Death is one of the few certainties in life. However, death in 2016 took a theme. It rid us of the great philosopher artists. Johann Cruyff, the father of ‘Total Football’ universally regarded as the most aesthetically pleasing brand of football lost his battle with cancer. Cancer also took the great David Bowie, one of the most inventive pop stars of the last 50 years. Prince, the great multi instrumentalist and musical innovator passed away and showed through his death he had the strongest grasp of protecting intellectual property in the social media age.
Rest in Peace to Muhammad Ali, Leonard Cohen, Phife Dawg, Alan Rickman, Carrie Fisher and all the great ones who passed away in 2016.
Is your fave really an A list artist if they didn’t drop an album this year? The themes were varied too. Rihanna created the most cohesive piece of work of her career while Beyoncé honed in on the Men are trash movement. Drake’s Views was an underwhelming piece of work that did supersonic numbers. Kanye West’s TLOP lacked the zeitgeist shifting impact of his previous work but provided interesting experiments on receiving music today- The album presentation/ fashion show at Madison Square Garden underlined the influence he still holds and the real time update seems of the album was fascinating to observe. Chance the Rapper held his real coming out party with an album filled with the most spiritual of vibes and foreshadowed the growing impact of the young rapper musically, visually and politically. Solange found the type of success that has eluded her with an album centred on the concept of blackness today. Jay Z hadn’t made any appearances in a while and the faux drama that played out over Beyoncé’s Lemonade suggested he might have been in the dog house. His turns on the ‘All the Way Up’ (remix), Drug Dealers Anonymous and I Got the Keys while being far from peak Jay Z suggested that when time’s taken off the business moguling, he’s still got it. Desiigner started the year with a runaway hit proclaiming his “broads in Atlanta” despite having never been there. There were accusations of swagger jacking Future but he found another moderately successful hit with Timmy Turner and an exuberant style of performance. He won our hearts while channelling all uber successful 20 year olds.
The evolution of the Nigerian music space has been a beautiful sight in the eyes of this observer. The lovely Kah Lo earned a Grammy nomination to add to the milestones made by Wizkid, Davido, Tiwa Savage, Ayo Jay, Tekno and Ycee. It’ll be interesting to watch the evolution in 2017.
Verse of the Year: Chance the Rapper absolutely blitzed Ultra Light Beam but this laurel has to go to 2 Chainz who had one of the least obvious stellar years around for his verse on the G.O.O.D Music posse cut, Champions. Tity Boi > Your fave.
2016 saw the Nigerian content space receive an influx of podcasts. WJGB and Loose Talk were the most notorious but as with everything when democratized, there’s a range of good quality offerings which appeal to different subsets of the market. Submarine and a Roach provided an understated combination of social anthropology with humour. The My Africa podcast told the success stories of all our favorite popular culture figures and entrepreneurs.
Donald Glover’s Atlanta was another 2016 hit helping set apart Glover as one of the leading creatives in the world right now.
Perhaps, the theme of the year was #MenAreTrash. Beyonce’s album focused on it. Tiwa Savage’s iconic interview on her marriage was another memorable addition to the Hall of Fame. *cries in Edible Catering* Toke Makinwa’s account of her marriage to Maje Ayida topped it off. Men need to do better in 2017.
Word(s) of the Year; Quavo Knowles coined the word “discriminize” on hit tune, Pick Up the Phone.
In a world where Brexit wins a referendum and Donald J Trump is the U.S President Elect, it’s gotta be Post truth – an adjective defined as ‘relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief’.
J Cole Award for Most J Cole Thing of 2016: An entertainer who’s been mocked all his career for being boring and devoid of personality dedicated a song on his album to the most interesting house chore- folding clothes.
Gimmick of 2016: DJ Khaled’s Snapchat gave the DJ an unprecedented degree of fame but the over rehearsed buzzwords and product placement quickly grew old.