8 Nigerian artists with the best lyrics at the moment

The importance of songwriting is still not understood in Nigerian music, which is why many fans tag intellectual singers “boring” or trying to sound “foreign” and why lyrically deficient singers would rather die than hire a songwriter. It is also why many who use songwriters will never openly acknowledge them.

Although there is a little upsurge in the sense and reasonability sung by Nigerian singers lately, notwithstanding, collectively, the pen game of the heads that make up the industry still leaves much to be desired. This only proves there is still much improvement needed to be made as far as songwriting is concerned in Nigerian music.

Despite a lot of the industry singing to glorify internet fraud, multiple sexual escapades, infidelity, wasteful spending and a lot of other contemporary lifestyles, the following artists make a much-needed difference:

8. Portable

Anytime Portable decides to be reasonable with his music, we get a role-playing of King Solomon with the wisdom of advice and behavioral criticism.

What is unclear is whether or not Portable uses songwriters. On his last album, the singer explores criticisms of society and individual greed; he also gives motivational speeches. Some of the quotes from his music include:

7. Runtown

Runtown‘s Signs album presents listeners with a badman conscious of the need for religion. But he is too deeply entrenched in his thuggery that he would rather live both contradictory personalities simultaneously than give up one for the other.

Runtown‘s lyrics are characterized by threats, warnings, distrust, thanksgiving, lifestyle, minimal romance and the self. Here is a snapshot of it:

6. Tems

Apart from the similarity in their singing style, study Tems‘ lyrics and conclude that the likes of Ayra Starr, Fave and Bloody Civilian were unconsciously modeled after her.

Tems‘ penmanship is hugely affected by an attitude of “I’ve had enough” and a “you can’t play me, boy” self-awareness. When it is not that, it is the lamentations of a single African lady looking for peace and freedom. The highlights of Tems‘ lyricism include but are not limited to the following:

5. Oga Network

Oga Network is a monopoly of proverbial sayings that can mostly be humor-filled. Realistic words that accentuate experiences on a guitar-infested Highlife sound, with this Delta-born singer sonorously blaring from your speakers, it is a pleasure at every turn. Oga Network is a 21st-century singer with some 1930s witty lyricism. Below are some of them:

4. Omah Lay

Omah Lay is several distances ahead of the horde of his peers regarded as the Gen Z acts, lyrics-wise. Omah Lay‘s lyrics are therapeutic to the brain. The weirdest thing about Omah Lay‘s lyrics is how they are mostly divided into short lines, which, when connected as a whole, are either one detailed storytelling or one picturesque expression. At the beginning of his career, Stanley’s lyrics scream out Burna Boy‘s thug-life penmanship. You can blame this on Port Harcourt being their root.

You impatiently want to name him a painter with words but wait, that’s not all. Omah Lay uses songwriters to co-write most of his popular songs. The Port Harcourt-born singer is obsessed with sensual euphemisms, words that can metaphorically express different acts of sex. However, lately, the singer’s lyrics have been more self-centered on critical psychological issues relating to depression.

3. Burna Boy

Burna Boy‘s artistry which fuses Hip Hop and Reggae with original Nigerian sounds and self-termed Afro-fusion, is one to try in the search for realistic lyricism. Have you ever wondered why Wizkid FC termed his style of music Afro-struggle?

This is because Burna Boy‘s lyrics portray what is obtainable from thug life, poverty-ridden ghettos, gun violence, dreams, arrogance, insecurities and distrust and, of course, women and big butts (when he chooses to be lenient). Some of his lyrics that capture these experiences are quoted thus:

2. Erigga

Erigga is highly lyrical, and his mastery of the Pidgin language makes him the most graphic African rapper with words.

Erigga‘s lyrics border humor, x-rated imagery, thought-provoking metaphors, and storytelling expertise only a griot can boast of. Some of his most recent lyrics are as follows:

1. Brymo

Brymo‘s discography is one of the richest in Africa, owning to his awakening of the mainstream Alternative sound and stretching now to his pioneering the Sonic Art; and, of course, his lyrical prowess.

Brymo‘s lyrics, the way an African mother shields an ailing child with her thick wrapper, spreads across deep Philosophy, Yoruba traditional beliefs, proverbs, political criticisms, romance, folklore, History and Psychology. Some of his popular lyrics include:

NOTICE!! NOTICE!! NOTICE!!

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEnKCtsZOauaaujZympmeVmba1u9GimKVnaGK7qrPEq6Capl2Wv7W10q2qZq%2BZqbVuwMeeZJudo6l6rcXRopqsZZGperW0xGakqKWVo8Fw