Shallipopi’s Incandescent Takeover of Afrobeats

‘Elon Musk,’ the March 2023 song which catapulted Shallipopi to national fame, was a freestyle. He makes lightwork of that fact during interviews but it speaks to his linguistic ingenuity that he doesn’t write his songs, rather allows experience to flow through him, unencumbered. Especially amongst a vibrant and primarily male audience, that song was undoubtedly the year’s first hit record, the then-21-year-old relaying his perspective on the immediate world around him.

Six months earlier, he had put out ‘Power,’ which had a similarly mellow sound and whose vocal direction showcased his rap roots more poignantly. Running under three minutes, it was the manifesto of a young man blazing his path towards the reality he desired. As with his other songs, the weight of young experiences were paired with an older man’s appreciation for witty wisdom, which often provides captionable lyrics such as, ‘In this world I gat nothing to lose na, in this world I gat no one to choose now/ You came to this life on your own, and I guarantee you will be leaving alone’. It’s not exactly socratic philosophy but when you come from where Shallipopi comes from, where young men his age are caught up in the throes of their excesses, then such perspective becomes an unlikely ascension beyond the mindstate the American rapper Kendrick Lamar, in his seminal album To Pimp A Butterfly, evokes through the evolution of the caterpillar.

The signs were evident with ‘Shaka’—the musicality of Shallipopi was developing. A conflagration of Pidgin English, Yoruba and his inherent Benin City sensibilities, the song pulled together cornerstones of the Nigerian pop music style, reminiscent of the sort of songs Wizkid would release during his Superstar era. Depicting a lust for bodies was the thematic preoccupation of the youngster, moving past the stark street narratives he evoked on previous records. The markings of a pop star were visible on the lithe frame of his approaching celebrity. Then came ‘Elon Musk,’ then came love, then came recognition and along with its sustained zest, perhaps, immortality.

Early last year, the country’s sonic centre was still very much influenced by the crowd vocals technique popularized by Asake in 2022. That artistic stacking of voices, an evolution of the traditional call-and-response, was known to elicit chants from listeners but which depended, really, on how interesting the call was. By any metric, ‘All these Elon Musk boys,’ even while addressing a niche demographic, had a sweet ring that made many more want to scream: ‘Para dey body!’ Throughout the first half of last year, that call-and-response was audible across the country. From street corners to nightclubs and secondary school parties, people caught the buzz. Suddenly it was cool to become addressed as an ‘Elon Musk boy’, the song giving colourful language to the hyperactive world of online dealings that was the zeitgeist.

Beyond that communal aspect of the music, ‘Elon Musk’ also saw Shallipopi introduce the cache of street slang and code talk that would form the lyrical core of his mythos. Words like Pluto and Evian would come to represent the communicative standards of the world Shallipopi has built, with inventiveness and tact, and within which he sits, glorious, like those Obas of old.

Shallipopi is outside. We’re supposed to have started the scheduled interview some thirty minutes before but when you’re the hottest artist at the moment, events quickly position themselves seeking your attention and timelines shift. It’s part of the realisation that comes with telling certain stories, especially of people whose worlds orbit very different realities to yours. Shallipopi is outside and he’s left a fast food building; the background reveals a fruit seller’s wares, her bewildered eyes fixated on the superstar. This is understandable, considering it’s not an everyday sight in mainland Lagos, some distance away from the glossy allure of the island where many public figures reside.

When he gets into his car, he’s ready to start the interview and I’m already going through my first question but there are more distractions. People, mostly women, peer from outside his rolled-down windows and request pictures with him. Quite gracious, he lets them have their mementoes, one, two, three until a small cluster of people are gathered not far off, watching the scene. He’s a boisterous young man, easily smiling and returning cheerful greetings. ‘Later, later, I get interview,’ he tells them, pointing to his phone’s screen. On the other end I’m smiling as well but tickling at the back of my head, I knew it wasn’t going to be a conventional interview. I would have to follow his rhythm.

In July 2023, Shallipopi released Planet Pluto. A six-track EP, that hit-laden project solidified his standing as one of the country’s trailblazing acts. By then, he was signed to Dvpper Music, and introduced to the revelatory company which counts T.I Blaze, Balloranking and Seyi Vibez amongst its signees. This is an exciting detail because Shallipopi orbits the circles of street pop, and conversations about that inventive subgenre have tended to exclude other budding scenes around the country, most notably Benin which, along with Port-Harcourt, is holding the south down.

