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

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”)