We Nigerians always hail our R & B artist as having rich lyrical content, but we don’t listen to them so much;  we would rather dance with Mr. Lova lova or join 2 face to wait for Amaka. Praiz, Simi , Johnny Drille and Banky W do such beautiful things with their voices but they are not gathering as much hits as the afro pop artist in Nigeria.

But in recent times, Simi seems to be winning somehow.

Unlike most of her peers in the R & B genre her music has gone mainstream. That explains why she was one of the biggest winners at the 2018 headies award: Album of the year, Best recording of the year and  Best  R & B single. She beat A listers like Tiwa Savage and Banky W in  key award categories. She is not just dominating the R& B space, her sounds resonate with millions of Nigerians; here’s why

She sounds very local- like she could be talking to her Yoruba friend.

Her voice is beautiful yes, but she sounds very raw and unrefined, typical Lagos street Lingo
Simi’s new music video “I don care” is a combination of Yoruba and Pidgin English- check out some of the sound bites below:

“E get as e dey do me, I carry your matter for my head”
“I go follow you as u dey follow me and they gats know na you and me”
“You give me dollars, you know dey tire yemi my lover”
“Anybody wey mind, wetin dem they find oo”

She tells such beautiful Nigerian stories  through her songs.

Like in Owambe; the video fully caputured the true story of Nigerian wedding guests in a hilarious way.

Tell me a Nigerian woman that have never been asked  Jamb questions

“Have I met you before”  Is your brother Paul “Does your dad play football” “Did you go to my school”….Ma bi mi ni jamb question, I no be dundi I no be fool…

But the Best of Simi (in my opinion) is  Amasiko , the song is good, but the video would literally bring you to tears. It captures very real Nigeria struggle with four stories (watch below)

Johnny Drille  and Banky W tends to sound very English, they sing with so much finesse, to international standards if you will. They can pass for  Usher, Boys to Men, Treys songs- Not a bad thing right?  But Nigerians aint got time for that.

Recent releases by Johnny Drille   “Hallelujah”  which featured Simi is struggling to amass views on line. Banky W featuring Nonso – “Running after you” is another classic  struggling to hit even 100,000 views on YouTube inspite of the fact Banky featured most of the top celeb couples  in Nigeria like Toolz and Tunde.

Irrespective, there is hope for R & B in Nigeria – Miss Joromi has proved that again & again.