Music of Port Harcourt
Port Harcourt, a city of Rivers State located to the south of Nigeria, has a thriving music scene encompassing both native African and foreign-influenced genres. It plays host to numerous radio stations, prominent recording studios, such as the Street Rhymes Studios and other music institutions. As a state capital, Port Harcourt has of one of the liveliest club scenes in the country as well as music venues, bars and restaurants.[1][2] As of 2015, hip hop, pop, highlife and reggae are most popular music styles among young people in the city.[2]
Notable musicians and record labels
Port Harcourt is the birth place of many locally and internationally admired musicians, including
Music festivals
More recently, there has been a significant increase in the number of festivals held within the city. Carniriv, a major musical cultural event in Nigeria continues to take place annually since 1988. The state government further recognizes this festival as its biggest tourism export. Aside Nigeria, the Carniriv has featured several famous artists from other countries abroad including the likes of Shaggy, Patra, Beenie Man, Busta Rhymes, Joe, Brick & Lace and Wyclef Jean.[4][5]
Venues and organizations
Most of the major concerts, festivals and other musical events are held in
The
Early music
Jazz
Maud Meyer, female jazz icon, was born in Port Harcourt. She was among the few women that rose to stardom in the 1950s. As a child, Meyer emulated her mother who was a bandleader. She was a well-known proponent of Billie Holiday. Meyer's voice and ability to expand in the genre were the keys to her success. In the words of Emeka Keazor, "she was one of the greatest female jazz singers of all time."
Throughout her career, Meyer maintained a position as West Africa's foremost. She sold herself on the club circuits while assisting various influential bands. In the late 1980s, Jazz music achieved its commercial peak. A Jazz Festival was duly introduced by Doye Agama in 1985 to hold every year till 1990. During the first three editions which he produced and directed, the event saw a record number of people along with performances from Oliver Jones, Embryo, Dizzy Gillespie and Mike Mower's Itchy Fingers Jazz Saxophone Quartet. These Port Harcourt Festivals were some of the last great gatherings of many other pioneering Nigerian musicians like Art Alade, Eddie Okonta, Zeal Onyia, Remi Kabaka, Steve Rhodes, Tony Benson, Geraldo Pino, Sonny Brown and many others who helped inspire a new generation of jazz aficionados.
Popular music
Hip hop
Beginning in the twenty-first century, the impact of hip hop music on young Harcourtians in terms of lifestyle, fashion, attitudes and values has reached heights previously unseen. While this transformation remains an intriguing cultural enigma, those involved in the movement consider it profitable. An early example of Port Harcourt hip-hoppers was the Tropical Breed, Specimen A and Tuck Tyght Allstars formed in 2000.[7]
Tropical Breed, a hip hop duo of LGB and Mack One released a few singles which were the first hip hop tracks to be aired in Port Harcourt by
Tuck Tyght Allstars went on to become a significant group paving the way for further development of the genre. Protagonist Henry Diete Spiff founded Tuck Tyght Records to focus on hardcore, street-oriented hip hop, at a time when there weren't many supporting or sponsoring it.[8] Tuck Tyght's first release was the group album, Now Official, released in 2003. Featured on the album were Frank D'Nero,
Lyrikal left the Tuck Tyght after appearing on Now Official. His first ever official single was "Learn Something" in which he took swipes at the Specimen A and Tropical Breed hip hop groups. Following that he launched a solo career releasing a second single "Can U Relate", where he rapped on issues of socio-political concern.[9] Duncan Daniels, born in Boston, moved to the city as a teenager. He began producing records eventually signing with Tuck Tyght. Though the record label and the all-star group working under it later disbanded, their contributions to the hip hop scene cannot be ignored.[10]
As the commercial viability of hip hop culture, and rap music in particular grew, more artists began to incorporate the sound and new artists emerged onto the scene. Starting out as a Specimen A affiliate, Munachi Abii was one of the early female rap acts to gain acceptance among the generality of music lovers. The female answer to the male dominated hip hop landscape.[16] She worked with De Indispensables as a guest artist prior to winning the title of Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria. As a solo rapper, she performed as Babyrella, collaborating with big-name artists, before eventually choosing Muna as her stage name.[16] Sky B, a rapper-singer from Obio-Akpor was among the first hip hop artists to break out nationally from the city. Although initially met with resistance from some rap fans, as well as radio stations, Sky B's Pray For Me garnered substantial traction with songs like "I'm Calling (Ma Bebe)", "You Promised Not To Go", "Pray For Me", "Here I Am", and is acknowledged widely to have achieved sales of over one million copies in Nigeria. With his charisma and laid-back style, he became a music favorite attracting an even wider following. His rise to fame in 2007 established the possibility that hip hop music produced in Port Harcourt could have strong marketing and nationwide distribution.[17]
Also in 2007, Double K brought out his first solo album, Katastrophy. He would be nominated for Best Hip Hop Artist at the 5th Niger Delta Advancement Awards.
New generation singers Duncan Mighty, Timaya, Burna Boy and Slim Burna, are beginning to fuse elements of hip hop with various forms of reggae. Since the turn of the decade into the mid-2010s, there has been a resurgence in Pidgin-English rap through the appearance of the likes of Danas, Dandizzy, Ajebo Hustlers, Abobi Eddieroll, KING STUNNA and Dr. Barz.
