X Notes From The Greatest School Tour Ever, University of Lagos

For both music and rave lovers, the Greatest School Tour organized by Odumodublvck, in conjunction with Mainland Block Party, is one of the best highlights of 2025. Most especially in recent years clouded with controversies centering around Nigerian artistes’ little to no inclination to tour cities in Nigeria, the Lagos-born Deltan rapper decided to tour several universities. Riding on the wave of his The Machine is Coming mixtape, which he calls a forerunner for The Industry Machine album, he toured Obafemi Awolowo University, Afe Babalola University, Olabisi Onabanjo University, etc, capping the weeks-long adventure at the University of Lagos, on the 13th of May, 2025. Unfortunately, the University of Ibadan didn’t get a date but this writer had the opportunity to attend his show in UNILAG. As an attendee of his last stop in Lagos, here are ten notes from the experience at the Sports Centre, University of Lagos:

I. The Internet underestimates an artiste’s reception offline.

‘Internet is not real life’ cuts across many topics and discourse like economy, finances, relationships, politics, and contextually in music. For an artiste who majority have claimed that he should be canceled for a perceived personality flaw which projects in his craft, Odumodublvck had tens of thousands of Nigerian youths come out to see him perform. It just reinforces the cliche that people go ahead to listen to songs from artistes they necessarily don’t like while holding opinions that one can’t really separate an artiste from their art. While canceling artists has been a recurrent theme in Afrobeats, a more delusional attempt is downsizing how much an artiste is loved by people offline.

Check out Zikoko’s piece asking Nigerians about separation of arts from artistes.

People are well within their rights to love an artiste and/or their craft to a certain extent, but expecting that other people would hold these artistes to that same level of regard is borne out of unwilling acceptance. A video of Ayo Maff performing at UNILAG circulated the internet and people tweeted that they were not aware that he’s loved by many. In light of how he’s rated compared to the likes of Tml Vibez, Bhadboi OML, T.I Blaze, etc. dominating the Afro-trenches soundscape, it’s not surprising to see such comments. Art communicates differently to people and acknowledging that, explains the reception of different artists offline.

II. If you don’t blow trees, there’s the tendency to feel unsettled at Raves/Concerts.

Smoking as an act done covertly either to not be profiled in a bad light or attract public attention; that was once upon a time. In the present day, there’s someone rolling up a blunt or lighting up a cigar stick at every turn. While there’s now more liberality to many less socially accepted practices, there are concerns about the effects of these acts on people around. At the show in Unilag, there was always someone smoking every ten feet apart. A non-smoker would almost have to move away from the concentrated spaces to breathe properly at the expense of actually enjoying the show. If they decide to remain in the crowd, they passively smoke as they breathe, making them feel unsettled, and more visibly hiding that feeling just to focus on the show.

It doesn’t even get better when the act is encouraged. Sometime during the show, Odumodu gave a shout-out to the fellow smokers in the crowd, while the DJ transitioned into HOTEL LOBBY by ODUMODUBLVCK featuring Anti World Gangstars. At that time, more fumes filled the air from buccal and nasal cavities. The song lyrics give the reason for the shout-out. While it’s a worthy compromise for many, feeling unsettled at a show you should enjoy is a concern.

III. Making music might come easy for many, but selling is hard.

Music is hard; music business is harder. Those first few hours of a campus tour when emerging acts open for the headliner explains the beginnings of many artistes. People go from legworking to the trendy street jam mix from the DJ to pressing their phones, uninterested in what an emerging act is singing as they come on stage. Some even go as far as yelling ‘Ọmọ, this your song no tap o’. To be fair, a good number of these underground artistes expect that reception but still summon the courage to perform their songs with the little time they’re given. Afterall, it is part of the story that makes up the journey of almost all mainstream artistes in Nigeria. A deeper reflection of the scenario makes one wonder how much energy and finances go into selling one’s craft in the music industry. The inexistent financial support for PR, is buffered with these appearances at campus tours and even that requires a great deal of courage to sell your music by performing to audiences that have probably never heard you before.

