🇳🇬 NAIJA SPECIAL: which of these *seven* current high-profile Nigerian hit songs is the best one? please help me decide

and here it is, the pun you’ve all been waiting for: Wande left to vote!

lemme listen for the first time all of these:

Wonderful (Burna Boy): the entry chorus sounded a bit cheesy to my ears but I love the raspiness in his voice. Makes any of his songs instantly listenable to me. The instrumental background after the intro has some interesting things going on and is impeccably produced. I wish I liked this one more because it sounds positive.

Woman (Rema) : Love the production but I need to go back to this one. Sounded really good while it was playing but didn’t really remember much of it afterwards.

Dangerous Love (Tiwa Savage): Ah this is the best one so far! Not sure if the intention of those heavily autotuned backing vocals are supposed to make the listener feel uncomfortable but they sound menacing as hell in some parts. I actually love that detail, it’s a dealmaker instead of a dealbreaker for me... gives it an edgy texture to use in certain parts of the song. It doesn’t feel obnoxious, just a bit unsettling haha.

Smile (Wizkid ft. H.E.R.) : Cool sound right from the start. Loving the contrast between the soft r&b vocals against that rubbery bass (might not be a bass). The first minutes are great, I feel like it loses a bit of steam as it goes on but in general very strong sound and production.

Addicted (Niniola) : I’ve heard her before! I like this one, specially like those chopped voices that sound like echoes that appear in the choruses. Is this a signature kind of sound for her? The other song I remember hearing for her is “Maradona” and there’s the same thing going with a vocal coming in and out in some parts. It sounds really cool imho.

AG Baby (Adekunle Gold ft. Nailah Blackman) : this is lush af, one of my favorite ones in here. Another impeccable produced song.

Eli (Fireboy DML) : Those guitars at the outro are a headscratcher, wtf is going there!? Should have kept using the wind instrument sound from the intro and interludes instead, that one sounded amazing.

Didn’t watch the music videos as then I get biased on which song I like better, I‘ll do a second listen watching the videos on my second listen.

Overall amazing selection. Pretty much liked everything in here... if I had to pick one based on first listen I’d go with Dangerous Love as it’s the one that made the biggest impression.

Hahaha just reading rob’s opinion on each one and there’s a couple observations which are pretty much the same as mine; the unsettling voices in Dangerous Love and the wtf Eli guitars at the outro. And yes! They do sound like hair metal! That’s what it was reminding me of. Really weird (as in bad weird) choice.

excellent stuff, Moka! the rock guitar in “Eli” works well enough for me, but on the track “Dreamer” on his brand new album Fireboy is pushing his hair metal luck a wee bit too far. approach with caution!

I think I find it a bit jarring because the rest of the song sounds doesn't seem to me like a humoristic kind of song but that outro feels like the end of a joke song. I don't know, maybe I'm missing some context and Fireboy DML is a bit of a tongue-in-cheek, jokester artist.

That said I do love the rest of it. Those (chinese?) flute melodies paired with that dancehall/reggae beat sound cool cool cool.

I know these songs are cherry-picked, but this selection makes me very interested in hearing more Nigerian modern music. I'll definitely check other works of the producers involved in here. These all have in common tasteful production, amazing mixing and some vibe-y, out of the box ideas in their sound.

the problem with the 'eli' guitar solo isn't that it exists, the idea is fine imo. it's just poorly played.

yeah that's the problem, everything sounds so well crafted prior to the solo and suddenly it sounds cheap, even the drums that enter that part sound bad in comparison. That's why I'm assuming it's a bit of a joke I don't get?

I think the rock guitar is meant to evoke the evil temptress the song is about, “Dirty Diana”-style. (I will also maintain the song is secretly modelled upon (and mirroring) “All That She Wants” - the “exotic” flute motif, the “lonely girl” line)

Doubt that it’s meant to be tongue-in-cheek, “Dreamer”, including its rock guitar, is as serious as it gets (unless the joke is on me!). “Favourite Song”, also produced by Pheelz, has a weird abrupt ending as well.

I know these songs are cherry-picked, but this selection makes me very interested in hearing more Nigerian modern music.
I'll definitely check other works of the producers involved in here. These all have in common tasteful production, amazing mixing and some vibe-y, out of the box ideas in their sound.

Just an example, a (self-produced) song I’m digging right now, that has amassed just 1459 plays on Spotify and a combined 200 views on YouTube in the 5 months since its release:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wq6mmTyn4o
BwoiiDaas • Radar

Also, 4.5 hours left to vote!

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Nice vote spread

Smile could have been higher, then again they all could.

The 'Lonely girl' line on Eli sounds to me like it's referencing 'Don't Stop Believing' more than 'All That She Wants' which might be a clue to the guitar solo part, I dunno?

I respectfully disagree (different subject matter), but then I’m willing to die on this Ace of Base molehill. lol I’m pretty sure Fireboy has the song on one of his playlists tho!

