Hailing from Nigeria’s south, a hotbed of innovative trap music, Eriq and Jaypoppin, known for their investment in immersive music, are staking a claim to Hip hop royalty in Nigeria’s mainstream soundscape. The message conveyed by the duo on their songs is startlingly honest, driven by personal tensions, and cloaked in defiant bars. Grandiose romantic declarations, and acute ranges of emotive singing, all subsumed into a song rap format, also make the cut. Together, the duo creates music to reflect the zeitgeist as JayPoppin’s woozy, melancholic production bounces off Eriq’s flow to appreciable effect as evidenced on the earlier released, MYDWY. On their latest collaboration, Dior, the producer-singer tandem makes a lo-fi dedication to luxury living and the benefits it can bring. As always, money and women remain a central part of the universe they project on the aptly titled song.
The accompanying video directed by Splaash brings both artists’ words to life as they take residency in a mall and lord over operations while flexing their financial muscle before fading into a party scene with countless models twerking as Eriq drawls out his lines.
As a standalone, Dior is a reminder of Eriq’s capability to make boundless music. It is also a reminder of JayPoppin’s skill at recognizing pockets of sounds that reflect the innate desires of what everyone really wants to get up to; and as they hurtle down to their joint upcoming E.P, their foremost desire, to have fun becomes key.