As last year ground to a halt, and music critics and fans of Afropop, in their usual fashion, began to take stock of the year, by way of tweets and essays and vociferous debates, a rare consensus emerged: the genre was in a state of flux; old, hackneyed sounds were giving way to more experimental, emergent ones. Many pundits also predicted a straightforward, sunny future for the genre in the new year. The experimental sounds spawned in 2024, they argued, would catalyze a kind of renaissance for Afropop, and once again, the genre would be ascendant, dominating global charts and award shows.
This rosy vision, however, failed to materialize this year. Instead, Afropop’s trajectory has been sporadic, occasionally worrying but also flush with exciting moments. Rema, who closed out last year as Afropop’s most assiduous innovator, on account of his subversive sophomore album Heis, mostly spurned his flirtations with the freewheeling potpourri of sounds he heralded. Of the four singles he released this year—Is It a Crime, Bout U, Kelebu, and Fun—three find him exploring a soft, R&B-influenced variety of Afrobeats. On the single instance when he attempted a return to the frenetic rhythms of Heis, through his single Kelebu, the market emphatically rejected it, despite a $10,000 challenge he floated to promote the record.
This notwithstanding, Afropop in 2025 received significant thrust from the underground scene. At certain moments, most notably the final quarter, it looked like we were back in 2019 when the barrier between the mainstream and the underground seemingly disappeared, allowing for cross-pollination between wildly disparate styles. The remix of Mavo’s Escalaladizzy, which features Zlatan, Shallipopi, and Ayra Starr, is perhaps the best illustration of the commingling between mainstream and underground acts this year. The acts on Escaladizzy II occupy different positions on the mainstream-underground spectrum. They each also possess singular styles. And yet their collaboration represents one of the most fruitful and culture-defining moments this year.
For all the excitement supplied by underground acts like Mavo and Zaylevelten, Nigerian music’s performance on the global stage is almost as tenuous as last year. No Afropop song debuted on the Billboard Hot 100, and certifications in global markets were sparse as were our Grammy nominations this year. The industry seems to be becoming more insular and many artists have started to jostle for spots on the home front as opposed to the international market. In an article for Culture Custodian, I argue that this might owe something to the isolationist sentiment that has pervaded nations of the world since Donald Trump’s second ascendancy. Across western nations there’s a sense that pop culture is swiveling toward a more conservative, traditional direction. Nowhere is this more pointed than in America’s Billboard Hot 100 chart, where Country Music and Pop have unclasped Hip Hop, Afrobeats, and R&B’s grip on the culture.
Against this fraught and frankly complicated backdrop, Afropop still worked its magic, supplying a surfeit of timeless moments—think Asake’s relentless evolution or how Shallipopi’s Laho took over the airwaves. Likewise, this year also spawned a trove of timeless music, which Culture Custodian has, in usual fashion, decided to canonize in the form of a definitive list.
- Hot Body, Ayra Starr
Without an album or a project this year, one might assume 2025 to be the year of rest and relaxation for Afrobeats’ princess. And that assessment may well be correct. She has relocated to New York, trading the high-octane pulse of Lagos for another kind of intensity. She has also taken to writing on Substack, which might suggest an intent to take life at a more measured cadence. But even so, she has been beyond phenomenal, making up for her sparse release cycle this year by displaying a level of precision that borders on uncanny: her singles and features this year have all been electric and potent. Nowhere is this more evident than in her single Hot Body, which became 2025’s unofficial summer anthem. Its premise is simple: “Look what a hot body can do.” But with its simple, wickedly catchy lyrics and beguiling melodies, it became one of the cultural monuments of this year.
- Billionaires Club, Olamide, Wizkid & Darkoo
2025 will be remembered as the year Olamide consolidated his status as one of the most formidable forces on Afrobeats’ tapestry. With Asake—to whom he had played the role of an avuncular figure—parting ways with YBNL, Olamide’s label, the 36 year old polymath finally found the time and thrust to focus more squarely on his career as an artist. His eponymous album Olamide is one of the better projects of this year. He also held a major show in the UK, at the OVO Arena, Wembley, London, in November. Billionaire’s Club, from his album, is perhaps the perfect metaphor for Olamide’s current headspace. With melodies that swoop and swoon majestically and aphorism-laden lyrics supplied by Olamide and his co-stars, Billionaire’s Club sounds like wealth personified.