‘Benin was very difficult,’ says Shallipopi about his time growing up in the city. ‘The struggle was unreal so we had to do anything to survive. I’ve been doing music for a very long time, going to studios, going to different places just to let people know I have my own type of sound and they should listen to it’. With the ‘Elon Musk’ remix featuring Zlatan and Fireboy DML, the landscape was set for Shallipopi to come in and make his mark. He didn’t just make a mark—he set a precedent for artists coming after him, to represent the local even while having intercontinental ambitions.

‘Obapluto,’ the opening record of Planet Pluto, was proof of his documentary gaze. Its chorus was a classic sample of Monday Edo-led ‘Ogbasi,’ a 1996-released record by the Ebohon International Theatre Troupe, which was a soulful ode to Oba Ovonramwen, whose exile by the British took him to Calabar, and thus becoming the last independent Oba of Benin. Ovonramwen is arguably the most revered Oba and on the song, that energy of focus is replicated in the verses of Shalli, summoning the zest of traditional worshippers visiting the sea, his words interwoven with Benin oral poetry and his signature hype man-esque chants. It is this assuredness of Shallipopi that makes him so loved, the freedom of perspective he’s used in approaching delicate matters.

A copyright issue was quickly resolved by the artist and the sampled singer appeared on its visuals. ‘Ex-Convict’ made light of his time in detention during an investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, flipping what presented a dangerous outcome into an exhilarating record about the excesses of young lifestyle. The line ‘So I start to dey bend her like Benz’ works in such a song due to its understated innuendo but also the specificity of the Benz car, whose place in the contemporary imagination is championed among young people emerging from the streets, seeking those symbols of financial prosperity that once eluded them as a means of turning their narratives from struggle to bliss. It is that demographic he speaks the most to, not only matching their vivacity for language but also soundtracking the joy of community. On ‘Speedometer,’ he sings, ‘Who fall before go rise again on a speedometer,’ an embrace of motivation and solidarity. ‘Sharpiru,’ which was earlier released as a single, fits into the EP like gloves on Michael Jackson’s hands. His motivational ethos continues on ‘Ahead Ahead,’ an early favourite from the project whose zesty delivery made illuminating the generational desire to ascend the geographical and institutional limitations placed on young people.

The contemporary Nigerian music landscape has seldom seen a musician like Shallipopi. Who else releases an EP and an album in their breakout year? It’s not a feat that shines off quantitative output, because each song has measured up to a visible whole, the amapiano-influenced sound is largely cohesive but with minute touches of detail so that ‘Elon Musk’ sounds nothing like ‘Speedometer,’ the same way that ‘Obapluto’—heralded by many as his best song yet—has little sonic resemblance with ‘Ex Convict’. In that regard working closely with Busy Pluto, who produces all but one record on his album, has created the focus in his catalogue, the reason why has so much in the vault, a beast of productivity.

Presido La Pluto is the debut album of Shallipopi. He tells me he began recording the album immediately after he returned from London in late August 2023, where he performed alongside Asake and Olamide at the former’s show at the O2 Arena. United on that stage, it was a groundbreaking moment of some sort, as the trio represented variant sensibilities within the Street Hop movement. Anyways, Shallipopi returned inspired and crafts an indelible profile of the assured superstar as we hear on Presido La Pluto. I asked him what Pluto means. ‘Pluto means many things,’ he said just before he was again asked for a photograph. It’s an interesting aspect of his interviews, how elusive he seems while revealing intimate parts of himself.

Days before we conducted our interview, Shallipopi trended on social media for all the right reasons. Viewers were intimated about his life and thought process through the Zero Conditions podcast episode, hosted by the Nigerian media professionals Excel Joab, Motolani Alake and Melody Hassan. ‘Suffering, suffering, suffering, enjoyment’—that is how he describes his childhood to the hosts, the early minutes spent moving around trivialities before he finally opens up, among other things speaking candidly about his music, his tattoos, the manifestation of traditional beliefs in his native Edo State, that which he calls Evian in his music. But even then he makes the point that ‘too much explanation no dey good sometimes’ which, as someone who grew up in the hood of Ajegunle in Lagos State, is upheld as truth.