List of top 10 rated artist in Nigeria 2021
In this post coined from Naija02, naija360 chronicles a list of top 10 rated artist in Nigeria 2021. This list is entirely a review from their performance so far in 2021, this performance index includes list of albums, EPs and hottest songs toping charts and streaming channels
The topic of ” top 10 rated artist in Nigeria 2021″ is a controversial one and it’s often a problem tracking performance of the top 10 rated artist in Nigeria without bias.
Below is a list of top 10 rated artist in Nigeria 2021.
1.Ruger
Michael Adebayo is professionally known as Ruger makes no.1 on list of top 10 rated artist in Nigeria 2021, a Nigerian talented singer, hails from Lagos. The singer came into the limelight on January 2021, after been signed into Jonzing Records
The singer has been developing and evolving behind the scenes for about a year and was officially unveiled by D’Prince’s Jonzing World record . Ruger made his first song on January 20th 2021, at Jonzing Records on this jam tagged ”One Shirt” featuring Rema and D Prince, which was a massive hit, enjoyed and accepted by his music fans.Ruger accompanied the “One shirt” single with an EP he tittled ” Pandemic the EP” that was released on 12th of March 2021,the EP came with hits like Bounce, Abu Dhabi, Bow, Monalisa, yekpa and Ruger.
2.Buju
Buju is a Nigerian singer also known as Buju to your ears,
His real name is Daniel Benson though he’s popularly known as Buju
Many people got interested to Buju’s music after the release of “Spiritual” featuring Zlatan in 2019,
Since then he has been on an upward trajectory
Buju started his career as a Soundcloud artiste but it didn’t take long for Nigerians to discover him on the popular freemium streaming platform.
However, he’s currently signed to Aristokrat Records, the Grammy Producing label that also housed Burna Boy.
Buju has officially released the following hit tracks.
A day in Lagos, Aje, Catch a Vibe were released in 2018, Buju in 2019 came through with Balance it, L’enu, Spiritual Featuring Zlatan,
Commander and L’enu Remix Featuring Burna boy were released in 2020.
Buju has released a couple of hit tracks in 2021 listed below: Your body featuring Basketmouth, Confident,
Testimony, Feeling, Outside, Peru featuring Fireboy DML.
Ladipo Eso popularly known as Ladipoe is a Nigerian musician. On 28 February 2017, Ladipoe signed a record deal with Mavin Records. He rose to prominence with the song “Feel Alright” where he got featured by SDC “Show Dem Camp”. He also released a new single “Jaiye” in March 2019 before dropping the hit song, “Know You” featuring Nigerian Joromi singer, Simi. He is also a member of the Nigerian supergroup Collectiv3.
Ladipoe was the first rapper to be signed to Mavin Records since re-branding in 2012 from Mo’Hits. Poe recorded his first single under the label “Man Already” produced by Altims. Poe is inspired by the Slum Village, Lupe and Little Brother.
His 2021 single, “Feeling” which featured Buju peaked at number one of the TurnTable Top 50 chart on 3 occasions. He performed “Feeling” at the opening show of the sixth season of Big Brother Naija.
Ladipoe released his hit single Know you featuring Simi in 2020, this year we’ve enjoyed good tunes from ladipoe, Rap Messiah and feeling featuring Buju were released in 2021.
4.Blaqbonez
Emeka Akumefule (born 29 January 1996), known professionally as Blaqbonez, is a Nigerian rapper signed to 100 Crowns, which is an imprint of Chocolate City. In 2019, he was profiled by The New York Times as one of the new guards of Nigerian music. He is widely known for his controversial self-proclaimed status as the “Best Rapper in Africa” (abbreviated as “BRIA”), which became the most talked about topic in the Nigerian hip hop space between July and September 2019.
Blaqbonez started exploring his rap skills very early, and at 16, came 1st out of over 3000 rappers in Nigeria, who participated in Terry tha Rapman’s Zombie competition. As a result, he and was featured on Terry’s album World Domination alongside Olamide, Vector (rapper), Mode 9, Spellz which was released in 2012. Five years later, Blaqbonez featured Terry on one of his projects. He emerged 1st runner-up in Vector (rapper)’s king kong competition, won the Rhythm fm Freestyle Fury and became RhythmFm’s artiste of the month, became the Hennessy Vs class captain, part of the Soundcity blast cypher, also released his much talked about mixtape CTAT “Cssette Tapes and Tvs” grossing over 60,000 engagements in streams and downloads, which is his third mixtape, following hip-hop in blaq and the “unfinished EP”.
Blaqbonez released his eighth EP Bad Boy Blaq on 31 August 2018.It was released as part of the L.A.M.B project, a series of three hip hop albums that attempts to reawaken Nigerian hip hop. Bad Boy Blaq was executively produced by M.I Abaga and released through 100 Crowns.
Blaqbonez released his ninth EP Mr. Boombastic on 25 October 2019. A day before the release of the EP, Blaqbonez released the promotional single “Jesus Is Black (Letter to Kanye West).
In 2021 Blaqbonez has released the following hits, Traffic after traffic feat. Blaqbonez Bling feat.Amaarae and Buju Fendi, Sex over love feat.Nasty C,Laycon and Joeboy, BBC feat.Tiwa Savage and more.