- Nights in the Sun, Odeal & Wizkid
In many ways, Nights in the Sun is the perfect Christmas present for Afropop fans. It arrived late in November, on Odeal’s second project of the year The Fall That Saved Us, and offered the surprising delight of a Wizkid feature. For years, many fans of soft Afropop have wondered what Wizkid and Odeal, two artists who have championed the sound in the past few years, would sound like on a record. As such, Nights in the Sun stands as a fantasy made manifest. And indeed, the record sounds every bit like a dream. Over a soft, rhythmic production, Odeal and Wizkid supply lyrics tracing the arc between sexy and sensual.
- Laho II, Shallipopi & Burna Boy
Arguably the song of the year, Laho II thrums with undeniable infectiousness. The production is both mellow and entrancing, like the rhythms of a deft snake charmer. Spend a few moments listening and you’ll find yourself bobbing in lockstep with its beguiling rhythms. Shallipopi and Burnaboy are similarly mesmerizing. Across the song, they supply lyrics, dripping with debonair, that evoke a night out at the club.
- So Much Sense, Gabzy & Fireboy
So Much Sense, the lead single to Gabzy’s brilliantly riveting EP It’s Not You, It’s Summer, is one of the best kept secrets of this year. Here two virtuosos who have spent the better part of their careers straddling Afropop and R&B combine for a record that folds in the best parts of both genres. The storytelling is vivid and engaging in equal measure; and the duo takes turns conjuring a portrait of freshly blooming romance. The production is similarly mesmerizing, the perfect base for the beautiful vocals Gabzy and Fireboy supply.
- Fun, Rema
The title of Rema’s fourth single of the year might suggest merriment or hedonism. In reality, it finds the 25-year-old superstar grappling with a litany of profound subjects. Over London’s sultry production, Rema’s exudes an air of introspection as he sings about family problems, his rumored beef with Omah Lay, and struggling to keep his head up in the face of life’s vicissitudes.
- Badman Gangster, Asake & Tiakola
Asake spent the entirety of 2025 teasing an album—tentatively titled Money—which never arrived. Instead what we got were dozens of new hairstyles, a much celebrated performance with the Red Bull Symphonic orchestra in Brooklyn, countless exciting features, and two singles: Why Love and Badman Gangster. Why Love may have garnered immense commercial acclaim, appearing atop Apple Music’s most-streamed songs in Nigeria list. Badman Gangster however represents his most considered effort this year. Exuberant and yet wistful, the record finds Asake reflecting on the complexities of stardom
- Escaladizzy II, Mavo, Ayra Starr, Zlatan & Shallipopi
Every so often an artist spawns on the Afropop scene, seemingly from the ether, and maintains a fastidious grip on the pulse of the culture. Wizkid, Mr Eazi, Runtown, and more recently, Shallipopi and Odumodublvck, belong to this pantheon. Mavo, whose rise this year has been equal parts controversial and surreal, is the latest debutante of this group. And his single Escaladizzy, which originally featured underground rapper Wave$tar, is one of the most exciting songs of this year. The remix, Escalaladizzy II, brings together the triumvirate of Ayra Starr, Zlatan & Shallipopi who energize what was already one of the most boisterous tracks of this year.
- Lost, Fola & Kizz Daniel
It’s hard to think of an emerging artist who owned this year more than Fola. Building on the momentum he garnered last year, through his hit single Alone, he started the year by releasing a spate of exciting singles and features, which culminated in his debut album Catharsis. Lost, the standout on the album, finds him lovelorn, adrift, chasing a lover who is, by his account, only moved by money. Lost, crackles with the kind of twists and turns one might find in a romance novel. As such, listening can feel like losing yourself in Fola’s toxic-romance fantasia.
- With You, Davido & Omah Lay
Per an anecdote that Davido has repeated several times since the release of his fifth studio album 5ive, With You initially wasn’t billed to feature on 5ive. A last-minute inclusion however changed the fate of history. Despite its position as the last track on the album, With You, upon release, became an instant fan favorite. It’s not hard to see why: in a world steadily barreling towards chaos, its exuberant rhythms and festive air function as a charge to savor life’s little pleasures.