Great turnout, and yes, a very nice spread of votes. Actually impressed by how precisely this result mirrors how I would rank them at this point, with the important caveat that all of the top three tracks would have been equally worthy winners for me.

longneck, you were very close as well!

Thanking you all for voting, it’s been... wonderful!

Your bonus for the day: Niniola’s official video for “Addicted” that just came out today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-7bk5BW-RU

ayo breastcrawl, what did you vote for? I scanned the thread and didn't catch an explicit mention--and am i right in thinking you haven't said a peep about Twice As Tall yet?!

this poll was set up as a consultation of the ILM hivemind to help me decide, so it wouldn’t have been right for me to vote myself!
I * think * I would have gone with “Dangerous Love”, but I love “Dangerous Love”, “Woman” and “Addicted” about equally, which is a whole damn lot, and even more than the others, so I’m pretty happy with this outcome.

You would be right about TaT, my only peep has been to say that the Fireboy and especially the Burna have been throwing me for a loop. I will get to it, but I will say now that I’m finding it a lot easier to enjoy Apollo.

I'll definitely check other works of the producers involved in here. These all have in common tasteful production, amazing mixing and some vibe-y, out of the box ideas in their sound.

FWIW I think you'd find it more rewarding to explore via the lead artists themselves rather than the producers - there are many wonderful producers across Nigerian pop at the moment but the quality is uniformly pretty high.

Not sure about that. They're both valid ways of exploring. It can be very interesting and yes, rewarding to dive deeper into a particular producer's work if a track they produced blew your mind.

Xp
Fair enough! And yeah I feel like I’m still processing Twice As Tall

thread for Tiwa’s phenomenal new album:

next level at 40: 🌸TIWA SAVAGE’s CELIA🌸 album

listened to the Tiwa album and the Fireboy album in a row and while I like Tiwa's album it is clearly an attempt at mainstream pop. I miss tracks like Ma Lo, Ileke and One. Fireboy's album is also pop but it's unabashedly a tribute to the 90s and keeps firing surprises at me.

not sure I agree with you, but it depends on what you mean by “mainstream” here. but by all means take it to the Tiwa thread, that’s what it’s for!

btw DL, you might also be interested in this outstanding request by ufo:

someone should make a thread for fireboy too, i would but i'm not sure i can properly articulate what i love about his album

Fireboy thread is a great idea, although slightly wary of clogging ILM with tons of afrobeats threads (not that I'd be the one complaining).

I love Fireboy's completely random list of influences. The fact he loves Sacrifice by Elton John puts his music into an amusing context

it’s not clogging, it’s the Afro Takeover!

You should start that thread! Rolling threads are great for shining a brief spotlight on things that would otherwise not get talked about but they don't engage people who aren't already on the bus.

If you want the unconverted to listen properly, start a thread 🎈

Happy with these results, yes

i didn't vote but these results look about right

https://everyrecordtellsastory.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/adam-ant-goody-two-shoes.jpg
you don’t vote, you don’t start threads, what do you do?

(sorry, couldn’t resist)

lol

i just never got around to listening to a few of the tracks i hadn't heard here, but i'm glad i did because "woman" rules especially

Okay cool, here we are folx:

Thraed of 🔥 Fireboy DML 🔥 and his new album Apollo

Having listened to all these songs a stupid amount of times now I can confirm that this is the scientific and objective order:

Woman > Smile > Dangerous Love > Eli > Addicted > Wonderful > AG Baby

That said, the best one is the one I'm listening to in the moment, perhaps witht he exception of AG Baby, which hasn't yet dug itself in for me yet.

🔥🔥🔥

xp

This poll would have even been better (and tighter!) with "No Stress" as the Wizkid entry instead of "Smile". And it would have been a Perfect Eight if Davido had dropped his "Fem" in time.

With the Wizzy album out now (dedicated thread here, six out of these seven have their accompanying albums released. In chronological order:

Burna Boy, Twice As Tall, released Aug 13
Fireboy DML, Apollo, released Aug 19
Adekunle Gold, Afro Pop, Vol. 1, released Aug 21
Tiwa Savage, Celia, released Aug 27
Niniola, Colours and Sounds, released Oct 2
Wizkid, Made In Lagos, released Nov 29

So that only leaves our winner, but there's no word on a Rema album yet, afaik.

(However, Davido's A Better Time is apparently scheduled for Dec 3 now)

oops, Wizkid, Made In Lagos, released *Oct* 29, obv

Our winner finally gets a proper video!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7dsnMbRAHY

it’s Rema getting his Apple Sugar High on.

...and Davido's A Better Time album is out today.

Producers Ozedikus and Altims talk about how they created “Woman” (sort of) together:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQdfBQ3eGYs

(and oh, Altims, the word you’re looking for is “Naijapiano”)