Reminisce, Olamide, and Phyno changed Hip-Hop as we know it with the release of Local Rappers in January 2015. The track, lead single to Reminisce’s second studio album Baba Hafusa, was a New year’s exclusive that few expected. A figurative long kiss goodnight for Nigeria’s already declining English rap scene. It fueled debates both online and otherwise in the months that followed, prompting a flurry of responses that failed to stick. Even now, Olamide’s “Street ti take over, punch line o jawo mo” is certain to bring a smile to passersby if played randomly in public.
Throughout 2015, breakout singles from indigenous rappers and street hop artists helped solidify this statement. None were as prominent as YBNL’s notorious baby-faced rapper Lil Kesh, whose singles: Lyrically, Shoki, Shoki (Remix) featuring label boss Olamide and Davido, Gbese, and Efejoku garnered such acclaim that at The 2015 Headies, most expected him to cart home the Next Rated Award. Instead, Mavin Records’ Reekado Banks took home the trophy and car prize, setting off a chain of events that were fortuitously resolved in less than 24 hours, yet overshadowed Olamide’s three Headies Awards (including Best Collaboration for Local Rapper) and Don Jazzy’s Special Recognition win that night.
Three months later, on March 17, 2016, Lil Kesh released his debut album, Young And Getting It (Y.A.G.I). Coming in at just 4 minutes above the hour mark, with a heavyweight list of features both home and abroad, it ended up as one of the most memorable debut releases of that decade. It wasn’t favoured at Awards ceremonies — 2016 being the incredible year that it was — nor was it special to critics. But ten years is a long time. How do we see Y.A.G.I today?
Beyond nostalgia, in consideration of all that has gone on in indigenous rap/street-hop, Lil Kesh’s career so far, and lessons for the current generation of rappers, how does the album hold up? To answer this question, we reached out to several cultural commentators for their perspective (including a veteran critic whose April 18, 2016, review is sadly lost to time). Enjoy!
Ayomide Tayo, Veteran Culture Critic and Author of the Naija Way Substack
“If my memory serves me correctly, I think I rated the album 3 out of 5 or 3.5 out of 5. The album had pretty strong singles and a few impressive album cuts. I think it was a good album, not necessarily a great one. Lil Kesh still performs the hits on this album, so chunks of it have stood the test of time. YAGI showed that for a new generation, indigenous rap and Street Hop could live outside the shadows of its legends and forefront acts. It’s the link between Olamide’s era and the emergence of Zlatan and Naira Marley.
The major lesson is this: strike when the iron is hot. Too many acts waste precious time dropping their debut albums when momentum is on their side. When you are on a roll, drop the album. Also, after a hit album, you have to do it all over again. The two lessons: maximise your chance and consistency.”
Emmanuel Esomnofu – Culture Journalist and Media Producer
“Lil Kesh was arguably the first street hop artist to give credence to the youth experience. Whereas the likes of Dagrin and Olamide represented a more aspirational, business-coded image, he gave voice to the color and atmosphere of young kids who could have grown up anywhere from Lagos to Ibadan. It’s possible his fame didn’t have a national outlook, but it was so well formed, so well executed, that the part of the world he cornered as his stayed that way. As someone who got into Lil Kesh from the audacious swagger of Lyrically, the onus of YAGI was proving he had pop credentials, and he did that beautifully. You’d definitely perceive some of his influence in the direction an Ayo Maff or TML Vibez takes. YAGI was the street’s equivalent of Superstar, and that is saying something considering the wealth of talent on the scene at the time.”
Abioye Samson Damilare – Music Journalist, Afrocritik
“Honestly, YAGI holds up better as a cultural document than as a conventional album, and I think that distinction matters. When it dropped that year, much of the conversation around it was almost immediately distorted by expectation because you know many people wanted the album to justify the singles, to justify the Headies “snub”, and also to prove that he’s a project artist and that all his hit records are not just a string of fortunate moments. That was a lot of weight to put on a debut. But if you strip all of that away, what you have is a remarkably honest portrait of a young man from the streets of Bariga narrating his own ascension back to the streets that made him.
