The Up Next program is created by Apple to support rising artistes. Each month ‘Up Next’ selects a rising artist for which Apple Music uses all its resources to give their music visibility to new audiences. This will include an introductory documentary shot on the artiste, an audio EP from a live session which will include an interview and live performance on Beats 1 and an appearance on The Late Late Show With James Corden which Apple Music partnered with.

Speaking about the collaboration in his Beats 1 interview with Julie Adenuga, the ‘Ye’ singer who seems to be climbing new heights every now and then; from Coachella to BET, expressed his excitement to be a part of the Up Next campaign as he said;

“I’m super excited to be part of the Apple Music Up Next campaign, … Apple continuously comes up with new initiatives to support artists globally and push the African culture. It’s an honor to be a part of this and with my African Giant album coming out soon, the timing is perfect.”

From the snippet of the documentary, the singer was seen talking about the birth of his relationship with music;

“My granddad was a DJ in Lagos; all the records would come to him first … I would find myself being inspired by things that I’ve heard as a kid: Nigerian music or African music, some French music or some Jamaican music. When it’s time for music to be made, it’s almost like my ancestors just come into me and then it’s them.”

Speaking about Burna’s collaboration with Apple Music, Apple Music’s Global Editorial Head of Hip-Hop and R&B, Ebro Darden said

“Burna Boy has built his brand his way and has been on fire all over Africa and the UK … He does things his way and Apple Music is honored to be able to connect with Burna Boy on this moment and help make the name even more well known!”

The exclusive documentary with Apple Music will be dropping on the 16th of July after which his new album, African Giant, which is presently on Pre-order will drop on the 26th of July.

Bose Ogulu, the manager and mother of the Afro-fusion musician accepted the award on her son’s behalf. Ogulu, who has accepted trophies for her son in the past, also came with a quick word for African-Americans.

“Thank you very much BET, thank you, Africa. That is the constituency for which we got noticed. The message from Burna would be that every black person should please remember that you were Africans before you became anything else.”

See the full list of winners below:

Best Female R&B/Pop Artist

Beyoncé (WINNER)
Ella Mai​

H.E.R.

Solange

SZA

Teyana Taylor

Best Male R&B/Pop Artist

Bruno Mars (WINNER)

Chris Brown

John Legend

Anderson .Paak​
Childish Gambino​

Khalid

Best Group

Migos (WINNER)
Chloe x Halle​
City Girls
Lil Baby & Gunna​
The Carters

Best Collaboration

“Sicko Mode,” Travis Scott ft. Drake (WINNER)

“A Lot,” 21 Savage ft. J. Cole

“Please Me,” Cardi B & Bruno Mars

“I Like It,” Cardi B ft. Bad Bunny & J Balvin​

“Could’ve Been,” H.E.R. ft. Bryson Tiller

“Taste,” Tyga ft. Offset

Best Female Hip Hop Artist

Cardi B (WINNER)
Kash Doll
Lizzo
Megan Thee Stallion
Nicki Minaj​
Remy Ma

Best Male Hip Hop Artist

Nipsey Hussle (WINNER)
21 Savage
Drake
J. Cole
Meek Mill
Travis Scott

Video of the Year

“This Is America,” Childish Gambino (WINNER)
“A Lot,” 21 Savage ft. J. Cole
“Money,” Cardi B
“Please Me,” Cardi B & Bruno Mars
“Nice For What,” Drake
“APES**T,” The Carters

Video Director of the Year

Karena Evans (WINNER)
Benny Boom
Colin Tilley​
Dave Meyers
Hype Williams

Best New Artist

Lil Baby (WINNER)
Blueface
City Girls
Juice WRLD​
Queen Naija

Dr. Bobby Jones Best Gospel/Inspirational

“Blessing Me Again,” Snoop Dogg ft. Rance Allen (WINNER)
“All Of My Life,” Erica Campbell ft. Warryn Campbell
“Tell Me Where It Hurts,” Fred Hammon​
“Love Theory,” Kirk Franklin
“Never Alone,” Tori Kelly ft. Kirk Franklin

Best International Act

Burna Boy (Nigeria) (WINNER)
AKA (South Africa)
Aya Nakamura (France)
Dave (UK)
Dosseh (France)
Giggs (UK)
Mr. Eazi (Nigeria)

Best New International Act

Sho Madjozi (South Africa) (WINNER)
Headie One (UK)
Jokair (France)
Nesly (France)
Octavian (UK)
Teni (Nigeria)

Best Actress

Regina King (WINNER)
Issa Rae
Regina Hall
Taraji P Henson​
Tiffany Haddish​
Viola Davis

Best Actor

Michael B. Jordan (WINNER)
Anthony Anderson
Chadwick Boseman
Denzel Washington
Mahershala Ali
Omari Hardwick​

