Top 15 Recordings of 2025
Yuletide is for many things; felicitation, love, travels, concerts, dishes, introspection, reviews, reminiscent sermons of the reason for the birth of Christ, and Wrappeds. All of which campus journalists are not exempted from basking in. However, yuletide means one more thing for UIMSA Press CJs – Listicles. In upholding the three-year-old tradition, the UIMSA Press Entertainment desk will be releasing three lists. The first will feature the top 15 recordings put out in 2025. The second will highlight the top movies that graced our screens in the said year while the third and final publication will detail the top 15 projects from 2025. For the first, our rules remain the same old; songs that were released between January 1st and December 31st, 2025; recording artists must be of Nigerian origin. Recordings are selected based on the quality of the compositions and whatever impact they had. Importantly, these lists are arranged in no particular order and are reflective of our criteria so rest assured, we aren’t quite pursuing an agenda. Your hosts remain John, Gerald, Simeon, and Peter.
Let’s get into it!
The UIMSA Press’ top recordings list is a very competitive compilation and while we recognize the numbers of amazing records put out this year, only the top 15 makes this list. Here are the honorable mentions that indeed caught the attention of our hosts:
Methusela – Terry Apala
Wuse Tu – Zaylevelten, Mavo
Who’s Dat Girl – Ayra Starr, Rema
No Lie – Syntax, The Creator, Udo Nebo
Reverse Back – Oluwamillar, Bayou, MOJO AF
Ewo – Famous Pluto, Shallipopi, Zerrydl
NYE (Everywhere) – Tim Lyre, Joyce Olong
Favour – Lawrence Oyor
Him Kardashian – Santaklara
Now, to the main list:
Moon Eyes – Obongjayar
Drawing from the second of two notes on this afro-soul number, scribbled under December’s harsh sun rays, grants an affordance of the following reflections: One – Steven ‘Obongjayor’ Umoh is the troubadour in the pockets he occupies as a representation of alternative Black music rooted in Afrobeats, rock, and the UK jazz of bands like Ezra Collective; Two – another lyric poem with moon and flower symbolism isn’t such a bad thing, when the troubadour sings about the sun’s perfect slant on his lover’s face in an invocation of a sweeping memory; Three – flimsy whistles, kettledrum claps, and actual applause can make love with “Yeahs” out of a James Brown concert, to deliver reverential worship. Choral arrangements of “What’d I do to deserve you?” call out, echoing ‘Hyper-grace’ sinners at the foot of Christ; Four – That a song sounds like what you feel for your lover is never enough. That it is a gem in the artist’s cavern of sapphires isn’t always enough. That it surpasses the limitations of ‘best of the year’ and struts comfortably into all-timer residence, however, makes it worth your time. Moon Eyes, my baby.
John Eriomala.
UMI – FirstKlaz, Iliya Entertainment Music, wordsofAzia
“Umi Umi Umi Umi Umi Umi/In gya mi ki abuni a kuni kuni kuni kuni kuni/Do me, do me, do me, do me, do me, do me…”. When loosely translated, the opening lines of Umi mean “Mommy x6/If you want me to be happy/Do me, do me, do me, do me, do me, do me…”. Starting a track with these lines only means one thing—you are down bad. Umi is a sultry romance between two lovers, with Firstklaz presenting the male perspective and wordsofAzia presenting the female side. Firstklaz showers adulations on the physical attributes of his lover and makes suggestive insinuations about the time they will spend together, but she responds by saying,“I needed a ring on my finger/To share my love so freely /To feel the motions deeply…”. And when her conditions were satisfied, she did in fact share her love freely.
The track is oddly reminiscent of P-Square’s 2008 hit single Do Me. French-Ivorian, wordsofAzia complements Firstklaz’s lustful lyrics with her ever-so-soft croons to bring together an intimate experience.
Gerald Olokungbemi.
amapiano baddie$ – ARTSALGHUL
It is a marker of the ‘Amapiano fatigue’ that has plagued the Nigerian music industry in recent years that newcomer, ARTSALGHUL, would start off his breakout hit with the statement, “This beat is not for Shallipopi.” And indeed it was not. 2025 has seen many changes across the Nigerian music landscape, significant among these being the emergence of yet another young subculture entirely separate from the Alté movement that came years before.
