Enugu is the unofficial "capital" of the South East and is probably the most ethnically diverse city in that neck of the woods.
The town has given many things to talk about from the legendary Rangers Football Club to its beautiful scenery and not to mention its history of musical talent.
The story of Nigerian music would be incomplete without the repertoire of some famous artistes who either lived in, grew up or came of age in the Coal City. The likes of Sonny Okosun, William Onyeabor, Nelly Uchendu, Tuface Idibia and Celestine Ukwu are just a sprinkling. Start on the likes of Flavour Nabania and we'll be at this all day.
Here are 5 Enugu anthems from the last couple of years that we love silly. Enjoy!
1. UKWU (2010) By Flavour Nabania
Awesome joint collabo by Flavour and Stormrex. This song was on rotation for years...no kidding. No video sha but we still love it.
2. ALOBAM (2014) By Phyno Guys pasa nogbe! Monster hit that created a movement. You know the rest no need to go on...
Its been 23 years since Jodeci released its debut album, Forever my lady and changed the Rhythm and Blues genre as we know it forever. The "coolest" R & B group ever was formed in 1990 by two sets of brothers; Cedric and Joel Hailey (K-Ci & Jojo) and Dalvin and Donald DeGrate (Mr. Dalvin & DeVante Swing) from North Carolina, U.S.A.
The brothers came from a gospel music background and had collaborated earlier in childhood on a number of church choir recordings before Jojo and DeVante Swing ran into each other again courtesy of their girlfriends and agreed for the latter to produce a demo track that Jojo was working on. The results of the collaboration encouraged both artistes to leave their hometown and chase their dreams to New York City with K-Ci and Dalvin tagging along. fortune smiled on the guys when the late Heavy D heard their demo and talked Uptown Records CEO Andre Harrell into signing them.
They were given their first taste of exposure when they featured on a track by Uptown rapper, Father MC called Treat em like they want to be treated. Back then in 1990, your average R & B group was a suit wearing ensemble but Andre Harrell handed Jodeci to a hot and upcoming A & R executive called Sean "Puffy" Combs who threw out their colorful suits and made them dress like gangster rappers.
In May 1991, Forever my lady produced by Al B Sure, DeVante and Mr. Dalvin hit the streets to a yearning audience that embraced the street-smart group, bought 3 million copies of the album and sent it to No. 1 in the US R & B charts. Tracks like Come and talk to me and Stay turned the boys into sex symbols as had never been seen before in an R & B band. The band followed up with Diary of a Mad Band in 1993 which is considered their most creative and generally best album with tracks like Cry for you, My heart belongs to you and What about us. Their last album The Show, the After Party, the Hotel was released reached No. 1 in the U.S charts, spawned several No. 1 singles and went double platinum.
The weight of success began to take its toll on the band after Diary of a Mad Band. The band seemed to on top of the world with sold-out tours and great record sales. K-Ci was dating Mary J. Blige who was also a Puffy protege, Devante Swing was an in-demand producer in the same bracket as Dr. Dre and Teddy Riley. However their success brought women, wine, cash and drugs which is a tried and tested combo for wasting talented artistes. The bottom dropped out when their bad boys status attracted the attention of Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight who engaged the band in work on his movies "Above the rim" and "Murder was the Case". They also featured on Tupac's smash single, How do you want it off the multi platinum album All Eyez on Me.
When it seemed they were on top of the world the band collapsed on itself and didnt release any more albums. The Hailey brothers broke away from the group to form "K-Ci and Jojo" to moderate success with their more subtle mature music as evidenced in their huge 1998 single All my life.
Jodeci was directly and indirectly responsible for grooming artistes who would rule the music scene for the next twenty years. Jodeci proteges include Timothy Mosley who was mentored in the art of music production by Devante Swing and even given the nickname "Timbaland". Devante also mentored Missy Elliott, Tweet and Mr. Magoo but sadly failed to tap the Billion Dollar goldmine they represented. Not to mention groups they inspired like Dru Hill and H-Town whose lead singers sounded uncannily like K-Ci and Jojo respectively.
Jodeci fans like this writer was however pleased to bits to see the boys reunited at the 2014 Soul Train Awards where they gave a glimpse of what the industry has been missing for almost twenty years. They looked older and a bit worn out but the raw passionate talent was still there. For heartbroken fans worry not. The guys are in the studio with Timbaland in full effect, working on a new album scheduled to be released sometime in 2015. They recently released a new single titled "Nobody wins".
Jodeci at the 2014 Soul Train Awards
Despite their trials, Jodeci has always been full of surprises. Let's see if they can show the industry why they are adjudged the greatest R & B band of the 90s (sorry Boyz 2 Men) and one of the greatest of all time.
2014 will go down as one of the most interesting years for music followers and artistes alike. It was a year in which many new artistes got their foot in the door, while some not so new ones threw down statements of intent to rule our airwaves and playlists for as long as possible.
Its never easy sieving through thousands of truly amazing songs to draw up a list of just 14 but we kept our focus with an eye on originality, production lyrical content and attitude to give you Kizaro's best 14 songs of 2014. We wish y'all a Merry Christmas and a prosperous new year!
14. Patoranking Ft. Tiwa Savage - "Girlie o" Remix
Patrick Okorie's career ascended to new heights this year after his monster breakout song Alubarika put the Dancehall crooner on the map big time. Girlie o, the follow up song took the music scene by storm and stayed on rotation across the country on Nightclub and Radio playlists for months. The song caught the attention of Mavin Record Label First Lady Tiwa Savage who lobbied her way into a remix of the song that blew us away and earned the No. 14 spot on our list.