IV. You are not the craziest fan of an artiste.

It’s so refreshing to bond with strangers at a concert over common proclivities for an artiste’s craft. These concerts are also avenues to see how far people go to show their love for their favourite musicians. Someone on twitter made a tweet about how their friend had gone to the sports centre in Unilag two hours earlier when the show was expected to start by 4pm. Of course, the show didn’t start by 4pm but that’s not the point here; Odumodu saw the tweet and asked the person to manage to stay in front and shout their name for him to notice them. Another video circulated where a guy was seen singing passionately to many songs performed that night. It was recorded from somewhere close to the backstage and Odumodu saw the video and asked to know the guy. At the show, there was another fan that held a portrait of Odumodu above their head from the time he came upstage till the very end, approximately 2 hours, 30 minutes. In all my attempts to check if they got tired and dropped it, they did not. I could smell a desperate hope they had that Odumodu would notice the artwork. So many other people had the signature Okpu Agu hat on their head in likeness of the artiste’s identity. There are levels to the love, but there isn’t one person that’s the craziest.

V. Money/Influence speaks, even in the not-so-obvious things.

An even closer observation on the performances of the emerging acts that came upstage before Odumodu confirms the place of money and influence in very little things. First, all underground artistes that came upstage performed just one song of theirs. It’s a no-brainer that they’d go for the most commercially successful/generally appealing song to sell to the audience. Second, they have that one chance to introduce their craft to the audience and have to utilise it well notwithstanding reception of the majority. This was the trend until it was Siraheem’s turn to perform, the Bad Bitch Syndrome crooner. I, just like many others, wouldn’t have known it was his turn if the DJ had not played Bad Bitch Syndrome. Surprisingly, the song played for a while but Siraheem didn’t come out. People had begun singing along when the DJ cut it. This repeated itself twice and the crowd were beginning to lose it, wondering why an artiste’s song was playing and the artiste was not on stage to perform their song.
Siraheem eventually came out but didn’t even open with his most famous song. People around me made remarks insinuating how he could get the chance to still perform after the first two failed stints just because he is a son to the famous billionaire family, Okoya. Not only that he could still perform, but that he performed 4 songs, including an unreleased Bad Bitch Syndrome remix he allegedly has with some artiste whose name I didn’t pick through the noise. That might have felt normal to many but people can’t seem to shake the feeling that there’s the power of influence in the time allotted to him, amongst others.

VI. Standing is not a chore, as long as you get entertained.

Engrossment flips chores into hobbies. As a football fan, there are countless times I’ve stood on my feet to watch 120 minutes of football – that sometimes end in penalties – without feeling anything in my legs. The focus on the game takes one’s mind off whatever could be causing them pain at that moment. 120 minutes of doing the dishes will definitely not have the same effect because of interest level. Likewise in music concerts, people stand 3-4 hours watching so many artistes perform so many songs and they don’t feel the pain of standing for too long. In fairness, there’s a bit of dancing and jumping in those hours but it still doesn’t take away the fact that you’re on your feet. When you’re engrossed or entertained by something, only a very few things – if any – matter more in those moments.

VII. UNILAG is arguably the biggest vantage point for shows across most Nigerian Universities.

If you’ve seen tweets asking about places in Lagos that are closer to every other place in that same Lagos, Yaba floods the comment. And one of the landmark places in Yaba is the University of Lagos. To a certain extent, it explains why concerts in UNILAG would attract their students, people from its teaching hospital, LUTH, Idi-Araba; students from Yaba College of Technology; Federal College of Education, Yaba; Lagos State College of Health Technology, Yaba, etc. Lagos, being the biggest and most vibrant hub of entertainment in Nigeria, offers its federal university that advantage over many others. So even while UNILAG isn’t at its full strength in numbers owing to the recent resumption, you would still find tens of thousands in attendance at concerts hosted there.