A rueful organ strain in the background as bouncy drums set the tempo for ARTS’ narration of his escapades. It’s drugs, sex and more sex, the usual inspirations for many a rapper. Yet, his comical vulgarity still leaves one in disbelief at first listen. “Her pussy slap harder than my mumsy.” The young rapper continues with this trademark abandon as he stamps his lascivious style on the self-produced track. In a piece that comes across as an exercise in youthful rebellion, ARTS’ “She ask why I fuck her crazy, e mi ti mo ti m’oti. Me wey I don suffer for the hands of my konji,” aptly sums up his motivations in the production of this risque recording.
Osakwe Okojie.
Abasi – PayBac iBoro
PayBac, the most Nigerian Nigerian rapper, as culture critic Tomide Marv calls him, delivered this record off his first of two 2025 projects, Omoboy The Mixtape. It’s existentialism riding on the coattails of a four-chord loop and throbbing grand pianos, touching on everything from authenticity in Naija’s fragmented music space (“Omoboy, I’ll never sell my soul for a check/Different kettle, settle for a pot of gold, nothing less”) to carving out a loyal fanbase despite it all (“It’s a moshpit from Isolo to Mushin”). It’s vulnerability, a shibboleth of contemporary hip-hop, but without the associated corniness, nor attempting to compress an entire sub industry’s fears into 16s – or 25s, in this case.
Most importantly, it’s a hallmark record for one of the few voices left from that early 2010s class of Nigerian hip-hop. Abasi is a distant cousin of Gino’s “No Be God”, addressing ephemerality, praying that in death, one’s life be a celebration. Amen to that.
Fun fact: On 19/12/25, I watched three of the culture’s most industrious journos bop their heads in unison to a live performance of Abasi somewhere on the fringes of Lekki Phase 1.
John Eriomala.
WAGE WAR – Odumodublvck
Produced by 1Mind & Western Weiss, the 5th track off The Machine is Coming mixtape leans into that Afro-drill (staccato drums, menacing low-end, militant bounce). The record portrays defiance, self-assurance, and deep personal faith. True to its title and characteristic of Odumodu’s sometimes abrasive nature, the central motif of this track is conflict as a means of progress. He sings, “…which party wan test my gangster?/which label wan show their power?/Jesus dey my back, Him dey my corner…”. He then goes on to finish the line with a punch line about the English Premier League, Nottingham Forest, and Anthony Elanga.
Having leaned fully into his villain persona, Wage War declares war on all of his detractors, calling out what he perceives to be hypocrisy and imposing himself as “the guy”—the undeniable and unstoppable force of the Nigerian hiphop soundscape. His vocals assume the driver’s seat and have just enough air to cut through the bass. The record was made to prioritize his presence; he’s the weapon, and the beat is the battlefield.
Gerald Olokungbemi.
Wayyo Allah Na – OG Abbah
An unlikely candidate to take Nigeria by storm in 2025 was the Borno-born Mohammed Abubakar, more commonly known as OG Abbah. His very origin, discovered through the Born Talent Hunt in an Abuja IDP Camp, is a stark marker of the inequality and violence that continues to define this country and her relationship with her Northern territories. The North, and indeed many other parts of Nigeria remain underrepresented in national art and culture that seems only to focus its lens on Lagos State, and its specificities.
Wayyo Allah Na, in any case, has emerged, fueled by TikTok, as a fast-paced Hausa language anthem, a welcome change to the Yoruba love songs that populate Nigerian charts. The reaction of Northerners in seeing one of their own represented nationally is also particularly pleasant, as Universities across the country took the National University Games this year with the hard-hitting Hausa verses soundtracking their events. The song discusses OG Abbah being so young and turnt, people could kill him for his money. His resounding catchphrase, ka kashe (just spend it), is especially pertinent.
Osakwe Okojie.
Gbona – Zaylevelten
The top comment on Zay’s Glitch Africa performance reads: “Nigerian ug scene has never had anybody this talented”. I disagree with the sentiment, but I understand why some might not. His minute-long rendition of “Gbona” best captures the belief.
Tenski (as his producer alter-ego is known) wraps the musings of your not-so-average ‘working boy’ – dreams of Californian za, coco and wealth — in signature bouncy 808s. Call it affirmation. He bears all the sensibilities you’d expect from a frontman for the emerging generation; old enough to revere Santi and Shalli in equal measure. An Ikorodu boy commanding lingua in new exciting ways. Moshpit music that connects the mainland to the island, but also the diaspora. This record and the entirety of then 1t g0t crazy would earn a few nods (and wins) if the Headies Academy was worth its salt. Alas, Tenski can’t save them all.
