The 21st century brought with it an unprecedented growth for the music industry in Nigeria. Hence, this century has seen a plethora of albums. Good albums. Bad albums. Even ugly albums. We’ve seen it all.
But what I can’t really tell you is whether our 21st century albums are better than that of yesteryears. An argument for another day.

And the criteria I used for choosing these albums are commercial appeal, hit tracks in the albums, lyrical content, quality production, awards/nominations and most especially cultural impact (albums that left certain legacy with classic and evergreen tracks).
So, no long talk, here are the best 20 Naija albums of the 21st century.

NB: This list is 100% arguable, but even at that, it is still a 100% credible and objective one due to the fact that the writer went into in-depth research, using the criteria listed above as benchmark.
So which artistes made this elite list?

(In no particular order)

1. Superstar by Wizkid (2011)

Many people always say that Wizkid came into the music scene and blew up immediately. But that’s not very true, niqqa has been underground hustling for years.

And with Superstar, he blew up like jazz. Don’t Dull, Oluwa Lo Ni, Holla At Your Boy, Tease Me, Pakurumo, Wiz Party, Scatter The Floor, Say My Name…every single track was a hit, like back to back!

Samklef, E-Kelly, Jay Sleek, Shizzi, DJ Klem, Masterkraft, Q-Beats, Banky W and Vebee handled the album’s superb production. The album features guest appearances from Wande Coal,
D’Prince, Banky W and Skales. And it cuts across various music genres like R&B (Gidi Love, Slow Whine, etc), afro pop (Don’t Dull, Tease Me, etc), dancehall, afro beat to mention but a few.

The album sold like sugarcane back in 2011 and oh yeah, Onitsha pirates did a wonderful job too, lol. According to Wikipedia, It is the second best selling album on NotJustOk, a website tagged as the “leader in Nigerian music online”. Moreover, it was the most highly anticipated Nigerian album of 2011.

Awards? Superstar received numerous accolades. The album lived up to its hype in the end as it garnered the Best Album of the Year award at the 2012 Nigeria Entertainment Awards. It was nominated for Album of the Year and Best R&B/Pop Album at The Headies 2012.

And talking about cultural impact, songs like Love My Baby, Holla At Your Boy, Don’t Dull, No Lele, et cetera are living classics and helped to revolutionize the Nigerian music scene.


2. Mushin 2 Mo Hits by Wande Coal (2009)

This one needs no intro. With this album, WC wrote his name with gold in the history books. Classic album.
Evergreen hits like Ololufe, Bumper 2 Bumper, You Bad, Taboo (my most favourite) and so on. Wande stole our hearts.

And did I forget to talk about the magic called Don Jazzy? I didn’t.


3. Grass to Grace by 2face (2006)

2face’s solo sophomore. Album sold over a million copies in its first week of release and won Baba numerous awards including the MOBO award in 2007.
Need I say more?

With everlasting hits like See me so, True love, My Love ft VIP, E Be Like Say, If love is a crime, For Instance, etc., 2face killed it. Not just a Nigerian classic, a worldwide classic.

Lyrical content? Nwanne hapu okwu.


You can read the rest at http://nolongtalk.com/20-best-nigerian-albums-21st-century/