Throwback Record Of The Week: Tuck Tyght – Now Official (2003)

Anyone who knows PH City will confidently tell you that it’s packed with a lot of talent. And while Burna Boy is the city's biggest artiste of all time, there were those who put the town on the map many years before him.

I’m talking about the legendary PH-based hip hop collective known as Tuck Tyght!

Made up of heavy spitters like Double K, Mack Gee, Billy Dolomite, Andre Blaze, Damage, Double V, Lyrikal, Frank D'Nero, and M-Lee, you wouldn’t be out of place if you called them the Nigerian version of the Wu Tang Clan.

Tuck Tyght was founded by Henry Diete Spiff, who seemed to have been fed up with the watered-down lyrics of earlier rap groups such as Specimen A and Tropical Breed, and decided to “RZA” up his squad to create the hardest rap album PH City had ever heard.

That album was none other than Tuck Tyght's “Now Official”.

I vividly remember buying this album around 2003/2004 for exactly N500. This was a decent sum for a CD at that time, considering that artistes as big as Tony Tetuila were selling theirs for as low as N150.

At the end, the purchase was worth every kobo, and even more!

Besides the high-quality music, the packaging was actually “Yankee standard”. It had a hard see-through plastic case, foldable leaflets, pictures from their studio sessions, complete with production and recording credits, as well as a list of upcoming solo releases.

As for the music, one of the most popular cuts on the album was Lyrikal's “Learn Something”, where he took shots at both Specimen A and Tropical Breed.

Double K also took a solo cut on the project – Katazztrophy (hope I got that right). If you know K, then you know that joint was hard!

On the softer side, the party single “Don’t Try To” tells the ultimate break-up story, and it was a favorite among my beloved UNIPORT and UST girls at the time.

I lost my copy in a flood some years ago, and the album is nowhere to be found on the internet. So if anyone out there has a hard copy, please do the younger generation of Nigerian rappers a favor and upload.

I couldn’t even find the album cover online, so I had to settle for this legendary group picture.

If my memory serves me right, I’d say this photo was taken just outside the Tuck Tyght Studio in Henry’s compound at Old G.R.A, Port Harcourt.

I visited there a few times with Mack Gee and I recognize the building. It’s been ages though.

Kindly share this article, someone out there might still have a hard copy.

Salute to Tuck Tyght, the group that gave Port Harcourt hip hop a recognizable face!

Written By Amechi Okoli @amechi_okoli

Do you by any chance got a link to their debut album?

Beautiful album, was around when the album was out officially
Here is a photo pic of the album