Issue 45 | June 2018
Issue 45 | June 2018
What is Afropolitan Vibes? Afropolitan Vibes is a monthly live music concert which exists as a platform for alternative music: a place where music lovers congregate to watch contemporary singer-songwriters and musicians perform mostly original works that are firmly rooted in African musical origins of Afro-beat, Afro-funk, Afro-hip-hop, Afropop and Highlife music. A host of talented artists gather to rehearse and then perform with Bantucrew on stage. The show was held monthly at Freedom Park’s main stage for four years from March 2013 - March 2017. The first of our now quarterly shows was held at Muri Okunola Park in Victoria Island on Friday 16th June. Show starts promptly from 8.00pm - 10.30/11.00pm.
BANTU aka Brotherhood Alliance Navigating Towards Unity is a 13-piece Afro-funk Afro-hip-hop Afro-beat musical collective founded by Nigerian-German brothers AdĂŠ Bantu and Abiodun. The band features multi-instrumentalists and singers who perform as a collective.
Palm Wine Tradition Palm wine is now available at all our shows. As our palm wine is always freshly tapped in Sagamu in the early hours of the morning of each show, this luscious white liquid is guaranteed to be sweet and only mildly intoxicating as it is yet unfermented.
Afropolitan Vibes is co-produced by Ade Bantu and Abby Ogunsanya.
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Join our Facebook page at facebook.com/Afropolitanvibes, Subscribe to our digital magazine at issuu.com/afropolitanvibes and invite your friends next time.
Our palm wine is served the traditional way: the wine is available to buy per gourd (to share with friends/ family) or in individual calabashes. Alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks are also available for purchase at the bar area where we encourage you all to come join us after the show for a drink and a chat.
The next AFROPOLITAN VIBES show will be held on FRIDAY 21st SEPTEMBER 2018
MAGAZINE CREDITS Editor: Lydia Idakula-Sobogun Guest Artists' Profiles: Courtesy of Artists Feature Story: Oris Aigbokhaevbolo Graphic Design: Ayomidotun Freeborn Show Photos: Dohdohndawa Photography Guest Artists' Pictures: Courtesy of Artists
CONTACT US You can email us with your thoughts at info@afropolitanvibes.com. We respond to questions on all of our social media platforms.
We have a limited number of back issues of Afropolitan Vibes magazine. If you would like a copy, please contact us via email 3
Issue 45 | June 2018
Editor's Note Whenever I try to describe music, I fail. Perhaps it is because of its indescribable nature that I enjoy its live expressions more than anything. Working in the music, culture and live event space for the last 11 years has been rewarding and fulfilling but it has also made me very aware that we are losing our cultural icons and sadly without documenting their lives and their history. This needs to change. In this edition of Afropolitan Vibes, we have three brilliant artists and we hope that documenting (even if just a little) part of their artistry will contribute to that change. And speaking about change, have you noticed how fast technology is changing the way we experience music? If you're like me, you're wondering what will be trending when streaming is old school. Welcome to the 49th Edition of Afropolitan Vibes and the 45th issue of the magazine.
Lydia
Issue 45 | June 2018
BRYMO 6
Issue 45 | June 2018
Brymo loves to experiment with different music styles has been described as an Alternative musician, but prefers to call his genre Fusion – of Jazz, Afrobeat, Rock and African folk. Brymo kicked off his independent career with the single titled "Down" which was released on October 1, 2013; a date which coincides with Nigeria’s 50th Independence and his father’s birthday. His third studio album Merchants, Dealers & Slaves was released on October 20, 2013. On 30th October, 2014 Brymo released “Tabula Rasa”, his fourth studio album (his 2nd Independent album). The album hit the Number 1 spot on iTunes Nigeria Chat in less than 16 Hours of release. The album became an instant hit and was rated 10/10 by NotJustOK. The album was dubbed “Album of The Year” and was rated among Africa’s best 10 albums ever. Brymo was announced Africa’s “Songwriter of The Year” at the 2014 All Africa Music Awards. Brymo released his first International album titled “Trance” under TMG. The album is a compilation of songs from M,D&S and Tabula Rasa albums and was released and distributed only in the United States. 7
“Klĭtôrĭs”, Brymo’s fifth studio album was released on the 9th of May 2016. The album garnered instant acceptance and love from across the world. In March of this year, Brymo released his 6th album ‘Oso’ with 11 tracks including the highly talked about ‘Oso’. He believes that his music exists to draw people’s attention to what is important and relevant. He is working on publishing a book next year.
Issue 45 | June 2018
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RIC HASSANI
Issue 45 | June 2018
Ric Hassani's life is an interesting story of self-transformation, searching for unique style and self-confidence.
He sang in classical choir when he was 7 years old. As a young boy, he liked physics, maths, reading and he was exposed to music a lot. His father liked to listen to classical music and highlife records.
Ric Hassani is known for his single "Gentleman", and his debut album "The African Gentleman". The album turned out to be very successful. The video clip for the song "Gentleman" established Ric as a stylish African gentleman in westernstyle clothing with national African prints. Ric Hassani's nationality adds a special taste to his music, since he does not forget about the roots.
Ric graduated primary and secondary school in Port-Harcourt, then he moved to Covenant University for his Bsc. programme. After that, he went to England for his Masters in Energy Economics.
Ric says that his biggest inspiration is movies, he loves to watch movies a lot. Hassani tried to hide his high octave voice under the aggressive shield of rap music. Listening to his last soft songs, it is very difficult to believe that he was a rapper. His rap nickname was Rico Slim. Hassani's new style is devoid of aggressiveness, he represents intelligent and well mannered musical genre.
