The Urban Retro Playlist

So it's sometime in December 2016 and its mind blowing news to me that two relatively unknown upcoming nigerian artists have songs on the billboard charts. I mean I was already acquinted with previous bodies of work they had put out and I just wondered "what if these guys actually realize the platform they've been able too get to and decide to work on something together?" To my surprise they actually put out a body of work in April 2017. I mean I was surprised because there wasn't any prior collaboration or affiliation between the two artists. That not withstanding they produced a brief but very solid body of work. Words that instantly come to my mind when you mention this tape are Love, Soul, Smooth, Harmony,  Progressive and Transitions.
The tape starts off slowly with "Ocean" which is filled with numerous vocal harmonies and in verse transitions. It is very expressive and sets the general tone of the tape altogether. Then comes "Don't" which from my point of view describes a complex relationship where there have been intentionally undefined feelings. The begining of Odunsi's verse is redolent of Kevin Lyttles 2004 smash hit "Let Me Hold You". The nostalgia gives a certain appeal, so does the part where the brass instruments are given the spotlight. Right after that part is where I think the tape goes from very good to great, there's an effortless transition from "Don't" to "Stay" which if you're not paying attention to you wouldn't even realize the song has changed. "Stay" is also very progressive, maybe a little more than "Don't". It posseses some subtle and well blended Caribbean elements. The prime focus in my opinion is telling the other party in the complex relationship not to leave. At the end of Stay is yet another smooth transition into the concluding song of the project "War". The tempo of this song is slowed compared to the preceeding song. It ends up telling the partner they should resolve things and avoid getting into a feud. There are some very soft drums which really do it for me at several points in the song, especially the ones that become prominent close to the end of the song.
I've lost count of the amount of times I've listened to this body of work and I feel like it's going to be one of the best I'll hear all year.

Uhm I need to work on how I name stuff, that being said this isn't an album album I mean it has just four songs but we move. One thing I enjoy about music is an apparent development in individuals sounds. I've been listening to Dusten Truce for a while and watched how he's working and is creating a "voice that's very distinct. In this body of work he entire embraced a hip hop direction as opposed to more mixes genres which he usually embraces.

2016 was a year with a lot of music and the nigerian music scene wasn't left out, there was a decent amount of full length projects out from different genres. It came to my notice that there were a lot more extended plays as opposed to the orthodox long plays. I was actually cool with that and I experienced a lot more nigerian music off soundcloud this year (closer to the end though) including the likes of Odunsi, D-Truce, Aylo, Nonso Amadi, Bella, 3rty, Muyiwa and many more (yes Soundcloud is a bottomless pit of music and there is an appealing nigerian urban underground scene).
I like to briefly review the projects that I've really enjoyed through the year(you know albums that I've honestly listened to and the ones I felt in my brim the most, I did that previously here).
These are the projects from 2016 I enjoyed the most in no particular order:





I was very excited when I heard the announcement of a new addition to the Illegal Music series by M.I early in the year 2016. My excitement was rewarded with very good hip hop music as M.I gave a mixtape that every core hip hop fan would love to hear (I talked about it at some point here). On this tape he really sounded like the "prime rapping" M.I and cleared doubts about him losing ability. On the tape samples were a focal point on the production. Though I thought it could have been more experimental production wise, but it was still very good irrespective. Lyrically it focused a lot on breaking out of "boxes", shunning people's opinions of what hip hop should and doing it how it comes to you.






My mind was all over the place when I was about to start listening to this body of work. Tay had already set the bar high with his first body of work "Passport" (which I've written about previously here). I actually did not know what type of sound I was going to hear but I just expected it was going to be good. I genuinely had goose bumps when I bumped it for the first time. I was blown away by the direction and production of the tape. The sound entirely was very quirky and a breath of fresh air to be honest. It was very well paced, soulful and sensual sound. Till today I find it difficult to believe Tay isn't a veteran artist and it's saddening that he's still not getting the kind of attention I think he deserves.






