Best Naija Pop Album/EP in 2022

the wizkid thing is weird but they slow drip reviews this time of year to keep the site populated through the end of the year so i bet they'll get to it

yeah I'd be curious to figure out why that^ happened but the Asake blew up super fast, but I have no idea how

asake is just fresher. i think he also has a real personality and unique style whereas rema feels more like run of the mill afropop (in light of the album i would disagree but i understand why superficially ppl might see him that way). i'm more interested as to why he seemed to lag behind wiz, burna & davido in the US even tho in africa it seems like he was seen on their level?

I seem to remember that there was some sort of critical backlash against the rema album because africans somehow found his lyrics to be too simplistic? It struck me as v weird at the time.

i think it might just be that rema doesn't seem to be signed to any international labels like the others are so i'd guess that there just isn't quite the same level of promotional infrastructure behind him as the others, especially in the usa?

like cruel santino showed up on a few critic lists and he's far more niche (to the point that no one here really paid too much attention to him) but he does have an american label deal

rema is signed to mavin which has a deal w/ virgin which is distribution as opposed a frontline label. the promotional apparatus is definitely smaller but virgin is a big fish in the distribution pool and have had plenty of famous/successful artists on their roster so i'm not sure that fully explains it. i also don't know how much american labels were/are really doing for afrobeats honestly

that feels right on the one hand (to ufo’s point), but on the other hand: he’s got a worldwide hit, including in the US. “Calm Down” has been on the Hot 100 for three months now. he should be on people’s radars.

as for the lyrics thing longneck mentioned:
he explicitly addressed that in “Are You There?” - and it’s also one more thing he has in common with Wizkid. Wizzy has long been plagued by the same criticism in Naija, during the first part of his career in particular, and it has flared up again after MLLE dropped: only singing about sex, repetitive and simplistic lyrics, bla bla. there’s a bit of a backlash going on right now, in part self-inflicted (that’s Wizkid, not Rema)

Even Burna caught some flack for his lyrics on Love, Damini, iirc.

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

Voted Asake (my aoty) but happy with the results.

yeah this turned out to be a little less suspenseful than I thought, but good work everyone

Yeah good work, and great idea for a poll. We probably need more voters if the year-end-poll won't be as boring as the 2010's one :(

[OkayAfrica’s review of Victony’s Outlaw.

(no mention of “Soweto”, sadly)

Boy Alone does Tiny Desk (with a little help from his friends):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHjczZIxr_0

quite the victory lap:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdujYTi6lZs

i really enjoyed that halftime show, tems in particular who i had not actually seen sing live before

the new naija sound translates really well to arena/festival scale

and we already know this but rema is a fucking superstar