How Hip Hop Music Originated In Nigeria

Hip-hop music live peformance

Hip hop music started in Nigeria in 1980s

The first rap music in Nigeria started in 1981 from the mind of a protesting On-Air personality who decided to throw a dagger at the disco rap trend which suddenly became the rave of the moment. With the release of “The Way I Feel Rap“, Ron “Ronnie” Ekundayo became the proponent of hip-hop and rap music in Nigeria.

Afro Hip hop in Nigeria dates back to the late eighties and early nineties. The first place hip hop gained popularity in Nigeria was in Lagos, Nigeria. During this time (1980s), Nigeria was under a military governorship. This period of military governorship brought about crisis in Nigeria which involved the devaluation of currency, loss of jobs and persistent unemployment especially for new graduates from the University. Hip hop during this time was used as a means of escape by youths from the country's crisis. It was made popular by using Nigerian languages in the lyrics along with traditional hip hop beats, such as those made by the founding fathers of hip hop, DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambata and Grandmaster Flash. Since there were very few record labels to sign a new musician at this time, the youths decided to start making music on their own with a very little budget. The music videos were very simple and not grand and expensive. The availability of computers and cheap music editing software in the late 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century enabled Nigerian musicians to achieve higher quality recordings which quickly won over the Nigerian audience. This was a very cheap way to make music and a new Nigerian hip hop musician would make music and sell it on a CD. This was one way for the youths to be independent from the government by being lucrative and creating jobs for themselves, since the government was not helping them. Hip hop was used during this time for entertainment, but also to criticize the government and demand change. Groups and solo artists during that period include the likes of Junior & Pretty, Daniel 'Danny' Wilson, Plantashun Boiz, Remedies with members Eedris Abdulkareem, Eddy Remedy & Tony Tetuila. The late 90s and the early years of the new millennium saw an outburst of artists and groups, many returning home from the Western Diaspora, like eLDee da Don of Trybesmen, U.G.O, Madarocka and the S.O.U.R.C.E. Intl Clique, Naeto C of W.F.A, and from Europe, JJC and the 419 squad became a part of mainstream Nigerian music after the collapse of pop trends like Yo-pop. These up-rising artists in Nigeria began to localize hip hop and make songs in English and any other Nigerian language as a means of self-expression, thus making Nigerian hip hop multilingual. Just as Nigeria's Nollywood movies have done with Western movies, Nigerian hip hop has begun to displace Western popular music. Musicians such as Eedris Abdulkareem started making multilingual hip hop music and the lyrics were usually in English, Pidgin English and another Nigerian language such as Yoruba, Igbo, and Hausa.

Hip-Hop World Magazine, based in Nigeria, is a prominent publication that has helped fashion the orientation of hip hop culture in Nigeria and across the continent. African Beatz, Blast and Bubbles magazines are other similar major Nigerian hip hop publications.