The first single of the this Tape "Pree Me" (which I wrote about here) took me to a different dimension. As I was unhappy when he announced his split from Aristocrat Records a while back mostly because I knew it would at some point affect the LeriQ & Burna Boy combination. The absence of LeriQ was evident on his body of work "On A Spaceship", In my opinion it was underwhelming juxtaposing with all his bodies of work.
 The Joy that filled my heart when I heard there was going to be a tape with both of them and I was in no way disappointed. I think it got even better with every listen, the project is one you can just easily vibe with and it seemed in no way forced. There was a lot of experimentation with themes on the project and I know for sure a number of the tracks were freestyled and I
can only imagine the type of atmosphere and the vibes in the studio when it was created. This tape was really a Redemption for Burna Boy as he had been through a lot of unpleasant things with his family, label and the media generally.






I heard a single off this tape the year before and that put Ozzy B back on my radar after he took some music scene for a bit. I was actually expecting a transition as I was aware his sound was evolving. But this body of work put me on a different "cruise" entirely, I did not see it coming at all(I talked about one of the songs here).
There was an aesthetic he was going for and I think he executed it wonderfully and he was entirely consistent with the direction which is something that is very difficult to pull off having in mind it'll cause you're sound to appeal to a particular audience. The production was also on another level entirely, it was a diverse amount of vibes from giving very dark grimy impressions at some points to softer and more progressive sounds at other points. What I love the most about the tape is I think there was an idea in his mind and he executed it so care-freely without considering general opinions.






I am an unrepentant fan of Brymo, I became that way because he's been consistently churning out amazing albums (I've written about him numerously you can check out some of it here). He's had three in the last four years. So when he announced he was releasing an album this year I knew I had to get it even with the controversy surrounding the title and album art (I think it was for publicity to be honest). I think I enjoyed his last album more, maybe because I had more time to listen to it but this one is certainly on the same level.
On this project he drifted to a more urban sound but the rudiments were pretty much the same. Then he still maintained the traditional vibes on a number of track notably "Ko-Ṣaya-Mi", "Something Good is Happening" and one of my absolute favorites off the album "Alajọ-Ṣomolu".








From their first collaborations you could tell Falz and Simi possessed a different kind of understanding. The realized it and decided to leverage it by working on a project together (which I've written about here).
It worked out so well for them in my opinion, they're properly executing the whole comical thing and it something that really gains the whole commercial appeal.
The comical and commercial appeal aside they really put out good music as  harmony was consistent throughout the project. As well as the harmony the songs were witty, conscious and very well produced. To be honest when I initially heard about the tape there was some skepticism but after my first listen I was in tune with the sound. I especially loved the fact that a number songs consisted of live instruments, I can only imagine how a concert would sound.

When some photos began to surface of Falz and Simi about a month ago I
wondered what the publicity was for, because I was pretty certain something
was coming afterwards(I mean you can't just come and go and just do
photoshoot for nothing, though you can but that's not the point).
Shortly after the announced that they were releasing a joint project, I was
absolutely certain I was going to listen to it. For some reason I thought it
would just be good but not great, was I wrong.
The album was properly titled as the duo posses the type of chemistry that
Timbaland and Timberlake posses in my opinion. At no point did I spot signs
of struggle with their transitions between verses. Also, the album was very
comical, filled witty lines and there were constant variations in tempo and
the genre.
Simi's performance and vocals were very commendable as she showed versatility
approaching her verses differently from doing a little rap verse like in the
song "Want To" to exhibiting her vocal prowess in the song "Chemistry".
Versatility wasn't limited to just her performance but to the entire project
as the themes differed in most of the songs while trying to maintain elements
of the general vibe. Like the song "Shake Body" which particularly targets a
(Yoruba) marriage audience, which is a topic which Falz talks about which I
established in this post here.