Pop artists are waking up to the power of EPs

When you think of some of the biggest names in the lands, and their bodies of work, your mind quickly moves to the word “album.”

We are obsessed with albums in Nigeria. All of our artists would rather go 4 years without a project, than release small chunks of works in other formats. That’s why the discography of your biggest artists look a little light when compared with their counterparts in the UK and US.

Take Meek Mill for example. In June 2015, he dropped his sophomore studio album, “Dreams Worth More Than Money.” In 2016 January, he came through with two EPs titled “4/4” and “4/4 Part 2”. In October of the same year, He had released a mixtape, “Dreamchasers 4”, and 2017 will see him drop one mixtape and an album. If everything goes according to plan, that will be 6 projects in just two years. Two years!

But Nigerian artists don’t know how to hack the system, they record music and leave them hanging on hard drives, rotting away with no one to listen them and connect to the art. The unreleased music stays unreleased, while they lie fallow, with nothing exciting going for them.

But in the past few years, mainstream artists are beginning to take advantage of emerging technology and content distribution to package smaller bodies of work. Not everyone is ready for an album, but what they have in hand, they are introducing to fans as EPs.

In 2017 two high profile artists are looking to drop EPs for their fans; Iyanya and Ycee.

Iyanya has already dropped his first ever EP “Signature”. The project marked his first release in Mavin Records, and it is currently being promoted. In previous years, he would have he would have held on these songs, and waited until there’s enough material for an album. But it’s 2017 and he has gone the EP route.

Ycee has an EP on the horizon. 2 years after he had his breakthrough, he is dropping his project, an EP. It is titled “First Wave”, and will soon be made public. Already, Nigeria has enjoyed and critiqued Mr Eazi’s “Life Is Eazi, Vol.1: Accra To Lagos."

There artists are part of the current wave of mainstream acts who are beginning to realize that the traditional ways of releasing music are becoming obsolete, and attention spans are short. An EP will hit the sweet spot between getting your fans hooked,, just before they get tired of listening to a project.

While these three projects are minute when placed in the center of the industry big picture, they represent proofs of a growing switch in mentality. And it’s good for Nigeria.