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“‘Cruise [music]’ means something funny,” says producer DJ YK, explaining the latest music style to emerge from Lagos, Nigeria. “We put stupid samples on it. It’s music that will make people laugh while dancing. It is like a kind of comedy.” Ironically enough, he’s not joking: Standing in radical contrast to the slick and aspirational musical styles from West Africa that have gone global over the course of the past decade—most of them bundled together under the umbrella of Afrobeats—cruise music is raw, rowdy and in many ways ridiculous. Samples from video memes and TikToks are roughly slammed together over lo-fi beats that resemble a kind of hyper-syncopated house or techno—often reaching a techno-like 130bpm. These sounds provoke delirious dance moves, complete with crazed facial expressions, not only in clubs but also on TikTok, which is the main medium for the music’s spread.

Indeed, the only “official” release of cruise, or freebeat, tracks—via the UK label Moves—came about because of TikTok. “I was looking for amapiano tracks ,” says Moves founder Ian McQuaid, “and I kept seeing that the people in Lagos who were dancing to amapiano would also have clips of themselves dancing to this new style, which was like amapiano, but was way faster and more distorted. I loved it, because it reminded me of raw UK styles like hardcore or jungle—or even punk.”

The punk comparison isn’t a flippant one. The Nigerian music industry has been booming, but as often happens, that success has created a separation between the “haves” and the “have nots.” According to McQuaid, the most successful Afrobeats producers can charge as much as $10,000 for a beat, and spending $100,000 on a video is not unknown—a sum that way out of reach of youngsters in the “trenches,” or slums, of Lagos. As DJ YK puts it: “We called this ‘freebeat’ because the beats were given away for free, and ‘cruise’ because we’re not taking it too serious.”

The rough production and deliberate foolishness of the new music is a middle finger to the sports-cars-and-suits aesthetic of more established artists. “It’s kind of a threat to some DJs,” says DJ Cora. “They try to define us now as ‘trenches DJs.’ We are bringing locality to light, we are trying to globalize the local style—cruise—and we will give them something to worry about! Every day, cruise is going global. The DJs that don’t play it? They’re going to have a problem.”

Indeeed, the music’s spread has been explosive. The tracks were originally designed to be throwaways—as McQuaid says, “They were made on demos of Fruityloops software so nobody could save the files. They only exist as really low bitrate recordings meant for TikTok.” But demand for the sound is now huge. Cora says cruise is played, “anywhere now—not just clubs, but weddings. Any kind of party, everyone gets into cruise beats. It doesn’t matter if it’s kids or adults, they all request it…It greenlights the party. In Nigeria right now, it’s: No cruise beats? No party.”

The music’s emergence from the “trenches” is in no small part thanks to The New Afrika Shrine , an open-air venue in Lagos created by the family of the city’s most famous son : Fela Aníkúlápó Kuti. The New Shrine is a tribute to Fela’s original club, The Shrine. “It’s one of the few clubs where working-class people feel comfortable going,” says McQuaid. “The DJs there had been playing amapiano, and people were demanding their own sped up Nigerian take that’s that much more immediate. And that, in turn, made other DJs and other clubs take notice.” The parallels with Fela’s own music, with its from-the-streets rebellion, is striking.

Moreover, YK emphasizes the speed of the music’s evolution. “I take something from TikTok, I make it into a vocal on a beat, I put that onto TikTok, and as soon as I do it, everyone says, ‘OK let’s take that and make a video on the street, let’s make a dance.’ They respond to the comedy in it—this is for creative people.”

There’s a palpable sense of pride in this DIY movement. “This is our style, our tempo,” says Cora, “and the dances come from our friends. The fashion sense is still streets, because you are representing the streets. You are taking the streets to another level. To understand the style, you have to be familiar with the streets. Cruise means something funny, something fun, but in order to understand that, you have to know the streets.