Young Stars

Marsai Martin (WINNER)
Caleb McLaughlin
Lyrics Ross
Michael Rainey Jr.
Miles Brown

Best Movie

BlacKkKlansman (WINNER)
Creed 2
If Beale Street Could Talk
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
The Hate U Give

Sportswoman of the Year

Serena Williams (WINNER)
Allyson Felix
Candace Parker
Naomi Osaka
Simone Biles

Sportsman of the Year

Stephen Curry (WINNER)
Kevin Durant
LeBron James
Odell Beckham Jr
Tiger Woods

Album of the Year
Invasion of Privacy, Cardi B (WINNER)
Astroworld, Travis Scott
Championships, Meek Mill
Ella Mai, Ella Mai​
Everything Is Love, The Carters

Coca-Cola Viewers’ Choice

“Trip,” Ella Mai (WINNER)
“I Like It,” Cardi B ft Bad Bunny & J Balvin​
“This Is America,” Childish Gambino​
“In My Feelings,” Drake
“Middle Child,” J. Col
“Sicko Mode,” Travis Scott ft. Drake

Here in our studio, his music are constantly on heavy rotation and well loved by listeners across the globe and if you listen to our broadcast regularly, you will hear Slim Brown’s unique voice on our radio station announcements.

Slim Brown shows no sign of slowing down as he has been dropping Music back to back. After his last effort NKEM, a love song which is still fresh and getting rotation, he comes with this inspirational tune titled ZAMO. An Afro dancehall tune which makes a quick impression on you. He calls this one “The prayer Of A Hustler” and it is definitely going to be a big tune soon.

The song is produced by “Dannyblaze” and presented by his Record Label “Oojee Records”. We can’t wait to see the video of this banger.

Tune into WorldBeat Radio and groove to many hits by Slim Brown and
you can also follow Slim Brown on all social media platforms @iamslimbrown #SlimBrown #OojeeRecords

Nigerian rapper Falz created This Is Nigeria, a parody of This Is America that switched out lyrics and imagery for social ills in his country: machete-wielding gangs, codeine use, internet scammers, and much more.

Last week, a Nigerian rapper released his own version of Childish Gambino’s hit song and music video “This Is America.”

It’s called “This Is Nigeria” and was written and performed by lawyer-turned-musician Falz The Bahd Guy. Like the hugely popular Donald Glover song and video (Gambino is his stage name), the Nigerian version looks at harsh everyday realities.

Donald Glover’s ‘This Is America’ Holds Ugly Truths To Be Self-Evident
In “This Is America,” the issues include gun violence, racism and the distraction of viral entertainment and social media. Falz’s lyrics and visuals touch on some of Nigeria’s major problems: poor electricity supply, drug addiction and government corruption. The video even features veiled Muslim girls to allude to Boko Haram’s abductions of schoolgirls in the northeast.

Falz performs in pidgin English, a blend of English and local languages that is widely spoken in West Africa. The chorus says:

This is Nigeria
Never-ending recession-o
Where looters are killers and stealers are still contesting election-o.
Politician wey steals some billion and billion e no dey go prison-o.”

Released on May 25, just four days before the 19th anniversary of democracy in the West African nation, the three-minute video has been viewed on YouTube 2.9 million times. The hashtag #ThisIsNigeria has generated tens of thousands of tweets. And the song has captured the attention of the American rapper Diddy, who reposted “This Is Nigeria” on his Instagram account, where it currently has an additional 2.2 million views.

Falz, whose real name is Folarin Falana, is not new to social commentary. His music often reflects the views of his father, Femi Falana, a popular Nigerian lawyer and human rights activist. Falz’s previous songs “Child of the World,” “Confirm” and “Wehdone Sir” tackle sexual harassment, Internet fraud and the rise of wealthy megachurch pastors.

For a non-Nigerian, the scenes in the video may be a bit hard to figure out at times. Here’s a guide to some of the references and meanings:

Colonialism [0:10]

FalzVEVO via YouTube/Screen grab by NPR

The video begins with Falz clutching a boombox to his ear. The radio plays a clip from a speech delivered by his father, Falana, who is criticizing the Nigerian government: “… The medical facilities are poor. We operate a predatory neo-colonial capitalist system.” Falana speaks often on these issues on the radio.

Herders vs. farmers [00:30]
A machete-wielding man, dressed as a herdsman, simulates an attack on a blindfolded man. “Fulani herdsmen still dey slaughter, carry people dey massacre,” Falz says.

The scene refers to the country’s simmering conflict between herders, many from the Fulani ethnic group, and farming communities. Since 2011, both sides have been embroiled in clashes that have claimed more than 2,000 lives, according to Brussels-based think tank the International Crisis Group.

