In the sprawling, kinetic heart of Lagos, where the city’s pulse beats in tandem with the thunderous basslines of Afrobeats, DJ Neptune has spent over a decade perfecting an art form that transcends mere curation. As the mastermind behind the Greatness series, a quadrilogy that, alongside many other landmark Afrobeats albums, has served as a cultural barometer for the genre’s meteoric rise, DJ Neptune has positioned himself not just as a DJ or record producer, but as a custodian of sound, a bridge between generations, and a prophet of what’s next.
With the release of Greatness IV, the high-profile turntablist, record producer, and sonic architect delivers his most ambitious project yet: a sprawling, 14-track exploration of Afrobeats duality, its rootedness in African soil and its inexorable march toward global domination. Eleven tracks on the album were recorded in Lagos, while one, Taliban, emerged from the beautiful city of Accra, Ghana. Together, they form a mosaic that captures a movement, building on DJ Neptune’s legacy of consistently delivering era-defining hits such as Nobody featuring Joeboy and Mr Eazi, Abeg featuring Omah Lay and Joeboy, Bienvenue featuring Ruger, Wait featuring Kizz Daniel, and So Nice featuring Davido, among others.
Seated in a Lagos studio on a sweltering afternoon, Neptune exudes the calm confidence of someone who has seen the blueprint unfold exactly as he envisioned. His voice is measured, contemplative, yet animated when discussing the minutiae of sound design or the hunger he sees in emerging artists. This is a man who has turned pattern recognition into an art form, and Greatness IV is the latest proof.
The Greatness series began as a gamble, a DJ betting on his ability to curate not just hits, but cultural moments. Each instalment has served as a sonic time capsule, capturing the zeitgeist of Afrobeats at different inflection points in its evolution. Where Greatness introduced Neptune’s vision, and Greatness II and III solidified his reputation as a tastemaker, the fourth chapter arrives with the weight of legacy and the lightness of liberation.
“Greatness IV is about growth, legacy, and the global voice of Afrobeats,” DJ Neptune tells Peter Okhide. “Each album in the series reflects where the culture is at that moment, and this one shows how far we’ve come, global yet deeply rooted. I built it by bringing together artists whose sounds tell today’s story and tomorrow’s promise.”
This evolution in approach is audible. Where previous instalments felt like carefully constructed projects designed for maximum impact, Greatness IV possesses an organic quality, songs that feel discovered rather than manufactured, collaborations that spark with genuine chemistry rather than calculated star power.
