I've been collecting Nigerian music since the 1970s, but never actually made it to the country until 1994 and 1995. By then it was apparent that the music industry was going through a crisis, or at least big, big changes. The Nigerian affiliates of the two international record companies, Polydor and EMI, had been sold off and changed their names to Premier Music and Ivory Music respectively, while Afrodisia, formerly Decca West Africa, had gone inactive. A few LPs were still being pressed, but most "official" music distribution was via low-quality cassettes. The industry was suffering a death by a thousand cuts as pirated cassettes swamped the market.
By the mid-'90s in southwestern Nigeria
jùjú music had been eclipsed by
fújì and other styles, as I've discussed
earlier.
King Sunny Adé and
Ebenezer Obey were still on the scene, though with lower profiles. Their more laid-back, philosophical brand of
jùjú had given way to a frenetic, materialistic version, epitomized above all by
Sir Shina Peters, who sang of the good life and conspicuous consumption.
"Wonder" Dayo Kujore, born in 1958, is another exponent of the new
jùjú sound. Like Shina Peters, he served his apprenticeship in the band of
Prince Adekunle, playing lead guitar on some of the maestro's biggest hits. Kujore soon left to form his own group, but it wasn't until the early '90s that he really made a mark with albums like
Super Jet,
Easy Life and today's offering, 1993's
Sọkọ Xtra (Ivory Music IVR 039), one of his biggest hits ever.
The basic elements of the 1990s
jùjú sound are all here: the punchy, forward-driving rhythms complete with electronic drum pad, synthesizers and no pedal steel guitar to be found. And check out the Paul Simon reference in the opening bars of "Eko Ayo!"
I've always preferred "Old School" jùjú myself, but newer productions like Sọkọ Xtra have their attractions. Enjoy!
Download
Sọkọ Xtra as a zipped file
here.