John Eriomala.
SHAOLIN – Seyi Vibez
‘LoSeyi has never been conventional, and after the fallout with former distributor and record label Dapper, he resurfaced with a 4-track EP, Children of Africa. Shaolin, the third track on the project, simply sounds like grit in motion. Casting aside his usual melodic style, Seyi Vibez adopts “mara” sound with its characteristic methodical intensity to create a Nigerian rave classic that arguably could only be made when on pure, unadulterated “white.”
At the helm of production was Larrylanes, who very interestingly flipped Mo Hits’ 2007 hit, Booty Call, into this hard-hitting street-pop frame. It relies heavily on drums, with the opening beats pulsing like a ticking time bomb before being surrounded by soulful flutes. As expected, there was not much here lyrically. Highlights include recreation of Wande Coal’s hook on Booty Call, “…I love that booty x2/It’s a booty call!”. And the usage of popular cultural callbacks “…ti ina ba ku, ama tan gen/toba wun wa a le fa’ja…” “…everywhere good, everywhere pe che che che che che che che che…”. At the end of the 2:20 track, you will find that you have been tapping your feet as you listened, that is, if you are not already sweating from doing the mara dance (if the gods bestowed upon you the divine power).
Gerald Olokungbemi.
Why Love – Asake
Asake arrived in 2025 amidst a militaristic rebrand. With his army fatigues, clean-shaven head and bulging biceps, he looked every bit the part. Yet, the sweetest of love songs would usher in his recordings for this year. He was every part the condotierro, gallant in battle and poetic in love — the true Renaissance man.
His drawn out chant of “My bestie, you know I’m a soldier boy. But in your case, I will calm down,” typified this very outlook, setting the tone for this ballad of the lover and the fighter, just one more inclusion in this mould that dates back to Ancient Greece. Many struggled to understand what direction Asake’s music would really go after the rebrand that followed the Lungu Boy cycle, but if this is any indication, we sure are in for a treat.
Osakwe Okojie.
Lately – Davido
The Big 3 do not show signs of weakness often. But when they do — and do it well — like Burna on “23” and Wizkid on “MMS”, we see them as the humans they are, if only for a moment. “Lately” is Davido sine cera, bare, entry into this canon. Admittedly, Amapiano doesn’t readily come across as the genre to express loneliness (“Sometimes, sometimes, I dey weak I dey frustrate/I’m in my lonely place”) and pain (“When all I know is love/If you look deep into my eyes, you go feel the pain”) — at least, not Naija-piano. But it’s a potent vehicle nonetheless. A simple chorus-verse-instrumental break-verse-chorus structure unfolds neatly over Yung Alpha and Blaisebeatz log drums and stringed interpolation of Asake’s “Dull”. It’s not Davido’s strongest vocal performance, but he sounds distinctively hollowed out to the point where multiple fans on Twitter (not X in this household) have expressed strong emotional attachment to the track.
The next time another misinformed commentator complains about fans’ inability to connect to ‘well-written conscious music’, point out the soullessness of some of these records in contrast to a song like this and watch them twitch to infinity.
John Eriomala.
magic – Lasmid, TML Vibez
The first time the magic of this track really hit me was on my third listen of the album, Sweet Songs 4 You. It sneaks up on you, enraptures you, and never lets you go. The almost-divine chemistry between Lasmid and TML is evident throughout the album, but it really peaks here. Lasmid’s honeyed melodies weave in and out of TML Vibez’s rawer, street-hop energy, creating this delicious tension — like a lovers’ quarrel that somehow turns into a dance-floor embrace.
TML starts with, “Since i dey 14 me i dey your matter/when i’m satisfied me no wan stop chasing you/this your body bad, omo o wa pa…” Lasmid starts his with, “O babe, slow down/when I pull down the sheets I’m doing my magic/and your body like snake…”. In between both verses and after TML just floats on the chorus singing, “magic, magic is magic/this feeling is magic…”. The production is built around a clean log drum foundation, and the drums sit comfortably in the pocket, creating this hypnotic loop. But what I think really infuses the magic into Magic are the soft synth pads that hover just beneath the vocals, barely noticeable on first listen but crucial in giving the track its warmth.
