Three years after its release, Asake’s Mr Money With the Vibe is still doing numbers. At the time of press, the track ‘Nzaza’ currently ranks 23rd on Spotify Nigeria’s Top 50 songs, that’s 148 weeks and counting, nearly three years of nonstop streaming for a debut project.

For most artists, a first album fades after its moment. For Asake, it’s really that moment that refuses to fade.

Released September 8, 2022, through YBNL Nation and Empire, Mr Money With the Vibe arrived when the streets already knew Asake’s name. He had already spent months turning singles like Sungba into hits. This 12-track debut built on that momentum, and he managed to do even more.

The project blends Afrobeats, Amapiano, and Fuji influences, creating a sound that can be global yet deeply Nigerian. Songs like Joha, Terminator, and Organise became instant hits, setting the tone for Asake’s larger-than-life run that would define Afrobeats in the mid-2020s.

From its first day out, Mr Money With the Vibe shattered expectations and redefined what a Nigerian debut could do.

Apple Music Africa: The album broke records for the most first-day and most opening three-day streams ever by an African project.Apple Music Nigeria Top 100: For a brief, almost unbelievable stretch, every single track on the album occupied the first 12 spots on the chart. Global Reach: The project reached #1 on Apple Music Album Charts in 26 countries, including six across Europe.

Albums fade, trends change, and new stars rise every quarter. Yet Mr Money With the Vibe remains glued to the top. That consistency says something about both Asake and his audience. For one, the project captured a moment in time, the rise of a new street-pop generation that blurred the lines between amapiano and Yoruba-rooted rhythm. Every track carried Asake’s trademark vocals and a hypnotic tempo that became instantly recognizable across countries.

The Cavemen’s new album Cavy in the City dropped on 31 October, and it feels like a confident return to form for the duo: Kingsley Okorie on bass and Benjamin James on drums. Known for reimagining traditional highlife with live instrumentation and rich nostalgia, the brothers once again build on what they’ve always done best.

The project opens with a warm homage to the legends: Rex Lawson, Celestine Ukwu, Osita Osadebe, and Oliver De Coque, instantly grounding it in the music’s roots. Sonically and visually, the record leans into that vintage spirit. Even the cover art, like Show Dem Camp’s Afrika Magic, nods to old Nigerian poster design with its bold, grainy, and proudly analogue look.

Compared to their last album, Love and Highlife (2024), which experimented more with contemporary sounds and collaborations, this one feels closer in spirit to their debut Roots, which is familiar and more faithful to the traditional highlife rhythms that first made fans fall in love.

Their latest album, Cavy in the City, arrives as a confident extension of what they’ve always done best: traditional highlife music reimagined through live instrumentation, arranged sounds, and nostalgia.

The Cavemen are students of sound. Their live-band approach gives the album a steady rhythm, powered by drums, deep basslines, and proper jazz-style. Here, they lean even deeper into highlife, less genre-blending, more focus. The songs blend into each other in a way that’s good enough, although there’s still a little sonic interruption here and there. Those interruptions are enough to distinguish certain tracks.

Production-wise, Cavy in the City is good. The mixing isn’t glossy or overdone; it’s a sort of warm music that fits a Sunday afternoon gathering more than a club night. The Cavemen aren’t trying to modernise highlife, either. They’re preserving it while giving it motion.

Despite the album title, Cavy in the City doesn’t build a clear concept around urban life or transition. Instead, it feels like a loose collection of moments and moods. The interludes do a lot of the heavy lifting, keeping the flow from track to track.

The standout collaborations work smoothly within that flow. Angelique Kidjo on Keep on Moving adds her signature sound, while Pa Salieu brings structure to Gatekeepers. Neither feature disrupts The Cavemen’s sound; they simply expand it.

When the conversation around Nigerian hip hop legends arises, Olamide Badoo’s name sits firmly at the top of the list.

From his breakout in the early 2010s to becoming a full-blown cultural force, Olamide Gbenga Adedeji has built an empire around authenticity, consistency, and a fearless embrace of his roots.

The YBNL boss is not only responsible for his own catalogue of timeless street anthems, but for discovering and nurturing some of the country’s biggest modern stars, from Lil Kesh to Fireboy DML to Asake.

What sets Olamide apart isn’t just his ear for hits or his dominance on the charts. It is his refusal to conform. In an era when many Nigerian artists switched to English or diluted their sound in search of international recognition, Olamide doubled down on the streets that made him.

During a recent interview with Eddie Kaddi on BBC Radio 1 Extra, Olamide spoke candidly about the philosophy behind his decision to rap in his native language rather than switching to English for global appeal.

His words revealed a sense of pride that goes beyond music.

He said: “Growing up and seeing the likes of Awilo Longomba doing his thing, Brenda Fassi (…). These people never tried to infuse English by force or anything. They were just doing their thing. Key thing is you have to identify your audience. Once you identify your audience, then the rest of the world are going to catch up eventually. So I have to stay true to myself no matter what it is, where it is in this world.”

The 36-year-old star added: “I’m a Naija boy. If I want to wear my Agbada and my Dashiki, I will do it. Let them know what I’m really all about — my heritage, my lineage, my culture, my food. You just have to stay true to yourself and that’s the only way you can become comfortable in life. I’m comfortable in my skin, I’m a Naija guy, Yoruba boy. I’ve got H-factor and all that. And I’m proud about it.”

That statement alone captures the very essence of Olamide’s career, a superb balance of street confidence, cultural loyalty, and an unshakeable belief in himself.

It is the same attitude that has fuelled his rise from Bariga to global acclaim, without ever having to abandon his linguistic or sonic identity.