Money-eating snake [1:09]

FalzVEVO via YouTube/Screen grab by NPR

A woman picks up wads of colorful notes on the ground as a snake emerges from a half calabash melon to eat up the money. It’s a reference to a story from February: Philomena Chieshe, a sales clerk of Nigeria’s exam board, the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, claimed that a snake ate 36 million naira ($100,000) from her office. Falz makes a joke about this story: “Where that Madam Philomena?” he asks, “money vanish for your office, 36 mily, you say na animal.”

Drug addiction [1:10]
In the video, Falz shows a young Nigerian disembarking from a bus with a bottle of cough syrup in one hand. Last month, Nigeria’s health ministry banned cough syrup with codeine after a BBC investigation revealed the role of the syrup in Nigeria’s addiction epidemic.

Corruption [1:17]
Falz makes several references to corruption, calling out politicians who have been accused of stealing from the government. By many accounts, corruption is one of Nigeria’s biggest problems. According to a U.N. report, roughly $4.6 billion is spent on bribes in Nigeria each year. This part of the video struck a chord with Kingsley Moghalu, former deputy governor of Nigeria’s central bank and presidential aspirant, who, after quoting the lyrics, called for a “new kind of leadership.”

Boko Haram [1:22]

Falz with Boko Haram kidnapped students

Falz is joined by four veiled Muslim schoolgirls, who depict the young women in Nigeria’s northeastern region where the radical group Boko Haram operates. Boko Haram militants came into the limelight in April 2014 when they kidnapped more than 270 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok.

In February, a splinter group of Boko Haram abducted 110 girls from an all-girls boarding school in the town of Dapchi in northeastern Nigeria’s Yobe state.

The girls are performing the shaku shaku dance, a street dance that became popular in Nigeria this year. A similar scene is represented in Glover’s “This Is America”: amid violence and chaos, students perform dances that have gone viral on the Internet. In Glover’s video, critics say the scene illustrates people’s tendency to get distracted by viral entertainment instead of focusing on social issues.

Unethical preachers [1:47]

FalzVEVO via YouTube/Screen grab by NPR

A young woman in a white garment is surrounded by a small group of people praying for her. In previous songs, Falz has criticized religious figures for money-making schemes. In “This is Nigeria,” Falz gets angrier: “Pastor put his hand in the breast of his member, he is pulling the demon out,” he raps. In April 2017, a Nigerian televangelist named Tim Omotoso was arrested and charged with trafficking more than 30 girls and women from various branches of his church and allegedly sexually exploiting them.

Erratic electricity [1:51]
Falz worries that there is “no electricity daily o.” Nigerians often complain about this problem.

Lazy youth [1:54]
When President Muhammadu Buhari got a chance to speak at a Commonwealth Business Forum in Westminster on April, he said “a lot of” young Nigerians “sit and do nothing” and expect everything for free, including housing, health care and education. This attracted a backlash on social media, with young Nigerians using the hashtag #LazyNigerianYouth to fire back at the president. Falz’s rap defies the president’s assessment: “people working multiple jobs and dem talk sey we lazy o.”

Internet fraud [2:14]
Falz throws a jab at Nigerian fraudsters who try to con people into sending them money via the Internet. Known as Yahoo Boys, some pretend to be beautiful women online and get into romantic relationships in order to con people into sending money; others use malware to control systems and compromise emails. The stereotypical Yahoo Boy drives a fast car and flaunts his wealth.

The Nigerian pop star has been vocal about his dislike for society’s acceptance of ill-gotten wealth. In the song, he criticizes society for acting like these fraudulent schemes are “so cool.”

Police brutality [2:30]

FalzVEVO via YouTube/Screen grab by NPR

In this scene, officers from the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a unit of the Nigerian police, arrest three university students only to free one of them upon receiving a bribe from his wealthy father. Two SARS officers hit and kick one of the students.

According to a report from Amnesty International in 2016, SARS has been cited for accepting bribes as well as engaging in extortion, torture and degrading treatment of detainees in their custody. In December 2017, using the hashtag #EndSARS on social media, Nigerians strongly called for an end to the brutality meted out by SARS. In response, the Inspector General of Police Ibrahim Idris ordered an investigation of the anti-robbery squad.

“I mean transmission” [3:00]

FalzVEVO via YouTube Screen grab by NPR

This scene is a parody of a popular video from mid-May in which police chief Idris delivered a speech but ended up saying the word “transmission” over and over, rendering his talk nonsensical.

-Linus Unah I NPR

He explained that the inspiration for the song came while he was on a flight and looked down from the window and around and saw how everything looked good and he was thinking

He is currently signed to the Made men music group (TrippleMG).