Gerald Olokungbemi.
MONEY CONSTANT– Dj Maphorisa, DJ Tunez, Wizkid, Mavo
Much has already been intoned about Wizkid’s poaching of breakout artistes by Rema in the leaked song that would emerge at the start of this year, informally christened ‘Screech’. “I’m appalled, they can’t even ask me for a feature, they’ve gotta send their DJ or something. I might as well say no.” And while there remain misgivings about this approach, it certainly retains its merits. Wizkid, the wily old king, positioned atop Fela’s throne posits himself as the Vicar of the Sacred Snare, the very mouthpiece of the gods in modern Afrobeats. And communion with him is expected of any emerging artiste, encouraged even. The youths are more than happy to collaborate with a man many of them regard as an inspiration, and the Holy Father is able to rejuvenate his image by drinking the blood of youngsters.
Given Mavo’s run this year, that DJ Tunez call was bound to come sooner rather than later, and it was no surprise to see the Benin native, like Fola before him, hop on a dancefloor-ready hit with Big Wiz and his DJ. In any case, Money Constant was a resounding success in this format. Boosted by the addition of DJ Maphorisa, it proved a striking example of Nigeria-South Africa relations in music, Mavo taking to the Amapiano production like a duck to water. Wiz, to be fair, wasn’t half bad himself.
Osakwe Okojie.
I NO KNOW – Lady Donli
We owe JMS five years of uninterrupted power supply for that electric and base guitar solo. In a year of fantastic records with fantastic intros, this was the cream of the crop, setting the tone for Donli’s psychedelic longing.
She doesn’t know if they still love her. Yet, she sees them in her dreams. We hear her sing about being broken and wonder if she cheated first. Then she sings about believing their lies, cleaning their tears while the gaslight burns. “Na the way the love dey go, Hold on to the ones I know”. If I didn’t know better, I’d say she got an advanced copy of Fatimah Binta Gimsay’s short film Laraba and Balarabe, and spun it into verses. I’d also ask that someone check on all the millennials in love; you folks shouldn’t be navigating such waters.
Donli’s voice is pristine on this song (Our lady of rock and (socca? mambo?) rhythm, that you intercede for all stuck in their respective ‘ship’s). I NO KNOW is a reminder as to why she’s one of the four original horsemen of Alte – whether you go by that 2018 Guardian Life cover or doings over the years. It’s quite frankly the best recording I heard all year.
John Eriomala.
Baby (Is it a Crime) – Rema
P.Prime! Good Lord! What a talent. Baby (Is It a Crime) is a lesson in sample integration done right. Rather than letting the Sade sample dominate, the production isolates its emotional core, that lush, melancholic chord progression, and rebuilds it within an Afrobeats framework. The sample is filtered and softened, sitting in the background, while modern percussion drives the track forward.
Rema teased the release of the song back in November of 2024, with a memorable video and first verse, making it one of the most anticipated releases of 2025. When finally released, Rema seductively sings the chorus after Sade’s haunting question,“Is it a crime that I still want you?/and I want you to want me too?” Sensual energy is on full display as Rema turns on his ‘bad boy’ charm, expressing his infatuation with his love interest with his familiar Pidgin English and Yoruba.
One thing that bears mentioning is how the second verse is just as good—if not better—than the earlier teased first verse. He just glides with lyrics like, “As i get opportunity, why i no mount am?/IG algorithm no fit comot my hand for your matter/I dey see girls wey bad but you badder…”. It is a mid-tempo groove that P.Prime and Rema deliver effortlessly, and as rightly described by an upcoming legend, this is afrobeats ‘baby-making music’ hall of fame.
Gerald Olokungbemi.
Gates of Heaven – Subaru Live Radio, Cruel Santino, Ravington, T6Lu
Even amidst this underground wave that threatens to usurp all that came before, the Alté Godfather is not one to back down without a fight. And Gates of Heaven valiantly wrestled back control of the narrative. Ravington’s vocals stand out as the centrepiece of this track—husky, gritty pronunciation, adding layers to the bouncy Tochi Bedford production. And still, Santi and T6Lu complement the young Ikorodu resident. It’s an altogether eclectic mix, still coalescing into a final product that appears as though the trio were made for this very moment. An easy jam reminiscent of long walks on the beach, Gates of Heaven is just the very representation of a burgeoning Lagos subculture.
Osakwe Okojie.
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