Day 2 (Jebba): Mungo Park & Richard Lander's Journeys.
Happy Independence Day from Kizaro’s Blog!
In the build up to our 54th
anniversary of nationhood, this writer tuned all the bad news out and with a
little time on my hands accepted a short job to document certain key historical
sites and imagery in a number of places in Nigeria. The Site List had Kizaro’s
Blog hurtling through an average of three states a day across towns like Jebba,
Lokoja, Zaria, Abuja, Jos, Minna, Zungeru and a couple more and saw firsthand,
places I had heard about in history classes and books as a young boy.
Nigeria’s amalgamation in 1914
was the culmination of centuries of voyages, journeys and the likes by European
journeymen led by the British whose footprints across Nigeria are still part of
our landscape.The Park-Lander Obelisk in Jebba,
Niger State was erected by the British Government in 1929 upon strong request
by the ubiquitous Sir George Taubman Goldie and Lord Scarborough, Chairman of
the Royal Niger Company, though completed by Sir Hugh Clifford years later. It
was in honour of the voyages of Mungo Park and Richard Lander though the voyages of both men were separated
by more than three decades, together they traced the course of the River Niger from its source
to the sea in the name of the King of England.
In August 2000, Wildstar Records released a raw 12 track album R& B/Garage by an unknown 19 year old from Southampton. The album titled "Born To Do It" went on to sell more than 8 million records worldwide, topped the charts in 4 countries including Nigeria, United Kingdom and Sweden. Not to mention top 10 in 13 other countries.
The success of the album sprang from the creativity of Craig David and its production team, Artful Dodger which was composed of Mark Hill and Pete Devereux. The team's classic garage sound coupled with Craig's excellent vocals produced a practically perfect body of work.
As the story goes, Artful Dodger, then a struggling studio in the back streets of Southampton was working on its debut album and identified Craig as a perfect voice to feature on a couple of tracks. The hard part was that they were too broke to pay him as little as £100 for his efforts and performances on the album. Instead they recorded a few tracks for him for free. The first three tracks they recorded were monster hits "7 days", "Walking away" and "Time to party". Mark Hill revealed that making the album was a great and relaxed experience as Craig did not have a recording contract, manager or pressure of any kind to perform. The result was an effervescent and totally fresh experience for fans everywhere.
In Nigeria the album was a monster hit whose tracks were on heavy rotation on radio, television, cable and club Dj playlists for at least two years. Unofficial sources estimate that at least 4 million pirated copies of the CD have been sold in the country till date. Globally It represented the ability of British R & B artistes to hold their own in a genre dominated by American acts like Usher and paved the way or inspired other UK acts like Donaeo. Canadian rapper Drake's singing adventure in tracks like "Find your love" and "Hold on we're going home" are largely modelled after Craig's singing style.
Like what happens to so many fresh ideas, The success of the album led to major deals, pressure to perform and a move to the USA and Craig David never hit the heights of his debut. Born To Do It was voted MTV's second greatest album of all time in 2009 and was barely edged out by Michael Jackson's Thriller. A testimony of what could happen when artistes make music for the fun of it and not just for the rewards of success.
In honour of our country attaining the landmark age of a
century, Kizaro’s Blog undertook a non-stop seven day marathon trip to document
several sites in seven cities of great historical significance to Nigeria. The
result was a trip of a lifetime that had several high points, close shaves, and
ultimately, priceless education about Nigeria that can’t be learned from a
classroom.
Day 1 (Minna): In
Search of the Hunslet Locomotive.
Took off from Jabi Park, Abuja in
a very comfy Toyota Van at 6.15pm and arrived in Minna really late. Checked
into a hotel not far from the Minna Train Station, fell asleep watching “Tinsel”
and dreamt of locomotive engines and their drivers in early twentieth Nigeria.
For the uninitiated, the story of
Nigeria would be incomplete without the North-South Railway line that connects
the northern and southern parts of the country. Integral to the smooth running
of the then colonial administration from the then Nigerian capital of Zungeru
was the “Wushishi Line” which hauled the manpower, heavy machinery and goods needed
to build the roads, bridges and other necessary infrastructure. The first and
longest running locomotive on that line was a Hunslet 1901 Engine (pictured
below). Its estimated to have conveyed in excess of 500,000 tonnes over three
decades until its “retirement”.
Built in 1901. Still looks better than some cars I've seen of late
Highlight of the morning -
This writer was
accosted by plain clothed detectives while happily snapping away at the Hunslet on a bright and early sunday morning. My camera and pictures were thoroughly “inspected”
and returned. Apparently a certain ex-Head of State and resident of Minna was
in the neighbourhood and I looked suspicious enough to be interrogated.
Next Stop – Jebba in search of Mungo Park’s boat!
The left ear of my "chauffeur" taking me to the nearest motor park. No time, Jebba beckons!
Its no longer big news to hear that Nigerian music has exploded in global popularity since the renaissance of the early 2000s that produced superstars like Tuface and D'Banj. These days its normal to walk into a bar in London or Amsterdam and see heads nodding to a Nigerian song even where the patrons are not from Naija.
In the video below some kids in an unnamed New York high school were videoed having a fun time rehearsing for a dance presentation to the song "Ukwu" by Stormrex Featuring Flavour Nabania. I wonder what the teachers would say if they knew what the song was about.
