The Urban Retro Playlist

One of my favorite tapes this year so far has been Leap of Faith by Juls, which is a wonderful blend of laid back but still very progressive and considerably upbeat music ironic right ? Anyway the song of the day is actually not from that tape but it wouldn't be hard to believe if it was just one of those songs you recorded for an album but eventually didn't make it to the album for one reason or the other. Definitely not because it wasn't it wasn't good enough though.
The song posses sounds that embody Banky style of music, said to be pioneered by Mr Eazi but another salient individual in the development of this sound is Juls who has prominent in a good amount of his songs. I hope at some point they (Juls & Mr Eazi) work on a project together.
Any Rock your body is heavily influenced by the banku sound and Burna Boy maintains a laid back demeanor and is able to impose his style and personality properly although the song.
Also present are some dancehall elements in the song but they are so subtle, well blended and entirely smooth to listen to. I especially love the array of the various drums on the instrumental. This in my opinion is the closest anyone has shown they posses as much chemistry as the Burna Boy LeriQ duo, I hope to see more collaborative efforts with them in the future.

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.

In the spirit of the whole playlist thing I've been doing so far I just decided to compile a couple of random really cool Nigerian songs. It also just fits the kind of day I've had.
Again by Brymo
Confessions by OZone
Girl I Used To Know by Darey
African Queen By 2Face
No One Like You by P-Square
Imagine That by Styl Plus
Strong Thing by Banky W
Bibanke by Asa
Rich and Famous by Praiz
Tonight by Burna Boy

The Song of the day is Smooth Sailing by Burna Boy from the album L.I.F.E(2013).All the songs from the album were produced by Leriq I think he should have gotten a few other producers on his tracks not because Leriq is not good just for diversity.
Well I like the not so party sounds he went for (most of the songs on the album a like that) it was also progressive and  it was just too cool. I like the way they started with the Piano it was nice. But I didn't understand when he said "...P laugh like potato..."  The hook was very cool and and he just rode the instrumental so well. I found out some of his song are on rap genius but sadly this one wasn't there.This album itself is one of my favourite Nigerian albums for this year.


See link to the song here