NSG no One Direction
An audit of the music scene will underscore a demise in the collective. They haven’t completely disappeared but they have become increasingly rare. Save for the likes of BTS, the Korean boy band with one of the world’s largest fan bases, boy bands are almost no longer a thing, especially those with proportionately shared talent and spotlight. However, the British six-man group, NSG is bucking the trend as that rare collective in the Afrobeats genre. Comprised of 3 Nigerian and 3 Ghananian descendants in Kruddz, Mxjib, Mojo, OGD, Dope, and Papii Abz, the group have garnered over 100M views on YouTube with million markers such as OT Bop and Trust Issues to their name.
In the of Summer 2019, the group took off globally when Wizkid pulled them up on stage at the Ends Festival, Drake at his highly anticipated Assassination Vacation Tour run at the 02 Arena and Future, on his stage at Wireless Festival. Building on these super feats, they encapsulate the fundamentals of their artistry this month on their eighteen track tape, Roots, a melodic juxtaposition of culture and passion haloed by rich sounds produced by the likes of Legendury Beatz and Jae5 and with assists from fellow culture shifters, including Chip and Tion Wayne. Opening with the Reggae powered Political Badness, an aggressive fusion of Dancehall instrumentals with Randy Valentine’s interpolation of Rastafarian tinged lyrics, the group doesn’t hesitate to introduce us to the soul of the project right at the start, a move that gives the project its long-lasting flavor.
Political Badness, an ode to their come up, doesn’t set the tone for the rest of the project as the accompanying tracks come with their own uniqueness, like the drowsy acoustic-driven Lupita, which is a lusty manifesto dedicated to the track’s muse. Right in the middle, they turn their focus to a more experimental sound produced by Levi Lennox which gives way to the Afropop powered Drunk Guitar. Among others, rich in sound and soul are Samba, titular Roots and the Tion Wayne assisted Options.
Leaders of the next wave, Roots signifies NSG’s adulation of their heritage spanning Africa and the Caribbean. With the project, they prove that not only is their sound unique, but the existence of six men as a collective in no way limits an equal representation of personality but actually gives way to a kaleidoscope of sounds.