Siji Wants You To "Ijo"

And at long last, I'm bringing back some Nigerian music to this blog. For those of you who don't know, I am Nigerian - and I have seriously been sleeping on the music scene of my homeland. Granted, it hasn't suited my tastes as of late, but every now and then I find a track I enjoy. Here's one of them: New York-based soul/indie artist Siji just dropped the video for his new song, "Ijo" which means "dance" in Yoruba, his native language (one of the three most widely-spoken indigenous languages in Nigeria, though there are up to 150 languages and dialects native to our country. Oh, and our official language is English.) The video depicts a casting call for dancers, featuring some Nigerian celebrity cameos and some hot dance moves. If you ever wondered how we get down in Africa, here's your chance to see it, coming to you straight from Lagos:

SIJI - 'Ijo'(Official Video) from SIJI on Vimeo.


The song is a departure for Siji's usual mellow, acoustic soul sound - it's uptempo, funky and electro, almost like a fuji-house mashup. I've recently become a dance music head, so I'm definitely feeling it. One thing I love about Nigerian music is the simplistic approach that they take to production: you don't need to have a packed soundscape or throw in a crapton of effects and instruments, as we often see in American and Korean-style pop production - sometimes the music just needs breathing space so that it can really get down.

I'm gonnat try to diversify my posts from now on, and bring you more music from other countries to make this a truly global pop culture blog. Stay tuned!

(via MTV Iggy)

Comments

  1. I absolutely love this song and video. I'd love to see more Nigerian music like this! You're not missing out on Nigerian pop at all, most of it is rap and hip-hop, there's hardly any diversity.

    I like how you described 'Ijo' as 'almost like a fuji-house mashup', the song really reminds me of kwaito ^^

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