How truly global the music will go is anyone’s guess. Moves only released the first tracks internationally in May, the kickoff for a series that will total four multi-artist EPs and a full-length compilation by the end of 2022. And in Nigeria, the spread is still haphazard, with no structured industry around it to speak of—just TikTok, free mp3s, and an increasing ecosystem of DJs, throwing cruise/freebeat down alongside other popular styles.

McQuaid points to the success of the track “ Zazoo Zehh ” by Portable—which features established singer/rapper Olamide , and which is now approaching 10 million streams—as a sign that vocalists are becoming more willing to jump on the uptempo beats, bringing the music further into Nigeria’s mainstream. Both Cora and YK have diverse tastes, and mix cruise with other music when they DJ—Cora with Afrobeats and rap, YK with EDM. (“I will definitely make more tracks with an EDM style in future,” he says.) However the next phase of freebeat’s evolution plays out, there’s no question that a fuse has been lit, and a real musical explosion is taking place. Or, as Cora puts it: “A fresh movement is a chance to spread across the globe!”

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Nigerian Cruise Music: The Rhythmic Journey to Relaxation

Nigeria's rich and diverse musical landscape is not limited to just Afrobeat, Highlife, or Hip-Hop. It also boasts a unique and vibrant genre known as "Nigerian Cruise Music." This sub-genre provides a refreshing escape from the hustle and bustle of daily life, offering a sonic journey that embodies relaxation and leisure.

The Birth of Nigerian Cruise  

Nigerian Cruise Music, often referred to simply as "Cruise Music," emerged in the late 20th century as a distinct genre within the Nigerian music scene. Its roots can be traced back to Highlife and Juju music, two of Nigeria's most influential traditional music genres. However, Cruise Music carved out its own niche by focusing on a slower tempo, smooth melodies, and lyrics that often explore themes of love, romance, and leisure. 

What Makes it Nigerian Cruise? 

• Smooth Melodies: At the heart of Cruise Music are smooth and soothing melodies that evoke a sense of relaxation. These melodies are typically  delivered by a combination of instruments like guitars, keyboards,  saxophones, and trumpets. 
• Laid-back Rhythms: Cruise Music is characterized by its laid-back rhythms, often featuring slow-tempo beats that encourage listeners to unwind and take  it easy. This rhythm is a departure from the high-energy beats found in many  other Nigerian genres. 
• Captivating Vocals: The vocal delivery in Cruise Music is mellifluous and expressive. Singers use their voices to convey emotions and tell stories of love  and leisure. These vocals often take center stage in the genre's songs. 
• Relatable Lyrics: The lyrics of Cruise Music songs are relatable to many listeners, as they often explore themes of love, relationships, and everyday  life. These lyrics resonate with people from all walks of life, making the genre  inclusive and accessible. 

Prominent Cruise Music Artists

• Several talented Nigerian artists have made significant contributions to the Cruise  Music genre, including: 
• Sir Victor Uwaifo: A legendary musician, Uwaifo is often regarded as one of the pioneers of Cruise Music. His timeless hit "Guitar Boy" remains a classic in  the genre. 
• Orlando Owoh: Known for his smooth vocals and mastery of the guitar, Orlando Owoh was another influential figure in Cruise Music. His songs, such  as "Mawo Mi Roro" and "Iyawo Olele," are cherished by fans. 
• Sunny Okosun: While Sunny Okosun is famous for his contributions to various Nigerian genres, his Cruise Music hits like "Fire in Soweto" showcased his  versatility and contributed to the genre's popularity. 

The Impact of Cruise Music 

Nigerian Cruise Music has made a lasting impact both within Nigeria and beyond its borders. While it may not have achieved the global recognition of Afrobeat or  Hip-Hop, it holds a special place in the hearts of many Nigerians and has a  dedicated fan base. The genre's calming and relatable nature has made it a favorite choice for romantic settings, relaxation, and unwinding after a long day. 

In recent years, Nigerian Cruise Music has experienced a resurgence in popularity, with contemporary artists incorporating its elements into their music. This blending of old and new styles ensures that Cruise Music continues to evolve and stay relevant in the modern music landscape. 

