Show Dem Camp’s “AFRIKA MAGIK” Promises The Magic of Old Nollywood 

The rollout for AFRIKA MAGIK, the cheeky, nostalgia-addled title of Show Dem Camp’s 12th studio album, really began in earnest when they posted on X a recreation of a popular meme from a scene in an old Nollywood film in which, in a show of smoldering machismo, actors Jim Iyke and Mike Ezuronye douse each other with copious smoke, their lips inches apart. The frisson of watching these two guys calmly exhale smoke from their lips and noses and skirt the knife-edge between a kiss and close contact while evincing an undeniable masculine pomp, is so intense and satisfying. It’s what has vaulted this 15-second clip into the canon of greatest Nigerian memes, up there with the Aki and Paw Paw, Mr Ibu and Sam Loco clips we all love, and that one Patience Ozokwor meme. 

The Show Dem Camp recreation however pales in comparison. Their version is half as long as the original and finds Tec and Ghost at a considerable distance from each other; the plumes of smoke from their mouths are angled away from each other rather than towards each other. The scene is generally undercut by their failure to fully commit to the act. The clip, which has now been viewed some 4.8 million times, triggered a welter of comments criticizing their inadequate performance. 

And yet as the days wore on and the album inched closer I found myself wondering if this new album would live up to Show Dem Camp’s lofty aspirations. In an interview with Elsie Not Elise, Ghost—one half of the duo—had defined it as an attempt to move past their Clone Wars and Palmwine Music series, instead ushering a new cinematic universe in which the sizzling drama of old-time Nollywood takes on new life. Would this be another pallid attempt at mining nostalgia or would the duo, who have led the Nigerian music alternative scene from the front for well over a decade deliver on the album’s ambitions?

AFRIKA MAGIK strikes an aspirational note with its opening track Libations, a reflective ballad in which, over elegiac pianos, the duo steep themselves in self-adulation. In the roughly two minutes the song runs for, they insert themselves into a curated pantheon of greats including Sunny Ade, Oliver de Coque, Victor Olaiya (in ’83), Victor Uwaifo, William Onyeabor, 2 face (in ’08.) Self-aggrandizement can often come off as gauche or vain but hearing Tec and Ghost toot their horns elicits no such response. If anything, it sounds just right: their towering achievements and the coolness with which they trot out their eulogies have earned them the pass. 

Every Show Dem Camp album functions as an intimate gathering. With their close-knit contingent of fans, vicariously. But more immediately with their collaborators. In every album, recurring artists are joined by a fresh cast of collaborators and together they supply the album with a dimensionality that would otherwise be difficult to achieve. I often joke that for every young artist, an appearance on a Show Dem Camp album is an honor on par with a Headies award, maybe even higher. This might seem a stretch until you consider the dazzling cast of artists they’ve helped spotlight:  Tems, Odunsi (The Engine), Falana, Ladipoe, The Cavemen, the list goes on. 

In AFRIKA MAGIK old faces—BOJ, Tems, Moelogo, and Ajebutter 22—are joined by debutantes Taves, Winny, Lusanda, Moonchild, Mereba, LULU, and Joey B (They’ve previously worked together but not on a Show Dem Camp album.) The old timers evince canny maturity, delivering competent verses that furnish the album with heft. In You Get Me,  Tems dazzles with a resplendent verse that evokes the feeling of a fuzzy romcom. But here the focus is not so much on innovation as it is on getting the job done. BOJ, Moelogo, and Ajebutter 22 are similarly efficient on Normally, Lifestyle, and Small Chops and Champers respectively. 

But the moments of magic—pun very much intended—are supplied by the newcomers. Pressure featuring Taves is arguably the best track on the project. Here, over a resplendent Spax production, Taves supplies an amorphous hook about staying cool despite life’s often turbulent vagaries. Show Dem Camp, in turn, fills out the details of the story by way of narrative-laden verses. Winny’s performance on Pele is brilliantly glacial. Over a soft Reggae production, she affects the nonchalant lover archetype, singing: “If it ever feels one-sided, baby pele.” Ouch! If you’re going through a heartbreak or are negotiating a fraught emotional situation you might want to sit this one out. 

By the time you traipse through the 17 tracks of AFRIKA MAGIK, you would have immersed yourself in a gorgeously produced and brilliantly written compendium of songs mostly exploring the many shades of romance. And yet, you’d also be left with a gnawing sense of dissatisfaction. The album promises to channel the whimsy and charisma that permanently emblazoned old Nollywood films in all our hearts. But all of this is all but absent on the project, save for a handful of skits in which a disembodied voice blithely alludes to old Nollywood. The result is a project in which the purported theme feels like an afterthought, a cosmetic treatment hurriedly tacked on after the project was practically complete.