As a representation of indigenous rap and street pop, it holds up quite well. He also reminded people that he’s a rapper. He delivered that lamba well and showed range especially on Problem Child with Olamide. In fact, there was hardly a party at the time where Efejoku, Ibile, or Semilore wouldn’t cause a mosh pit even till today. As a standalone album, it’s kind of baggy, honestly, but it really is enjoyable.
One major takeaway from YAGI is its unapologetic boldness. Lil Kesh was completely unapologetic in his delivery, the Yoruba, the slang, the street references, none of it was diluted.”
Tomide Marv – Culture Writer, Zikoko
“Looking back at Y.A.G.I, particularly at the time it came out, a lot of artists with an identity adjacent to his, saw him as a motivation. The Y.A.G.I phrase inspired and motivated some people with those promises of light at the end of the tunnel, and the tunnel not being that long anymore because you can see someone like you getting it, and everything just feels so familiar by proximity. It has aged well, but it’s just as forgettable as Olamide’s Lagos Nawa. We remember him (Lil Kesh) for the hits, but how many people have been inspired or make references to him?
One major takeaway from the album is that if you really know what you’re doing and you really have a knack for something, in a short time, with a good team, good finances, and belief in God or destiny, there’s no way you should fail. Look at it: Lil Kesh came in with Lyrically, dropped some other songs that were on everyone’s lips, in barbershops. He blazed features. Performed with Davido at one of those Awards, with Davido giving his chain after they performed Shoki (Remix) together. Think about the impact of Shoki itself. Efejoku. Ise. His life outside music and his approach to things, show him as a different kind of guy who might have just grown over time. He knew what he was capable of and did what he could in a short time. And maybe because of that inconvenience, he just moved away.”
Abdulmuqsit Idowu – Editor, Glitch Africa
“I really think the album has held up really well as a representation of street pop and indigenous rap. Obviously, the project arrived at a time when the blueprint had already been laid by Olamide, who proved that leaning into mother tongue could dominate the Nigerian mainstream. Lil Kesh doubled down on that formula, and with the unforgettable charm of Young Jonn and Pheelz, the album churned out some of the era’s defining street anthems; Shoki, Efejoku, Gbese, and Is It Because I Love You among them.
Beyond the hits, the cultural impact cannot be overstated. The codification of the sonic language of mid-2010s street pop: chant-heavy hooks, Yoruba-forward delivery, and beats engineered for immediate crowd response. In that sense, Y.A.G.I stands as one of the most important hip-hop albums to emerge from Nigeria in the last decade, and he did it all in his first attempts. I dare say it’s classic worthy.
As an album in its own right, it’s harder to evaluate through the lens of conceptual depth or structural cohesion. The Nigerian music ecosystem at the time was overwhelmingly singles-driven; dominance came from hit records, and albums were often curated around those already-proven songs. Y.A.G.I reflects that reality: it functions less as a tightly constructed body of work and more as a collection of culturally potent singles that captured the height of Lil Kesh’s momentum.
The biggest takeaway is how clearly it demonstrated the commercial power of street culture when translated into pop form. The album showed that indigenous slang, street dances, and Yoruba-forward delivery could dominate mainstream Nigerian pop charts without dilution. In many ways, it reinforced a model already championed by Olamide, the authenticity that street language and rhythm could scale nationally. In retrospect, the album helped solidify a pipeline where street-coded music could move directly into mainstream visibility, influencing how later acts approached street pop and indigenous rap in the Nigerian industry.”
Jacob Philemon – Contributing Writer, African Folder and Kwality Kontent
“YAGI is a weird album in that I won’t call it great, but some of my favourite Lil Kesh records are on that album like, Ise, Cause Trouble, and Lyrical. So, it’s kind of a weird relationship. Whenever I peruse Lil Kesh’s discography, some of the essential songs I will play are on there, but for example, in the last year, I haven’t played the album. His music after hasn’t been bad, but it’s not been as impactful as the songs here.
Looking at it in the broader context of street-hop, I don’t know if it can be regarded in the upper echelons. Olamide has a couple of those albums. You can say Lord of Ajasa’s Second Turning By Your Right, Dagrin’s CEO, and 9ice’s Gongo Aso. YAGI was a suitable album for what Lil Kesh wanted to achieve, coming off one of the most electrifying debut runs of hits, but it didn’t move the needle.
The major takeaway is that the album houses his most memorable records, his cult classics.”
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