Reggae In Nigeria.

[fadel diagne]

hi there!
how about the now disbanded cloud 7 with this beautiful hit back in the 70's:"beautiful woman" or "groovy lady" or the single"only jah can help us"that is featured on "black starliner:reggae from africa"they used to be very popular in wes africa alongside sonny okusuns back in the 70's
fadel

[afrikola]

I have just come across a great Nigerian artist lately,called Chief Checker.He has a track on the excellent Nigeria Lagos Jump compilation,called Ire Africa.Gets big time looping on my system.It comes from an album recorded in London in the 70's The Sound of Chief Checker where he rides several Augustus Pablo cuts.I would be interested if someone has heard this track and could identify the rhythm.

[Sang Q]

Lady DJ: Majek Fashek's band as a solo artist is called "The Prisoners Of Conscience". The leader of "The Mandators" is Victor Essiet. Apparently Majek was a member of an earlier Reggae band, "Jastix", that used to tour around with "The Mandators" in the mid-80's but Majek wasn't a member of that group.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majek_Fashek

~Respect & Bless!

[Shinan Irie]

Yes Ras_Gaks

Reggae in Nigeria has been going on for a good while now. It had its roots in the 70's / 80's reggae revolution in England where a good number of Nigerians living in the UK, were quickly assimilated into the carribean culture of which reggae was the driving force.

At every opportunity, they sent reggae records home and this helped to introduce the indigenous Nigerians to reggae music. Also the official stand of the Nigerian government at that time to liberate every African country still under the shackles of colonialism and apartheid,helped in no small measure as songs of African Liberation by reggae artists became common on Nigerian radio stations.

On the local scene, the first Nigerian reagge artist to bust was Bassey Black with a tune called "Mr DJ". Then came the likes of Sonny Okosuns, Terra Kota, TLZ-Too Low for Zero, The Mandators,Ras Kimono, Majek Fashek, Jahstix, Blakky, Danny Wilsonetc
By the mid 80's the influence of british reggae had grown so much that there were now sound systems operating in Lagos. Notable amongst them were Champion Bubblers owned by Daddy C with the Late Great Ricky Zansky as the operator. The DJ line Up was Ras Kimono, Pupa Leslie, Papa Dee, Brownman, Lecturer aka Buchi -now Nigeria's No1 Reggae Gospel Artiste.
Their main rivals at the time was Mongruv Sound (later Realitee) owned by University student Daddy Pfizer (still playing reggae on EKO FM 89.75 on Tuesdays between 7-8pm www.radiolagosekofm.net)
The DJ's were Ital Youth, Baddie Boma, Sister Pat, Irie and the selector was was Yellow bwoy.
Today reggae is not as BIG as it was in the 80's in Nigeria. But a lot these guys still hang out together do what they used to love doing.
There are talks of a relaunch of Champion Bubblers. we can only wait and see.

[ras_gaks]

Bless Up Shinan Irie, (tu) [when you register, pls link up via pm.]

[ton1]

oops, i have missed this post.

Actually, I'm really interested in reggae played by african people in the 70's and early 80's so you're post, Shinan Irie, is very interesting, I love that fresh sound with african influences. I have an LP by the Mandators that I got some weeks ago but didn't give it a spin until now. Will listen to it this evening.

Also, I'm planning to share some reggae tracks that I've found on african music LP...

Recently, I discovered few tunes by Ofege (from nigeria) that have a good reggae feeling.

Also thinking of a wicked tune by Les Ambassadeurs Internationaux from Mali (second band of Salif Keita after Rail Band).
(this album : http://tinyurl.com/nqgds4 )

I hope I will take the time to encode all those tunes to share them but I'm so lazy...

[Shinan Irie]

Listen "African Queen" by Tuface. He is regarded as a Hip Hop artiste in Nigeria but the bredda told point blank he is a reggae artiste. No wonder im hang out mostly with the Marley family, Beenie Man, Chakademus & Pliers in Jamaica. He's done collaborations with Beenie, Chakademus & Pliers
People think "African Queen" is R&B but listen it and you bound fe agree seh its ah reggae ting.
Anyway he's made it clear he will only be doing hardcore reggae from now on.
African Queen was No1 all over Africa trust me.

[Dew Lad]

Hey! who knows the name of this reggea group that sang a song ras kimono later remixed? - "i'm your rub-a-dub master ina your area". I think this reggea group sang this song in England or so.

I've been trying to check the video of this song in u-tube but i'm not getting any result. Maybe becos i'm not getting the title correctly or becos i don't know the name of the reggea group at all. But i do know Ras Kimono did that song too.

If anyone knows the name of this group and the year that song was done, i'd really appreciate it....thnx!

[Joe Asikpo]

Nobody mentioned Terra Kota of Lamentation for Sodom fame. Bassey Black was very popular in Cross River State, his music was as good as what the Jamaicans were doing then.He is probably one of the earliest reaggae artiste in Nigeria.reggae music ruled the Nigerian music scene in the mid eighties to early nineties with Mandators who were originaly a five man band,Majek Fashek and his mates in Jahtix band, Ras Kimono,Sweat,Terra Kota and Orits Wiliki holding the forte.Sonny Okosun also had a pioneering influence with songs like Fire in Soweto.I will equally recall bands lie the Doves and Cloud 7 who were around from the late seventies.The vibrancy of Nigerian reggae encouraged international star Eddy Grant to do a reggae song in Yoruba,it also encouraged the visit to Nigeria by jamaican band Third World who immortalized their visit with the song Lagos Jump.Musical Youth also performed at the National Theatre.With the evolution of reggae music into ragga, Nigeria did not lack as we had Blacky, Daniel Wilson and others doing their thing.Currently not much i going on but i hear some sounds from guys such as Jahcub and Victor Eshiet of the mandators is flying the flag very high in America. We hope for a resurrection of the careers of some of these artistes.

[Rotimi]

i am amazed by the various contributions i find here online, been thinking of writting an account of reggae music in nigeria and of course taking a look at where reggae lives now in nigeria. i will be glad if i can get some more useful information, contacts, resource persons.
many thanks in advance