Nigerian Cruise Music offers a delightful escape from the frenetic pace of life, inviting listeners to slow down and savor the moment. Its smooth melodies, relatable lyrics, and laid-back rhythms make it a cherished genre that has left an indelible mark on Nigeria's musical heritage. As the genre continues to evolve and inspire new generations of musicians, it remains a testament to the enduring power of music to soothe the soul and evoke emotions.

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CRUISE! The new DIY sound of Nigerian nightlife

Thanks to the likes of DJ Cora, Slimfit and DJ Stainless, the Lagos cultural underground is alive with a cutting-edge new club sound. We investigate the scene’s rapid evolution, speaking to some key players as cruise looks set to go global

Words by Skye Butchard

A new genre of homegrown electronic music is forming in Nigeria – so new that no one has settled on a name yet. Some are calling it ‘freebeat’. That’s how producers tag the beats when posting them on local blogs (which are also full of bootlegs and unofficial mixtapes) but that’s just because they’re free mp3s. 

The other name floating around is ‘cruise’, a descriptor which emphasises the freewheeling and joyful nature of the sound. Producers like DJ YK, Slimfit and DJ Stainless are some of the pioneers in this fast-moving and chaotic scene. Part deconstructed amapiano, part meme music, its creators bring the no-nonsense energy of ’80s Chicago house, and jack up the tempo for street dancers. 

“Most people in Lagos are ‘cruise people’,” says cruise producer DJ Cora. “They love to laugh, they love to dance. They want to hear things that make them laugh, dance and scatter body.”

“It was ostensibly stuff that people were putting out there for vocalists and rappers to jump onto,” explains Ian McQuaid of MOVES Recordings , who are helping to document this scene through a compilation release. “More often, the dancers were downloading this stuff and then speeding it up, putting on TikTok and making dances. Within a couple of months, producers were putting out records that were reflecting the speed of the dances themselves. You could see this virtuous circle was being created on social media.” 

As part of a label that specialises in showcasing undervalued strains of dance music from across the globe, the sound instantly caught McQuaid’s attention. To state the obvious, cruise is incredibly distinct and ear-grabbing. Low bite-rate samples are triggered and retriggered over hectic but minimal instrumentals. Songs are often just a couple of minutes, and follow no traditional pop format. They operate more like on-the-fly DJ cuts, uploaded directly from a cracked version of FruityLoops. When McQuaid reached out to his contacts in Lagos, the impact of this sound became obvious. 

“It turned out that on an underground level, this thing was blowing up massively,” he says. “For me it was the first example of what you could call a homegrown Nigerian techno sound.” There’s a practical reason for the frantic nature of the beats, too. Just take the incessantly looped producer tags, which were borne out of necessity, but now feel like a built-in feature:

“All of the producers now know that they break their tunes on TikTok,” McQuaid explains. “Audiomack is another big platform for it. The reason it goes on there, and the reason you’ll hear producer name tags all the way through the tunes, is that there’s a lot of scurrilous behaviour that goes on. The dancers are not tagging the producers when they upload it, because they’re trying to build their own brand. As a response to that, as a producer, the only chance you’ve got of people knowing that you made this tune is if you hammer your name tag all over it.

“That’s a very pragmatic way to ensure that you get the attention that you want. That’s an example of it quite clearly affecting the content of the music by responding to the form and the way it’s being shared.” 

“It’s important because when I first started making beats, my beats were popular but I wasn’t getting any recognition,” agrees another cruise producer, DJ YK. “I made the viral ‘Ogo Agege’ beat but many people don’t know because my tag wasn’t on it, so artists just took it and were making their own songs from it. A friend of mine noticed and advised I start adding these skits to it so that there’s no space for anyone to record over it, and over time people fell in love with it because they find it funny, entertaining and it makes them dance. Now it’s my signature as it distinguishes me from other people.”

The conversation between producer and dancer has led to an exciting evolution in how cruise sounds. Producers work at a flat-out rate, throwing everything at their beats to see what will catch on with the dancers. This reveals that people’s tastes are often far weirder than slick pop producers estimate. 

