Two years after, ‘Woju’ has taken Nigerian music down another rabbit hole

From the first day I saw Kiss Daniel, I knew he was special.

Young and pretty, with a face that registers at first sight and a signature calming aura, he was spotting a white T-Shirt. The singer was slated as an opening act at the weekly show, Industry Nite, which held at Spice Route, Victoria Island, Lagos. This was November 2014, two months after the singer released the song online. He was to open for Timaya, on the night.

Kiss Daniel hit the stage, and had to beg for a few minutes to get a prolific DJ Spinall to cue in his song. Spinall did after a minute, and abruptly ended the song when the singer was just about to say ‘G-Worldwide’.

There was a mild embarrassment on Kiss Daniel’s face as he tried to mask it with a smile. His performance was explosive, as the singer showed stage-craft and showmanship that far belied his ‘upcoming tag’.

He exuded confidence and swagger as he moved through the hall, engaging everyone, and generally making his face known. The people from G-Worldwide were present, with a production team that were generating content for promotional purposes.

Two months later, ‘Woju’ was a hit, and just over a year later he has an album out, commanded a decent crowd at his launch concert, and has become a household name. Kiss Daniel was no longer the singer with a prayer and plenty of financial backing. He was everyone’s singer. The boy had the charm of a snake, more like a combination between Usher and a younger Wizkid. He came off as humble, didn’t wear money, but concentrated a lot of his work on pushing his materials.

It’s 2017 today, and March makes it two years since Kiss Daniel’s ‘Woju’ successfully spread to all over Nigeria, and the repercussions of its success has taken Nigerian music down another rabbit hole. Our pop music creativity owes much of its current state to Kiss Daniel’s work.

‘Woju’ was new when it came into the market with its mid-tempo template. Where other hit songs were crafted for high-octane night clubs, the singer got successful from introducing the mid-tempo vibe. That template also gave Nigeria ‘Laye’, and then ‘

Tekno was the first to take it up. In 2014, the singer had relative success with the high-bpm ‘Dance’, which put him finally in the conversations and playlists of DJs and radio. But it wasn’t until he dropped ‘Duro’, that things picked. Taking a cue from Kiss Daniel’s success, Tekno was relentless in his pursuit of success via that template. But he added extra flavor by utilizing extremely senseless but catchy punchlines. A good example is, "Your beauty don make me realize say Nepa e don bring light."

That formula hit its peak with the song ‘Pana’, and everyone got the vibe locked down.

Tekno and Kiss Daniel’s success began to change radio. The best songs in the country became mid-tempo, and every other artist followed suit. The face of popular music had changed. Phyno, Olamide, and the others who have survived the shifting dynamic, adapted their craft to it. ‘Connect’ and ‘Fada Fada’ by Phyno are a great examples.

And then came Mr Eazi. In 2016, Eazi, capitalized on the desire of Nigerians to continue enjoying the vibe. Utilizing the same tempo, albeit with a distinct Ghanaian twist, he snuck into Nigeria at the start of the year. And by the time December rolled in, he was already a star who was headlining his personal concerts, and winning the juiciest awards.

Runtown took a leaf from the Mr Eazi’s definition of the mid-tempo vibe, and ‘Mad Over You’ was born. And while it is still 2017’s biggest single so far, it is being given a good run for its money by Davido, who consulted Tekno for ‘If’.

‘If’ is a unique creation because has the skeletal Ghanaian production from Tekno, which worked wonders on ‘Pana’, and tied it up with catchy songwriting. The result of that amalgamation, has resulted in another great single. The biggest songs in the market have followed that formula, and at the moment, anyone with clout and enough promotional money is aiming for it.

Nigerian pop music is dependent on sampling and extraction of multiple ideas to create new content. All of these songs are intertwined creatively, because they drew elements from each  other to come into being. But the source material is still Kiss Daniel’s ‘Woju’.

No one knows how long this will last, or who will be left standing when the bubble bursts, but right now, it is still an effective template to make pop music in Nigeria. And Kiss Daniel, who rarely gets enough credit due to his unassuming nature, began the movement two years ago with ‘Woju’.