The New Crop of Nigerian Artists Reject Conformity and Embraces Personal Authenticity.

@adhnok via Instagram

The Nigerian music scene and its accompanying diaspora have, over the years, fallen victim to a somewhat myopic general audience. The prevailing pressures tend towards the homogeneity of mass appeal, demanding artists fit into certain fairly established archetypes both in branding and in sonics. These pressures have been seen to whittle away many artists that came with unique spins on the expectations. Many faded from the limelight due to difficulties resisting those pressures or from an unreceptive market that made them increasingly difficult to market. 

Thankfully, this curse of the recent past could be lifting slowly as the newest generation of upcoming talents are better equipped to combat the homogenizing forces of the market’s expectations. Where before, an artist’s commercial considerations made conforming for mass appeal a near-irresistible proposition, the expanded reach provided by advancements in music consumption technology has literally and figuratively expanded the horizon of possibilities for the burgeoning players in the ecosystem. No longer threatened by the proverbial box, many creators are beginning to look, live, and work outside the box, and some are ignoring its existence altogether. I had the opportunity to speak to two such artists and poke their minds for insight into what makes them tick the way they’ve chosen to. 

First up was Ayokunle Odunsi, known professionally as Adhnok. Younger brother to the more widely known [Bowofoluwa] Odunsi, Adhnok is a relatively new face in the industry. Below is a bit of the conversation that helped me get a sense of this driven young man. 

@adhnok via Instagram

How long have you been making music and what inspired you to get into it?

I have been making music for 3 years now. I got inspired to make music by my family and friends. I grew up around a lot of music. I grew a deep affection for music and listening to it became a crucial part of my day-to-day life such that the moment I found myself around recording equipment, it felt natural to pick up the mic and express. I picked it up in September 2020 and I haven’t dropped it since.

And since you mention family, you know I have to ask how big a hand your brother [Odunsi] played in that?

My brother(s) actually played quite a big role. Some of my earliest memories include my eldest brother turning on the old family sound system and blasting bangers all day. There was a time my sister returned from a long trip and he made sure to play Jazzman Olofin’s “Raise The Roof” (which was her favourite song then) as she was stepping into the house. That taught me that music is important when it comes to making memories and evoking emotions. My immediate elder brother, who is the first renowned artiste from the family, taught me the process of making music is a lifestyle – you can’t make music that doesn’t reflect your day-to-day lifestyle, it will simply not connect. Not with you, not with the fans. He also provided me with the environment to express myself and learn the rudiments of musical artistry and still does till date.

That’s an interesting perspective. Then I guess it’s fair to say that genuineness and authenticity are big things you consider when you’re creating?

100%. I always try to express my current state of mind on the mic without embellishments.

Fair enough. So how would you describe your style or sound to someone who had never heard your work?

Very simple; it’s Pop Music.

I love the simplicity of the answer! Do you ever worry about being boxed in or limited to certain expectations? Do you consider what the audience wants from you when creating or it’s all about expressing what you want?

I believe we are all “slaves to the rhythm.” Whatever I want to create was inspired by someone else’s creation and whatever they expect from me is similar to something they have seen before. We will all meet in the middle and I will certainly cater/appeal to different people at different times.

That’s a really balanced take. Which of your songs would you point to as currently being the trailer or blueprint of what you bring to the table as an artiste?

“Straight From Naija” really, in the sense that it shows my ability to convey nostalgia with novelty, I’m very in tune with my roots in all aspects of my life and that translates into my music, so going forward you’ll get to see me express in new ways, music that has influenced me, from Afrobeats, Hip Hop, RnB and even more recent sub genres.

This means your artistry has a very genre-fluid aspect to it?

Yes, it has been a stumbling block at times but not anymore.

How so?

I used to be indecisive about what songs to release because of the different energies in the music I have lined up.

So, you’ve settled on a strategy now? Or you’re willing to be more free-flowing about it?

My strategy is to be free-flowing.

That’s great. Let’s look at the business side of music. What’s your approach to that side of things? How involved are you in your management? Because the business side is something that frustrates a lot of creatives.

My objective really is to protect the authenticity of the music and brand whilst seeking innovative ways to generate revenue aside from the usual avenues. Initially I was doing it solo, but I realized not only is there no recognition for that, it is also to my detriment. So right now, I’m working with a team of like-minded people mixed with business veterans to help put things in motion.

“It takes a village,” they always say.

