Music
- Tuesday, January 3The Top 50 Naija songs
of 2011.
What? No Nneka!
2011 was as good a year as any for Naija music, and if you're a fan then this compilation will be right up your street.
If you're not already into Naija music it's worth knowing that Nigeria is the country all other African countries look up to when it comes to contemporary urban music (pop, hip-hop, R&B, Soul, etc.). About a decade ago Naija artists created an instantly recognisable "sound" that basically hit the sweetspot of music lovers across the continent, and they haven't looked back since, producing hit after hit and in the process becoming some of the most well known artists in Africa and in the diaspora. If you remember how Motown at its peak dominated the American music charts, that's what Naija is now to the rest of Africa.
Which is why the Top 50 Nigerian tracks from the year is worth checking out.
Representatives from 6 key Nigerian music blogs (www.djmightymike.net, www.gidilounge.com, www.jaguda.com, www.nigerianhiphop.net, www.tooxclusive.com and www.360nobs.com) were invited to choose and agree upon the best tracks from the year, and this list of 49 singles and one freestyle is the result.
All the tracks are available for downloading (links at the bottom of this page), so what's not to like? Well, two quibbles or observations:
There's one glaring omission from the list and she goes by the name of Nneka. Her latest album Soul Is Heavy album (Spotify; iTunes) was, without doubt, a very strong contender for album of the year. So it's very odd that not a single track from that album appears on the list.
We could only come up with two explanations, one that Nneka doesn't make typical "Naija music" (but then not all the Top 50 fit that mould, so that can't be the reason) and two, that the compilers decided it wasn't worth incurring the wrath of Sony Music by giving away an Nneka track without her or Sony's permission, so they left her out altogether.
That seems reasonably prudent, but the omission does undermine the credibility of, what is, a pretty good list, so let's rectify the situation by embedding the videos of three tracks that should be on the list.
Soul Is HeavyStay
My Home
The other observation is that listening to all 50 tracks one after the other, we couldn't help but notice a certain same-ness creeping into Naija music. Is the Naija sound starting to become a straitjacket? We offered our opinion in August last year as to why it was significant that eLDee was starting to fuse the Naija sound with things like House and Grime, and listening to this Top 50 only strengthens our belief that a lot more of our artists need to get involved in the evolution of the Naija sound. Apart from anything, after listening to these 50 tracks we're all Auto-Tuned out.
For the above reason we're embedding only our pick of the 50 tracks, the 20 you should check out if you're pushed for time or if you have a low Auto-Tune threshold. But, again, if you're going to get just one album by a Nigerian artist from 2011, I'd consider Soul Is Heavy.
THE TOP 50 (in alphabetical order)
1. 5 & 6 by Naeto C
2. 5 Blessings by 5Mics ft BrymO
3. Apako by Terry G
4. Ara by Brymo
5. Back When by Davido feat. Naeto-C
6. C4 by X.O Senavoe (Freestyle)
7. Chop My Money by P-Square feat. MayD
8. Control by W4
9. Dami duro by Davido
10.Demo by Jesse Jagz
11. Endowed (Remix) by D'Banj ft Snoop Dogg
12. Farabale by DJ Klem Feat. EFA & Yemi Alade
13. Follow Follow by LKT ft P-Square
14. Follow Me by Yung6ix feat. Wizkid
15. For Me by WizKid ft. Wande Coal
16. Girl by Bracket feat wizkid
17. Good Tyme by J. Martins ft Cabo Snoop & Waje
18. Health Is Wealth by 9ice
19. Higher by eLDee feat. K9 & Sojay
20. I Done Did It by Eva
21. I love my baby by Wizkid
22. I Love you by Praiz
23. If You Ask Me by Omawumi
24. In the name of love by CAPITAL F.E.M.I
25. Kako Bii Chicken by Reminsce
26. Kuchi Kuchi (Oh Baby) by J'odie
27. Let the music play (Remix) by Dj Klem feat. Wizkid, Myst & Zara
28. Let's Get down by A1 feat Shank
29. Love me 3x by Tiwa Savage
30. Love Story by Ebisan
31. Magic by LOS ft. Shank
32. Man Unkind by 2face
33. My Money Remix by Sheyman feat. Skales & eLDee
34. Okay by Ruby
35. Oliver by D'Banj
36. Orobo (remix) by Sound Sultan ft Flavour N'Abania
37. Pakurumo by Wizkid
38. Rainbow by Blackmagic
39. Roll by Rayce
40. Salute by Shank
41. See Me by Mo'Cheddah
42. Shake Body by Dj Caise ft eLDee, Jesse Jagz & Grip Boyz
43. So Inspired by Waje ft Muna
44. Super Sun (remix) by Bez ft eLDee, Ice Prince & Eva
45. Superstar by Ice Prince
46. Thank the Lord by D'Tunes Feat. Sean & Yemi Alade
47. The Future by TY Bello
48. This Gbedu Reloaded by DJ Neptune
49. Wash Wash by eLDee
50. Young Erikina by Olamide
DOWNLOAD LINKS
Folder with all tracks (account required)
Individual tracks (no account required)via thisisafrica.me
