UY SCUTI: Olamide’s transition from Hip Hop to Afrobeats

Nigerian music industry has seen a significant growth in the last 10 years, as the industry grew, the flag bearers of the industry grew along with it. Amongst these artistes is Olamide, he is one of the most consistent and hardworking Nigerian artistes in the last 10 years, dishing out good music ranging in different genres of music.

Olamide started his music journey as a rapper, following the footsteps of the late “indigenous” rapper “Dagrin”, he rapped in his native language “yoruba”, grew his audience and cemented his love in the heart of the audience he garnered with his music.

Being an artiste that raps in Yoruba comes at a slight disadvantage, it limits the reach of the artiste due to the language barrier, but for an artiste as good as Olamide, language barrier got nothing on him, his music spread across different regions in Nigeria and all over Africa. Music is a universal language, when the music is good, the heart takes the listening power from the ears.

Olamide became a household name on the street, he came up with slangs and songs the street could relate to, then he gradually grew from being just a rapper to being a singer. For someone that understands what it’s like to be on the street, it’s no surprise that he decided to make groovy music to make people shake their bodies.

In a country where rappers struggled to stay in the limelight, Olamide found a way to stay relevant with his contemporaries without missing any year in view.

He is not just a household name on the street, he has influenced and inspired a whole lot of young artistes to follow his footsteps. People referred to him as “indigenous” artiste because he raps and sings in his native language but for an artiste that maintained high level of consistency and success like his contemporaries in the industry, he has been too good and too big to be boxed in that space, he has won top categories at different Nigerian awards shows. However, his cultural impact is one of the most visible cultural impacts in Nigerian music industry.

Over the years Olamide has evolved as an artiste, with 11 projects to his name, he has explored different sounds and thrived at it. He started as a rapper, dwelled into street hop and now he has stepped his foot into mid tempo sound. Evolving from Nigerian hip hop to full time Afrobeats music is something most people didn’t see coming from Olamide, but if people paid attention to his growth, what Olamide did on his newly released album “UY SCUTI” wouldn’t be a surprise, he did a test run on a track “Melo Melo” off “Eyan Mayweather” album which dropped in 2015, a song filled with calm melody and great production quality. In addition, he also released a song that fell in the range of 80-115bpm titled “Spirit” in 2019. He has been knocking at the door to mid tempo sound, the surprise should be what took him so long to drop an album full of songs with 80-120bpm, I guess he needed time to perfect his newly embraced sound. Early last year, he dropped an EP “999”, which was the combination of the Olamide we used to know and the Olamide that was about to be unleashed. He introduced his new sound to his fans, sang in yoruba, rapped and added some street slangs. The EP was more like a full time introduction to the new Olamide but he had to combine it with his old sound to make his fans feel at home. During the last quarter of the year “2020”, he announced he would be releasing an album titled “Carpe Diem”, he dropped a mid tempo song titled “Green light” as the lead single, and kept the party jams till the release of the album, which was a bold move from him. When you listen to Carpe Diem, you would know Olamide was up to something and he is done testing the water. That was the last phase of his transition from his old sound to the new Olamide that just got unleashed.

Nigeria music industry has changed direction, party jams are gradually losing values, mid tempo sound is making its way into the industry and it’s certainly here to stay. With the attention on Afrobeats music, and the success the artistes that explored this sound have experienced, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that an artiste of Olamide caliber decided to dwell into it as well.

As Nigerian music industry grew, Nigerian artistes started making moves to attract international audiences, Olamide signed a deal with Empire music and it’s the perfect catalyst he needs to push his music further in the international market. His last album “Carpe Diem” didn’t get the right promotion it should have gotten last year but Empire is doing a better job with his new album “UY

SCUTI”, we can see the billboard placements across different cities in UK and US, the album is bound to extend Olamide’s reach and introduce his music to new audiences.

Afrobeats as a genre of music is too big and too rich for only Africa to consume, it is rich enough to feed the ears of the whole world. Olamide has been one of the dominant forces in Nigerian music industry, it’s high time the world felt the full extent of his talent and “UY SCUTI” is the perfect album to make that happen.