VIII. Self-awareness is key, but still insufficient in the presence of crowds.

After Blvcksheep forever, Blvcksheep for life, izgaaju till we kpeme, Antiworldgangstars, GE Records, You Get Me, ODUMODUBLVCK, ‘It’s crazyyy’ was the second most echoed phrase at the show. And this came from Odumodu himself. Self-awareness is one very key trait of the Native signee, and he doesn’t shy away from making it known. He doesn’t wait for the public validation before making clear statements on his contribution to the culture, rightfully so. But even in that self-confidence and high esteem, he was taken aback by the reception that night. He opened with a song off The Machine Is Coming and while the project is barely two months old, people sang along like they co-wrote the record. He kept screaming ‘It’s crazyyy’. Phones were out; flashlights were on, necks were stretched, in their numbers as he came upstage. Every stop at each university wowed the superstar and he basked in it. The same could be seen in the famous video where Rema performed Calm Down shirtless at a show in Melbourne, Australia. He stood, kept mute, nodding in sync with the beat as the audience performed the song themselves. He was a superstar already, he was aware of how global he had become, but that moment was him soaking it all in.

IX. Time management is one of Nigerians’ biggest problems.

You can count on one hand how many shows headlined by a mainstream artiste in the last five years started and ended right on time in Nigeria. Aside from the obvious little inclination to tour in the country, when some eventually do a show or two, the disregard for humans and time is very telling in their planning. The last stop for the Greatest School Tour Ever was supposed to start by 4pm and end by 9pm in line with the university’s curfew on such events. However, as at 6:30pm, the crowd was still delayed at the registration point where they needed to scan a QR code sent to emails to get a wrist tag. Eventually, by 8pm thereabout, the barricades were open for entry and due to the numbers camped in front of the entrance, it was nearly impossible to check for tags. People stormed in, with a stampede almost happening at the entrance. For a show that should have started four hours before, people were just beginning to get into the mood as the DJ played.

A friend had confirmed that he was around the sports centre by 2pm on that day and he could tell that the show was going to start very late. The bus that conveyed the concert’s equipment had just arrived and it was near impossible to finish setting up in two hours. Most times, the bulk of issues like this come from the planners, a little from the artiste and their team. While the planners can be blamed for setting up late, the artiste encourages that by also arriving late probably because they also don’t want to be delayed. Odumodu came upstage at 9:30 pm and finished by 12 am, three hours later than the flier indicated. ‘African time’ is such an underrated issue that people shrug off as no big deal. It has contributed to the culture shock Nigerians have when they relocate to other countries. It has also become the reason many people would rather fly out to watch Nigerian artistes perform in foreign countries than get a ticket to watch them at home. The fan that arrived at 2pm would have spent 10 hours in total around the sports centre for a 4-hour show. That is a fan willing to do that, and has the time to spare, what about the thousand others that are very busy but create time to watch their favourites perform?

X. Mainland Block Party left a wholesome experience that would last a lifetime.

Campus tours across not one, not two, not three, universities in Nigeria where students did not have to pay a dime to watch artistes like Odumodu, Ajebo Hustlers, Wizardchan, Dandizzy, May D, Vector, Falz, Ayo Maff, Jeriq, Smur Lee, etc. perform is something I would never have predicted to happen. If these were to happen the customary way of giving Nigerian fans a show or two in Lagos or Abuja in December, tickets will be sold for nothing less than 5,000 Naira – and that might even be an early bird price. And even with that, there’s not a guarantee that you’d have a lineup as robust as we had in this tour. It had a momentous timing for the artiste’s career as he continues to push his most anticipated project, publicised his star power and pull, and reaffirmed his ever-growing influence on the young generation. Fans that watched him perform alongside some members of the Anti World Gangstars will hold onto that memory for the longest. Viral clips on the internet will register the digital prints of what might inspire a major shift in the industry’s touring scape in Nigeria.