EARLY LIFE AND BACKGROUND

Tekno’s real name is Augustine Kelechi Marius. He is from Ebonyi State. He was born in Bauchi but grew up in Abuja, Kaduna, and Nasarawa. as of 2015 he said he was pretty much through with school. He studied Music online. He did his high school at Heritage School, Kaduna. He also studied at Green Island but didn’t really finish because he believes he understands the practical aspect of music, so he read and understood the science of music.

Tekno speaking on growing up as a kid:

Growing up was okay. We weren’t rich or poor but I had everything I needed. My dad made me play a musical instrument as a child, so music started from day one. Growing up for me was school, church, and music till I came to where I am today.

As a kid, he likes to talk a lot and connect with people. He belonged to the first set of dancers in his school. They were called ‘The Enclomadies’. They used the first letter in everybody’s name to christen the group. In church, He used to play a musical instrument, dance, and sing.

When asked how he found his way into music:

Basically, I’ve been playing the piano since I was eight. My dad enrolled me in piano classes, so I didn’t just start singing, I learned music from childhood. I actually play the basic instruments like the piano, the guitar, and drums. Music is a way of life, I’ve been in music and I will always be in it.

According to him, the music was so good that he didn’t notice He’d come this far. When he reminisces, he realizes that he was actually coming to the limelight but he didn’t see it like that, having to go to the studio and all that. Tekno believes In the industry if you’re good, you will be noticed. Your work will speak for you. He hustled so much till K-Money his first record label boss, saw him at Abuja and asked if he was Tekno. K-Money helped him; he put his money in there, gave him a car, a house, and a life. He went from zero to 100. He helped him shoot a movie that cost N3 million.

Teekno speaking on what inspired him to go into movies:

Really, someone came to me saying that they wanted to shoot a movie. They came, we talked about it, and it was nice. It was about a ghetto kid who hustled to the mainstream, it was pretty much my life. The idea was nice and they needed someone that could play a musical instrument and produce at the same time. It was not like we planned to do a movie, I was actually approached and it was a success.

Tekno loved the character he played in the movie; I like that he is a quiet kid with so much talent and he would do anything to survive, but nothing bad. Basically, I think what I like most about the character is that he is a very stealth and quiet character. He says.

The singer revealed PSquare really influenced him. Growing up, he used to watch their videos, from the days of Sonorita, Omoge Mi, and Busy Body etc.

CAREER AND LIFE

Tekno signed his first record deal with K-Money a label which he believes helped his career a lot. In 2013 he got signed to Iyanya’s record label TripleMG. Before signing to (MMMG) he said he got offers he turned down, according to him he had offers, from Pukano Music, from Jim Iyke, from a lot of people. “There was also this guy that owns Tetrazzini or so, called Prince. There were offers from several quarters but whatever was meant to happen would happen for the best and I believe it’s God who guides my footstep because whatever you do, you acknowledge God, all the way. God has been there leading me on the right path. Wherever I find myself right now, it’s not by my talent or by whatever I think I can do but I think somehow, God shows the way and I take the right path.” He says.

When asked why he chose Triple MG?

I won’t say there’s a reason I joined but I must state that Triple MG is a family, a home, a place where you’re in and no one feels like he’s a star. I’m with Iyanya, Ubi, Basci and Emma Nyra and it’s an amazing thing because we can all relate quite easily. I’ve actually known Iyanya for a while, we weren’t that close but you know, if in five years from now, you asked me if I would join Triple MG, I’ll say yes. If you asked me two years back, I’d say yes. So I’m here because it’s meant to happen.

He dropped two singles before joining TrippleMG; Holiday featuring Davido and Onyenekwu, the original Onyenekwu and the remix featuring Ice Prince.

In 2015 Tekno made his biggest hit ever “DURO” produced by the ace producer DJ Coublon. Duro was rated by media platforms as one of the biggest songs in Nigeria in 2015, Duro lasted long on many radio and TV countdowns

Speaking of his blonde hairstyle:

There was a time they used to call me the golden boy. The golden boy was there before the hair, somehow it just happened. I tried it out, it made a lot of sense, that’s the hair I was rocking in Holiday video and I went back to the black hair and everyone was like no way, you have to come back to your blonde and all that and I brought it back. The look is great, a lot of people love the look and I’m going to bring you guys a lot of swag.

How do you feel on stage when performing?

When I’m on stage that is when I come alive because the stage is my toilet. I drop sh-t there. And the reason why I’m studying the theoretical aspect of music is that when you put me out there in a concert, on a bigger stage, I can rise to the occasion.

AWARDS AND ENDORSEMENTS

No popular awards yet.

CONTROVERSIES

Involved in a sex scandal that trended on the social media in January 2016, he was bashed and said to have had sex with some Tanzanian celebrities by his Tanzanian fans due to a few pictures he posted on the social media which he later deleted and apologized.