Top 10 Hottest Acts of 2024
These are the top 10 Nigerian hottest acts of 2024.
The Naija Way presents its second (and final) list of 2024 - 'Top 10 Hottest Acts of 2024.'
As I said in the previous list, streaming statistics are for the mathematicians. How did we come up with this list? The answer is CULTURAL CLOUT and WORK. It's either you have it or not. Let the game begin.
Young Jonn - His tenacity and willingness to play the long game, when many of his peers gave up on promoting their albums after only a few months, ensured he was relevant throughout the year. In the stats-obsessed era of Afrobeats, Young Jonn was hard to miss.
Victony - His debut album 'STUBBORN' is perhaps the most experimental mainstream pop album of the year. Victony dropped an album with enough treats and goodies that will not expire soon.
Seyi Vibez - The Street Don extended his presence with more solo projects in his discography and an army of street generals signed to his vanity record label.
Olamide - The rap veteran still proved that there is still fire in his bones with his 9th album. Hits like 'Hello Habibi,' 'Morowore,' and 'Metaverse' show he is a bankable songwriter to reckon with.
His biggest cultural contribution of the year is blessing everyone with a guest verse, especially with relatively new acts. Olamide is in the third act of his music career and is rightfully giving back to the game that has given him much.
Davido - One-third of the seemingly immortal 'Big 3' might not have dropped an album in 2024, but he flexed enough to have maximum presence. His collaboration with Afrobeat's favourite American cousin Chris Brown, produced 'Hmmm' one of the bonafide bangers this year.
He joined the hit track Yebo by TXC featuring Tony Duardo, LeeMckrazy, and DJ Biza, proving his journey with Amapiano is far from over. His insertion in the South-Eastern driven hit 'Ogechi,' by BoyPee, Hyce & Brown Joel made it bigger and the soundtrack of Nigerian's wedding of the year.
Davido's 'Awuke' single featuring YG Marley (the singer of one of the biggest tunes of 2024) has set him up for an interesting 2025. And oh yeah...he bagged another Grammy nomination.
Kizz Daniel - Perhaps Afrobeats' hottest gunman of 2024 reminded us of that humorous advice in the Western epic, 'The Good, The Bad, The Ugly' - "Shoot, don't talk."
Forgoing new-age Afrobeats devices, Kizz Daniel stubbornly held on to the old-school ethos of dropping bangers with minimal fuss.
His 2023 December smash 'Twe Twe' crossed over into the New Year with an additional (and a viral verse from Davido). His EP, 'TZA' spawned the hits - 'Showa' and 'Too Busy To Be Bae.' He even went to the North to mine a single called, 'Marhaba', and wrapped it up with the collabo with Adekunle Gold - 'Pano, Tona.'
The rules might have changed, but Kizz Daniel continued to produce hits.
Ayra Starr - The avatar for the Gen-Z Nigerian baddie continued to be her invigorating and exciting self. This year, she showed she's a domina, a woman of high rank among the pop elite.
In her coming-of-age moment, she offered one of the best Nigerian pop albums (sorry, best albums period) of the year, displaying a charming vulnerability and resilience by going toe-to-toe with the glitzy uber-pop star Asake, and the reigning lord of Street-Hop in the urban jungle of Lagos - Seyi Vibez on songs.
On the international front, she was a supporting act on Chris Brown and Coldplay's tours. During this hectic schedule, she had time to party with the Patron Saint of Baddies - Rihanna at the Crop Over Festival.
Tems - One of one. Hard to define and impossible to ignore, Tems dropped her anticipated debut album, 'Born in the Wild' which received global accolades and continued her defying streak of international relevance.
She might not be Afrobeats, but Tems continues to prove that success should not be defined or restricted by where one comes from and musical heritage. And with that, she keeps raising the Nigerian flag in the most exclusive spaces.
Her relevance outside the sphere of Nigerian pop music helps stretch the discourse on the acceptability, relevance and viability of other genres.
Asake - Only a few would release their weakest album yet and still have a hell of a year. 'Lungu Boy' might not have been the satisfying end to a trifecta we dreamed of, but the album still had enough gas.
He is a true bonafide star in this era of Afrobeats where stars are hard to come by. His cameo run from Victony to Ayra Starr and the sonic narrative on 'Lungu Boy' proved Asake is not a one-trick pony.
With genre-bending hits like 'Wave' featuring Central Cee and 'Active' featuring Travis Scott, the hood prayer 'MMS' featuring Wizkid, and the owambe banger, 'Fuji Vibe' coupled with a world tour, Asake's cultural clout was still box office heavy in 2024.
Cruising America in Elon Musk's designed Tesla truck or rolling into the O2 Arena in an armoured tank, Asake continued his global ascent.
Rema - In early 2024, the culture began to reject the wooziness of Amapiano's log drums. For a couple of years, Afrobeats lacked originality across the table because of an over-reliance on South Africa's dance genre.
Afrobeats gorged on shakers and log-drum until only a good home meal could fix our gut health.
Like the Gotham billionaire whose alter-ego he channelled on his sophomore effort, Rema saw the bat signal in the sky and answered the call.
The Benin prince dropped 'HEIS,' a conceptual avant-garde album that sparked discussions (and arguments) online.
No matter your stance on the album, you cannot deny that Rema hit a nerve that made even sceptics twitch a bit while his fans stumped to his songs at parties and concerts.
While delivering the best album of 2024 was enough to make Rema stand out from the pack this year, his declaration of music nationalism - Nigeria first before 'Afrobeats to the World'- was a necessary statement to make in an era when some of our biggest stars barely throw a glance at their fans back home.
This made him stand out among his peers - that is if he has peers at this point.
His homecoming concert in Benin showed that international ambitions should not always supersede local relevance.
Rema's claim of turning 'The Big 3' into 'The Big 4' injected a badly needed shot of god-like ambition in a scene filled with complacent and drowsy singers contented with streaming dollars and not greatness.
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