It does.

If all goes according to plan, what are some milestones we can hope to see you hit in the years to come? Any features you want to bag? Venues to sell out? Things like that?

I aim to be one of the most bankable brands out of Nigeria and the world at large. I am prepared to do everything that’s required to become that; whatever milestones, shows or features necessary that are in line with my vision and values.

I love it. Last one for now, let’s end with a bit of a cliché. What advice or encouragement would you give to the people coming up and looking up to you?

Keep God close and always remember that you’re the only person that can change your life.

My time spent speaking to him revealed a young man that has a very clear understanding of what he is trying to do with his music. Guided by life experiences and personal convictions, Adhnok seems intent on imbuing his music with a large degree of emotional and experiential authenticity. He believes strongly in the connective and expressive power of music and intends to leverage those to build himself into a commercially successful brand. Where Adhnok balks at convention is in his non-committal approach to genre and style. He projects an ability to switch and adapt his style at any given moment to whatever best serves the times, themes, emotions, and intention of the given moment. While there is an understanding that such chameleonic tendencies may rub more straight-laced fans the wrong way, there is also a show of faith in the quality of the outcomes to eventually win listeners over.

After this revealing conversation, I got to sit down with Kondé Oko, a multimedia artist and the creative lead at Nigerian Funk. The marked difference in his discipline and background led to a wildly different take on artistry and he was a pleasure to suss out as seen in the excerpt of our conversation below. He struck me as a thinker, an artist near its perfect form; driven by the desire to create no matter the cost and irrespective of the outcome. Our long and wordy chat pointed to a mind that is probably as agitated with planning as it is in execution. And it also revealed to me someone who, even beyond the confines of their own art, is constantly engaged, interacting with theory and discourse for its own sake and leaning on intellectuality as a constituent of creativity. Sadly, text cannot fully capture the vibrance and personality in the way Kondé converses but I think his unique perspective and thought process shines through regardless. 

@kondeoko on Instagram

I’ll start with a very cliché question but it’s cliché because it works. How long have you been making music and how’d you even get into it in the first place?

This question is always an interesting one for me. I’ve been making music since maybe 2015/2016 but music was a natural progression of other things. I’m a writer. Since we started doing creative writing in primary school, that’s been me. So, in the process of writing and finding new ways to write, like poetry, stories, etc. I discovered rap music and the writer in me is amazed! I don’t think there’s any other genre of music that requires such a solid pen game. And so, I was drawn into rap music. So, for me, it wasn’t one of those things about how I grew up in the church or the people around me. I couldn’t tell you what music my parents enjoyed listening to outside of the classics. For me, it really was just, I’m a writer and here is a really interesting way to write.

Wow this is interesting. So the music came as an extension of your writing and then the other things came as necessary additions? How would you say this unique origin affects your process and output in terms of setting it apart from the mainstream? Is it evident to you where your process deviates from how things are typically done?

It’s funny because these are questions that I’m very much in the process of re-addressing and re-answering for myself because I think it’s been changing recently. For me, the justification is in the doing. I’m not making music because “Oh, this will be a hit” or whatever that is. It’s more, “I have this idea that I think could make for a really good song. Okay, we’ve executed the idea, what else?” And I think for people who have a more career-driven approach to making music (i.e., making music is what you want to do as your main source of livelihood), there are other pieces to their puzzle that I either don’t care for or I don’t even consider them because they don’t come to mind. Things like; who to plug music to, how to get on playlists, promo, all these things to garner visibility. They are not inherently part of my process, they’re more of an antecedent. And so that’s the main deviation I see in my process and my output. 

Between let’s say 2016 and 2020, I put out like 15 tapes. Apart from maybe 2 or 3, the rest of them are entirely self-actualized. I produced them, did all the engineering, did the cover art, it was all me. And I’m not saying it to brag but that’s how my mind is. It goes, “okay, we have this thing we’re going to do. How do we do it?” At no point am I thinking of who to bring in to make it bigger and that could be a blessing or curse depending on how you look at it. But yeah, for me the main deviation is that I am satisfied with what I do, while to some people, that’s not enough.  

I also think I am a bit more concerned about the internals of the work. So, I will sacrifice the “better” song for a more complete creative vision. A perfect example of this is a song on my last project, FLYKON, and in the first half of the song, it’s a remix of the introductory skit of Edondemadt by Sauce Kid. Then it goes into this very woozy EDM number in the second half. That first half is like a minute long. A lot of people would either have put that as a separate song or just taken it off but for me, that’s what makes the song what it is. It’s these small differences. My focus is less on what people want to hear and more of what I want to do.

