The Urban Retro Playlist

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.

I must re-establish that Craig David's Born To Do It album was fire. One of my first post's here was on a Craig David Song. I realized when I was younger and was forced to like some songs I didn't actually understand as much most times (I'm sure i've said this before), then when I get to listen to them now they blow my mind.
Then for some reason the tune of this song was in my head all through a period and I actually didn't know the name . Well some time later a friend of mine played it, I got the name and I was hooked.
This particular song is more to the progressive side, one of the considerably danceable Craig David songs. From his songs he's usually in situations with
the female gender. In this particular song he was already in a relationship, some other lady fancied him and was relentless going after him.
What made the song it for me personally were the drums, the rattle sounds, the strings in the hook and what I suspect to be a organ that transitions late in the verses.

So about a week ago (doing the shmoney that Bobby Shmurda dance), I met up with my very good friends who were also classmates in school to play basketball. We actually played at least once very week back in school. We hadn't seen and played in a while so we decided to set a date to play at the Surulere stadium. I came along with my camera, and took some random pictures of us warming up and what not.
The song of the day Jumpman by Drake and Future from their Joint project What A Time To Be Alive which is actually one of thier most successful song off the tape. Jumpman which is an alias for the greatest basketballer Michael Jordan.
I felt it was only elaborate to pick this sound for the visuals. I actually had to listen to this tape numerous times to warm up to the whole trap sound generally, but I totally loved it right after the initial reservations &  inhibitions.
The song is filled with a number of basketball references, generally laid back and is just a generally chilled Trap sound. I feel like it was a no brainer for Drake to sell/ promote his collaboration with the sneaker brand which was a major deal for him at the time.

Well I had a cool time last weekend, went on a road trip to my old school which you can read about here and here. I took some pictures during the weekend which you'll find at the bottom of this post.
Anyway, it was the weekend and one of the songs which I played during the Trips was Hymn For The Weekend featuring Beyonce by one of my favorite band who i've written about a couple of times here. This song like Adventure of A Lifetime is pretty progressive which is not generally their orthodox sound and the sounds in my opinion can easily be grooved to there's a lot more energy to it and it consists of some earthy elements in the background.
Also the harmony when both Chris Martin and Beyonce's vocals merge is something I enjoy so much. Then when I think of what instruments were used to produce the song i'm even more amazed by the general sound for apparent simple instruments.
Something I also found amazing yet may not appear so far fetched was how the song was created from a simple thought. When I was doing my research I found out that the song was actually conceptualized in a bar, a thought crossed Chris' mind after wishing he had one of those late night club songs like Turn Down for what or something Flo-rida would do.
Then He thought: "I’d like to have a song called 'Drinks on Me' where you sit on the side of a club and buy everyone drinks because you're so fucking cool," Martin recalled. "I was chuckling about that, when this melody came, 'drinks on me, drinks on me', then the rest of the song came out. I presented it to the rest of the band and they said, 'We love this song, but there's no way you can sing "drinks on me."' So that changed into 'drink from me' and the idea of having an angelic person in your life. Then that turned into asking Beyoncé to sing on it."

The thought was reference from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hymn_for_the_Weekend