His music career started in 2013 with the first attempts at playing piano and singing. Eric chose a nickname Hassani from TV series Fresh Prince. Ric defines his genre of music as African-Pop. The singer admitted that he was influenced by such musicians as Sam Smith, Craig David, Chris Brown and his favorite band is Boyz II Men.
In 2015 he released three projects – a compilation album called "African Tour Select Singles 2015" and an acoustic EP tagged "Ric Hassani" and the single "Gentleman". This famous song has beautiful acoustic instrumentals and smooth vocals.
Since 2010 he has been working and living in Lagos. Ric has his own record label Riverland Records. He is a frequent guest at festivals such as Malawi’s Lakes of Stars Festival. 10
Issue 45 | June 2018
Last year Ric Hassani was nominated for three AFRIMMA Awards in such categories as Best R&B/Soul Artist, Video of the Year, and Most Promising Artiste. Hassani’s team ran a web analysis and found out that 65% of listeners and fans of Ric are men from Lagos. His songs can be called “soulful,” with repeating beats and minimal baselines, adorned with masterful acoustics. Ric pours his heart out through his lyrics. The main theme of his songs is love. Ric also has the songs with drums. For example, "Believe" and "Number One". These songs can even be called dance music. He also has successful marriage tracks such as "Marry You". "Gentleman" is a song dedicated to the two most important women in a man’s life, his mother and partner. This song has become his breakout song. 11
Issue 45 | June 2018
ADUNNI & NEFRETITI Adunni & Nefretiti, a multiple award winning singing group based in Lagos, Nigeria. The group was established in 2006 and is comprised of young, talented women with a great flare for raw, undiluted African music.
Issue 45 | June 2018
Adunni & Nefretiti, since its inception, has performed on big and small stages in Africa, Europe and America Including Stadiums, Schools, Arenas, National and Community Parks, Festival Floats, Malls, City Halls, Private Parties, and many more. Their concept is to encourage and promote the development of talents in the women folk through music itself. They believe that they are QUEENS with depth in acculturation of culture and tradition. They project Africa in its totality through music, gracing the stage with their colourful and Afrocentric costumes. They express themselves through different genres of music, which helps them in their desire to foster hope, love, peace and harmony.
Since its inception, Adunni & Nefretiti has composed and produced several amazing songs and has an album titled ‘AYERAYE’ meaning ETERNITY, which is currently on sale.
Adunni & Nefretiti is also very passionate about women empowerment and girl child education and partners with “My Daughter Your Daughter, Inc. (MDYD. Org)” for the betterment of women all around the world.
Their latest single is titled ‘MO MEKO’ meaning TRAINING.
www.olorisupergal.com
Follow on all social media @Olorisupergal
Call: 07060906388 | Email: hello@olorisupergal.com
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Issue 45 | June 2018
Is technology related to pop music activism? By Oris Aigbokhaevbolo. Oris lives in Lagos and tweets as @catchoris Might there be a connection between technology and revolution? Back when Fela released music and was the sound of dissidence, the vinyl—large, round, bulky—was the physical representation of music. Today those same songs can be heard without a device dedicated to the Afrobeat man’s music. Has the quality of activism reduced with the size of the entity holding all of those songs? As an undergrad, I recall rock music was the rage, the genre that dictated who was cool and
who was not. U2’s Joshua Tree and some songs that followed might have had some political purpose in the country of Bono’s birth and his adopted country. To us, it was simply a cool sound, a measure of just how far we had gone from songs and sounds produced in our country. Does it matter then that I spent whole weeks trudging electronic markets seeking a discman that would host songs from U2 and company in my pocket? Whatever revolution kids like myself sought at the time was a personal one, nothing quite on the scale of the national. We had no wars and were now coming of age in a democracy, a space that allowed certain freedoms that we could take for granted. If it was hard to hear Fela on radio, we could as well use YouTube—at least if we were rich at the time.
Issue 45 | June 2018
The rock songs that meant something directly political like The Rolling Stones’ (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction rolled over us. It was released in 1965 anyway. Better were songs like The Calling’s Wherever You Will Go and Train’s Drop of Jupiter—songs that could have been about anything else but were about romance in some way to the mind of a young person. Romance was our own war and our weapons were the CD players in our rooms. A few persons might have wondered how anyone wooed a love interest clutching something as unwieldy as a vinyl under one arm. The division between vinyl and CDs could have been a kind of war.
something as big as a vinyl, then we should have figured that Tuface would be unable to follow through with his planned protest considering how puny a compact disc is—although it is agreed that this surely is a simplification of the terms of engagement between politics and pop music. The simplification does serve a purpose though. There is a question to be asked: has the quality of revolutions devolved along with the size and physicality of our product. If you asked anyone what was Tuface’s best song in his early career, you might be told it is ‘E Be Like Say’, a song that has a verse talking politics and voting. His last great song just might be ‘Raindrops’, a tune wholly about his personal life. Even for our greatest popstar, the size of lyrical ambition has reduced.
The Nigerian music industry was fighting its own war and soon would succeed, at the start of what soon turned solidly contemporary; we had cassettes, devices that one needed to insert a biro through to rewind the tape. Artists from Kennis Music could be had if you got hold of those cassettes. Smaller than a vinyl, cassettes offered a more compatible package for your songs, Remedies, Rasqie, etc went on cassettes you could buy.
I wonder if it means anything that I heard the former song, ‘E Be Like Say’ when I bought Tuface’s sophomore album. As for the latter track, the last time I heard it, there was hardly any physical device given to it: On the same computer where I type this, I went to YouTube and listened as Tuface’s song streamed through my ears. No vinyl, no discman, no cassette— nothing in my hands; just music in my ears.
Tuface would release his songs under Kennis, and his light political fascination, at least compared to Fela’s, would quickly turn out to be a major facet of Tuface’s life. If Fela lost his mother as a consequence of music recorded on 15
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