Temilade Openiyi (born 11 June 1995), better known by her stage name Tems, is a Nigerian singer, songwriter and record producer.
In 2018, Tems recorded “Mr Rebel”, a song of her own composition. In August 2019, she released the single “Try Me” which became a hit track, 25 September 2020, Tems released her debut extended play For Broken Ears which contain several tracks and her single “Damages” from her For Broken Ears EP became another follow up hit to “Try Me”, peaking at number six on the then-newly launched TurnTable Top 50.
On 2 September 2021, it was announced on billboards in Lagos that Tems was set to feature on rapper Drake’s Certified Lover Boy album. her collaboration with Drake on the song “Fountains” earned her her second Billboard Hot 100 entry debuting at number 26.
On 15 September 2021, Tems released her second extended play titled If Orange Was a Place, which has the single “Crazy Tings” and other hit tracks.
Oyinkansola Sarah Aderibigbe (born 14 June 2002), known professionally as Ayra Starr, is a Nigerian singer, songwriter and model.
earlier in 2021, Ayra Starr achieved mainstream recognition with her eponymous debut extended play and its hit track “Away” which peaked at number four on Nigeria’s TurnTable Top 50 and at number 17 on US Billboard Top Triller Global, paving the way for the release of her first full-length studio album, 19 & Dangerous in August 2021. Preceded by the single “Bloody Samaritan”, the album has been met with favorable critical reception. Ayra Starr debuted on Pandora Predictions chart, and on 28 August 2021, she ranked number two on the Billboard Next Big Sound chart.
Although musically diverse, Ayra Starr’s sound has predominantly been categorized as Afropop and R&B. Her voice has been described in the media as “silky”, “cozy”, “delicate”, “sturdy”, “arresting” and “soulful”, with music critics noting the dynamic nature of her range and emotional delivery.
Ahmed Abiola Akinbiyi Lawal (born 27 January 1996), known professionally as Bella Shmurda, is a Nigerian singer and songwrite. He rose to prominence with the release of the song “Vision 2020”, and a follow up remix which featured Nigeria rapper Olamide.
He released several hit songs in 2020, some which featured top musicians, one of which is “Cash App” featuring Zlatan. He was nominated for the Headies Award for the next rated in 2020.
Bella has a deal with his record company that is set to end in 2022. Bella Shmurda had been engaged in the release, publishing, distribution, and marketing of songs and videos.
Bella Shmurda has released a good number of hits in 2021 which includes, So cold, desire, party next door, Far away etc.
Oniyide Azeez popularly known as Zinoleesky is a Nigerian musician and songwriter. Zinoleesky was born on 21st November 1995 in Lagos State. Zinoleesky is popularly for rejecting signing to Davido‘s Davido Music World (DMW) music label for Naira Marley‘s Malian Records.
Zinoleesky’s journey into the music industry started at a very young age. However, he got inspired to keep pursuing his career in music after he was followed by popular Nigerian musician Kizz Daniel on Instagram after a rap video.
Zinoleesky so far has released a bunch of musics since coming to the limelight. Some of Zinolesky songs are;
Money, Popo, Aje, Caro feat Naira Marley, Who Knows, Vanessa, Ole, Fame.
9.Ckay
Nigeria music star Ckay who’s real name is Chukwuka Ekeani , is a producer/artiste signed under Chocolate City Music,is an indigene of Anambra State but was born in Kaduna to to Dr. & Mrs Ekweani is an indigene of Anambra State but was born in Kaduna to to Dr. & Mrs Ekweani.
Ckay found his love for music at 7 through his father who was a choir coordinator at the church,He began producing & writing music at age 13,In 2014, Ckay relocated to Lagos and began working with Chocolate City Music as a production intern in early 2015.
6. Later in the same year he got signed to Loopy Music which later merged with Chocolate City when MI became the C.E.O.
He made his production debut with “Third Mainland Bridge” which featured MI & Moti Cakes on the TICBN vol. 1 album.
He was also featured by MI on “The box” with Pryse-Illegal Music 3.
In August 2016, Ckay was officially signed as an artist with Chocolate City music. His first official single titled ‘Nkechi Turn Up’ was also released in the same year.
Ckay has achieved many notable works worthy of mentions, his 2018 single, “Container” received massive acceptance from listeners. His other notable songs includes “Love Nwantiti“, “Gaddemit”, “Chinekeme”, “Last Call” and “Gmail” featuring DMW rapper, Dremo.
Ckay has been a hot artist in 2021, he has released to mention but a few Felony, Skoin Skoin, Show my side, Isabella, jeje de whine etc.
Stanley Omah Didia popularly known as Omah Lay is a boy from Port Harcourt Rivers State who has announced his entries into the Nigerian music industry in 2019 with singles like Brother and Do Not Disturb. At the beginning of this year, Omah Lay was not popular but he had his breakthrough during the pandemic using digital platforms to stream his 2020 singles like You, and Bad Influence. His songs got over 10 million streams and he is on his way to becoming one of the biggest upcoming African act. His Get Layd EP which was released on 22nd March, 2020 had singles like Damn, LoLo, and Ye Ye Ye
