A Little About Rap Music

Apart from not hearing what the artist is saying for more than half of the song, I probably won't be able to sing a line of the song successfully. That, ladies and gentlemen, is my tale of my experience with Rap music. But, how is it for you?

The Rap music genre belongs to the family of Hip-Hop culture which arose among African-Americans in the 1970s. It is a form of poetry combined with instrumentation -rhymes, rhythms, and spoken word combined with a beat. And I agree it is indeed a genre of its own class. 

As with other expressions of Hip-hop culture, Rap music became the black communities' way of expressing themselves about their everyday reality which is summed up as racial discrimination, racial violence and human rights abuse. It became the language of the Blacks and has largely remained that way to date. On its origin, Rap music is credited to the West African griot tradition.  

Rap Music in Nigeria 

One of the things I love and appreciate about the Nigerian music industry is the ability to pick any genre of music coming from anywhere in the world and own it. By owning it, I mean recreating it in our own way -garnishing it with our indigenous language, beats, and style of music. 

Naturally, Rap made its way to Nigerian music with Hip-hop music in the early 1980s. The first Rap album, The Way I Feel, is credited to DJ Ron Ekundayo. The floodgates have opened since then giving us some of the finest acts in the Nigerian Music scene. Today we have the likes of MI Agaba, Olamide, Phyno, Falz, Reminisce, Vector, Ice prince and so on. Despite being gone for over 10 years, you will agree with me that Dagrin is still a worthy mention when talking about Nigerian Rap music. If you are in the mood for Rap vibes this Friday, here is a list of throwback Rap songs to start with. 

Eni Duro -Olamide

Oleku -Ice Prince ft Brymo 

Ehen -Ruggedman

Pon pon pon -Dagrin 

Local rappers -Reminisce ft Phyno & Olamide

Too much -DJ Jimmy Jatt

360 Poetry -Mode 9

Ghost mode -Phyno ft Olamide

High -Eva Alordiah

Cry -Mode 9

Anoti -MI 

Baraje -Ruggedman  

Anamachi Kwanu -Illbliss ft Phyno

Eyan Mayweather -Olamide

Wazup Guy -Falz

Although our dear Afrobeats have been topping the charts and leaving no space, Rap music is still considered a major genre in the Nigerian music scene, and as long as we have the Hip-hop culture around, we can be sure this music will remain for a while.