Pop
Many contemporary pop music figures have come out of the city since the mid-2000s, most notable is
The mid-to-late 2000s ushered in profound innovations in the Port Harcourt pop scene as local artists started gaining attention, blending indigenous influences with more popular musical forms, namely
. Collaborations with rappers came into play. Pop artists would often integrate rapped verses into their songs and publicized them with a featuring credit, this unique tradition has continued to the present. Independent radio stations such as Rhythm 93.7 FM made homegrown tunes more available to residents of Port Harcourt and nearby cities. At this time, demand for foreign music had slowly begun to wane, while the majority of programming gradually assumed a protean nature. People of different class backgrounds were impacted by radio mainly, because they now heard music at home that they might have been able to hear only by attending a concert.[22]The progressive change in musical direction prepared the way for broader talent development efforts. Soty Horsfall, better known as Soty achieved a breakthrough with her 2007 song "Malaria". The music video enjoyed long airplay on television, especially on NTA 2 Channel 5.[23] Port Harcourt's influence continued, however, and attained new heights during 2008 as Duncan Mighty made his way into the recording business. With the release of his first nationally-distributed album, Koliwater (Fully Loaded), Duncan Mighty quickly evolved into a household name, ascending into the upper echelon of multi-talented trailblazers. OkayAfrica described the work as “melodious, genre-bending, and hyper-dimensional,” and added: “Everyone could connect with it. Songs like "Dance For Me," "Ako Na Uche", "Ijeoma" and "Unu Ge Gbum Madu" showed how versatility can be reigned in for a cohesive LP.”[24] He stayed true to his Ikwerre roots, yet at the same time found a way to tap into other genres including reggae and R&B. Unlike most upstarts, he resided in Port Harcourt for a significant portion of his career and established himself as one of the most respected, influential and original musicians to penetrate the national and international markets.[25] In 2009, M-Kaze released the widely feted Psycho, a follow-up to his debut project Music and M-Kaze (2006). He went on to win awards, among them, Best Collaboration and Artist of the Year at the 1st Odudu Music Awards. Psycho consisted of 14 tracks, mostly original production, as well as features from the likes of Frank D'Nero, Blah, Lyrikal, Veteran and Double K. The album was succeeded by King of the Underground, which yielded the hit singles "Sugar Banana" and "Change".[26]
A number of musicians were further helped by the proliferation of the internet and the advent of social media, enabling them to gain exposure and grow their audience. Alaba DJ mixes were also advantageous in the spread of Port Harcourt pop throughout the country. Rapper turned singer Waconzy had his first taste of the limelight in 2010 when he released his solo debut single "I Celebrate", the title track of his debut album, I Celebrate. The song won the Song of the Year award at the 2010 Odudu Music Awards. A remix with Duncan Mighty was released the next year, for which he received his first City People Entertainment Award nomination. Waconzy's second album Money Back Guarante arrived in March 2013 and in September of that year, he revealed during an interview, that it had sold over 500,000 copies.[27]
Former street vendor
Nelly jazz is one of the fastest rising afro pop, afro dance and hip hop artist. He started his musical career awhile when he was still in the high school he was involved in musical freestyles with his friend where they would challenge who comes out the best, Nelly jazz is a genius debuting his second track after bagging froshboi best music award.
Kutie started his musical pursuit during his elementary school day by composing rhymes and poems, also belonging to a church choir from teenage department to adult department and in the year 2009 he had his first studio experience recording with a church teenage choir as their lead singer. Kutie released his first song this year featuring another well established artist called Mosidon he titled the track Ohema which also won him an award in the froshboi music awards show.
Highlife
{{Listen | filename=Ibi Na Bo.ogg | title = Ibi Na Bo | description = "Ibi Na Bo" performed by Rex Lawson, a highlife song specifically expressing good fortune. |
Virtually all highlife greats from Rivers State have started their career in Port Harcourt. The 1960s saw the rise to prominence of Cardinal Rex Lawson, with his Mayor's Dance Band, being among the first popular bands to achieve widespread success. His accomplishments helped shape the direction of African music in the twentieth century, probably the most influential highlife musician of that period.[32]
Mayor's Dance Band and Rex Lawson released numerous hits and in later years became known as Rivers Men. The band made their mark on the international arena while more people were drawn to the sound. After Lawson's death in the 1970s, Rivers Men reestablished itself as The Professional Seagulls Dance Band.[33] They were led by Prince David Bull who remained a key figure in the band for the time it existed.[6] Aside from them, there were others like The Harbours whose song "Koma Mosi" became one of the landmark recordings of highlife music in the '70s and created a measure of notoriety for the band.[34] The song, released on the Harbours Band 7-inch EP through Philips West African Records, gave rise to the metaphorical phrase “Easy Motion Tourist”.[35]
Another important performer is King Sunny Brown, often informally referred to as the Original Pickin. He began to sing at a young age in Christ Army School, there he played in the school band with Rex Lawson. During the
Reggae
Like hip hop and highlife, reggae has long formed an essential part of the music of Port Harcourt.
Also worth noting is the critically acclaimed Subsequently, he was selected as Cool FM's "Coolest Port Harcourt Artist of 2019", ahead of top-performing rising acts Ajebo Hustlers, 1Da Banton and Bukwild.
References
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