejoya’s recruits are young, upcoming acts — stars of the future — it follows that the music bears a futuristic mark as well.

txtmag.com — The Griot is the latest instalment in a year has delivered in the category of Yoruba indigenous films, including films like King Of Thieves, Anikulapo and

txtmag.com — Young Preacher arrives in the closing moments of a year that has been bountiful for albums in both volume and quality. Blaqbonez, of course, will be rest

More Branches —

More Branches — Alté is named perfectly, a take on the word alternative, but given its own twist. And that’s exactly what the music is. Not exactly alternative, but a genre carved out of this, so that it holds its own identity, in music and culture.