It is a country where every other youngster wants to be a rap or hip-hop star. And for those who make it in Nigeria these days, the rewards can be greater — and certainly more international — than ever.
Take singer-songwriter D’banj. Kanye West just did, signing him up for his GOOD (Getting Out Our Dreams) music label. Then there is Wizkid, recently named best African act at the Mobo awards in Glasgow.
All this has come in a year in which Trace Urban, a French-owned international music TV network, has begun broadcasting in Nigeria.
Photo: Reuters
D’banj is living the new Nigerian Dream — superstardom beyond what anyone could have imagined in the late 1990s when Kennis Music, a local record label, took the first steps toward a revival of mainstream Nigerian music culture. As D’banj steps on stage in a stadium in Lagos in a sparkling black shirt and blue trousers, the large space transforms into one huge mass of excitement, with kicking, screaming, shoving and frenzied mobile phone recording. He stops then throws both hands in the air in a salute.
“I look up to D’banj,” says Topa Onimowo, otherwise known as Phenom, a 19-year-old who has been signed to the Nigerian label Knighthouse.
Knighthouse has already created one teenage superstar, Mo’Cheddah, who last year won the Channel O music video award and the MTV Africa music award.
Photo: AFP
“He [D’banj] is doing a lot of great things — big things across the world,” Phenom says. “Everyone aspires to be big in this business — and in a couple of years, I too would have taken over the word.”
From the huge Koko All-Stars concerts held in Nigerian cities as well as in the UK and the US, to small local gatherings such as Underground that find “hidden” hip-hop talent, Nigerian music is thriving.
Trace Urban’s grand entrance into Nigeria’s cable and terrestrial market came just weeks after Nigerian producer and music entrepreneur Don Jazzy’s name appeared on the credits for the single Lift Off, a Kanye West collaboration with Jay-Z, featuring Beyonce.
The youth of Nigeria — more than 70 percent of the population is under 35 — are paying close attention.
Tjan (Tijani Fowosere), another 19-year-old — who has already recorded eight singles — echoes Phenom’s ambition. “My dream is enormously big,” he says. “I see myself as a Grammy nominee in a few years’ time. Bigs up to people like Don Jazzy and the Choc Boys. Right now, Wizkid is killing me.”
Wizkid, 21, is the country’s latest sensation. The June launch of his debut album, Superstar, attracted a who’s who of the Nigerian music industry, along with the wife of Lagos’ popular governor. His arrival on stage is guaranteed to be greeted by girls screaming.
“I always dreamed of making it big,” he says. “But I never thought that this much success would come from my first album. I’m thankful because all the hard work and sacrifices were worth it in the end. Music is everything to me and I’m most grateful that it’s all working out.”
But Nigerian-born 2face Idibia, who has been called Africa’s biggest pop star, has a warning: “Success is good but people don’t understand the kind of hard work that it takes to get to the top, and the fact that many dreams and hopes fall by the wayside.”
Still, Wizkid thinks there is no reason why young Nigerians cannot aim high. “I think it is a great thing,” he says. “Because now people in this part of world realize that you don’t have to wait till you’re much older to be the best at something or to achieve your dreams.”
Judging by the thousands of youngsters who have registered to audition for the second season of the hugely popular Nigerian Idol, and who will have to stand in long queues in the hot October sun, a generation agrees with him.
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