Your mind is interesting! Considering that it sounds like the self actualisation arises from the doing, are there any challenges you face that you feel are unique to this approach? What do creative blocks do to your process? Or scenarios where things aren’t quite coming together right?

This might sound crazy, but I feel like creative blocks come from thinking too big. I have a tendency to envision the grandest thing possible and then start working down from there whereas it might be more helpful to my process (and it has been proven to be) if I treat the things individually but allow a part of me to roam, if that makes sense. So, for example, if I’m working on a project, instead of thinking from the beginning that the visuals need to match the music, what’s better is thinking that the visuals should add additional context to the music. 

And with the way I structure my work, I see myself as a media house. So, there’s no world where we’d have a project and the same people working on the music would be working on the visuals. That doesn’t happen. Your engineers engineer, your designers design, and you leave them to do those things. So, I try not to bring the engineer me into designer questions or the producer me into rapper questions. It’s a lot of fragmentation and understanding that the fragmentation allows for better expression as I’m no longer trying to be a generalist but instead, I’m allowing the specialists within me to do what they do.

@kondeoko on Instagram

The fragmentation makes a lot of sense. So, since you’re not really career driven, how would you say you orient the work you do? Is it possible that one day there’ll be no push to make music anymore or you think there’ll always be something to try, a sound to test, an idea to explore and perhaps that will provide a continuous creative thrust?

This is another interesting question that I’m still answering for myself. I think there’s always going to be an idea to go after, in the way a researcher would always have questions to ask. That’s how I approach it. Even beyond that, I think there’s a lot of room for institutionalizing music, and rap music. We’re going into the fun stuff now.

There’s a Lupe Fiasco lecture, maybe at MIT or something but it’s essentially a Rap 101 lecture. He talks about how every other form and style of music, there’s an institution for it. You can go to music school and study jazz, or classical, blues, funk, etc. you can go and get trained on how to do it. But you can’t do it with rap music; there’s no class you can take. And I feel the same way but for a more specific kind of creation, at least within the context of me being a Nigerian creative in the ways that I am.

For instance, I have songs where I’m putting Fuji stuff with EDM and Hip-Hop affectations. And that’s not necessarily new. Essentially, that’s the sound that a lot of initial Afrobeat is made of. It’s that or a slight RnB bent or a Reggae/Dancehall slant here or there. However, as far as applying it to a rap sense and the ways that I’m trying to make it contemporary, I think there’s room to create spaces for other artistes to begin to think this way. In essence, it’s not just about what you’re making but also about how you are adding to the larger conversation that you are now invariably a part of. 

I think Kerry James Marshall, a black-American artist, once said in a lecture that “If you don’t study the history of your craft, there are two likely outcomes. You’re going to be redundant or you’re going to be repetitive.” Whichever is worse depends on who you are but if you don’t know what’s been done, you don’t know how to then apply your uniqueness to contribute to moving the conversation forward versus rehashing already trodden points. So, for me, if there’s anything I want to keep doing with music, it would be that. How can I help push the conversations or help us have the conversations.

So, you’re not just trying to sit in the space with your music but you’re trying to stir it. Provoke thought, inspire discourse, propel the narrative. That’s very inspiring in itself. Let me wrap up with a couple more clichés. Where do you see yourself and your work in the next five years? Are there any milestones you hope to have hit? And what would you say to the young cats out there with their eyes on you thinking, “Damn I wanna be like that dude?”

Exactly. I think there has to be a balance of practitioners and theorists. Both of those positions are as necessary for the other as can be. For every Rema, there’s a Sauce Kid. 

Within the next five years, I want to have done something with Adult Swim. I want to have performed or done something with AfroPunk. And I want either a production credit or a verse on something Lagbaja is working on. I don’t even know what that looks like but Lagbaja and I’s paths need to cross. So, if I’m casting my net out like that, that’s what I’ll say. Finally, as for people looking my way, whatever you think I have, it’s God. That has nothing to do with me or you. But whatever I do is a by-product of time, that’s really it. Everything that I can do comfortably now is because I put in the time to learn, not because I have any special skill sets. And time is a privilege for sure. So, if you have time and you have that privilege, then it’s already there. You just need to go and do it, essentially.