Take DJ Stainless’ ‘No Comment Freebeat’, a borderline atonal one-note jam that rides a midi guitar into oblivion for over three minutes. Whatever sticks for one producer ends up influencing the freebeats that get posted on TikTok for the next few weeks. 

“I draw inspiration from Instagram and other social media sites,” explains DJ Cora. “People keep tagging me on these videos and sending these memes to me and they’ll say, ‘Can you add a beat to this so we can dance?’ Once I get the vocals, it takes me an hour or two to get a beat ready. The inspiration comes from the vocal, if it’s the kind of vocal that suits makosa, I’m going for makosa production, if it fits street I’m going to do street vibe, if the vocal fits amapiano, I’ll do amapiano vibe.”

DJ YK’s process is similar. “TikTok is where my sounds do the best. As creators use my sounds, they spread fast.” Like Cora, he makes his beats fast too. “Say about 15-20 minutes.”

The rapid creativity of cruise has been the biggest hurdle for MOVES, as they release the first international compilation of cruise beats as a four-part EP series. Nevertheless, documenting the early days of this movement has been a rewarding task. 

“We’ve signed some stuff that’s going to be coming out six months after you’ve signed it, which is crazy when things are moving so quickly,” McQuaid says. 

That’s made even more of an issue given the EPs will be releasing on vinyl during a time where pressing plants are badly falling behind on orders. The incongruity of capturing such an intentionally disposable and digital sound on record was too good to pass up on, though. 

“We wanted to print on vinyl because we wanted to do this kind of ludicrous thing of taking this ‘throwaway’ sound and putting it on a record. Vinyl is a ridiculous format – it’s an antiquated luxury format, which I quite like. But I liked the wrongheadedness of taking this complete throwaway thing, which in some cases it’s just mp3s without any real project files. ”

Cruise is not yet in its final form, and there’s no way of knowing where it’ll end up. “I’ve no idea where this thing will be in six months’ time,” says McQuaid. “It’ll probably be growing and spreading. I’m also aware of the distorting lense of bringing foreign money into stuff. It’s like quantum physics; when you measure something you change its position. 

“I don’t want our presence to have a distorting effect in a negative sense. I want to be able to support people to grow in the way they would have done naturally, and like the best scenes, they tend to grow outside of the limelight to get to a solid place before they blow. I know it’ll change. I think it’ll grow first before you see the changes, but it’ll be driven by what people start dancing to.”

“I see it as a new thing,” says DJ Cora. “I can say I’m the first of the DJs that started cruise, I see it as something that people hadn’t really indulged in when I started. Once I started it, I saw a lot of attention, a lot of opportunities. That was when I became conscious of what I was doing.”

In the beginning, McQuaid and MOVES reached out directly to artists on social media. Some of the download links even had phone numbers attached. That led him to artists like Slimfit. Next was DJ Cora’s manager. Some were harder to find than others, like DJ YK, who has since become one of the most prominent figures within the scene. 

Soon, he was building relationships via WhatsApp, and setting up cross-continent meetings with producers and their managers. This unorthodox approach wasn’t without its problems. 

“There’s a lot of culture clash. None of these people have had any kind of experience of mainstream DSPs [streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music]. There’s a lot of distrust. There’s a lot of people thinking that you’re scamming them. Sometimes it’s good, because you get challenged on a lot of basic stuff that you just take as read. If someone says ‘Why is it like that?’, you have to think, ‘Well, why is it like that?’ If it doesn’t make sense and they want to change it, you think, ‘You’re right, I’m wrong, let’s change it.’”

This fluid, non-traditional approach mirrors how exciting it is to follow the music itself. The artists and the label have been keen to use the immediacy of the platforms they work on to their advantage, spotting gaps that antiquated parts of our industry simply don’t see. 

“The technology has enabled us to speak and engage with so much more immediacy. I can phone someone up at any time – or more realistically they can phone me day or night, which is what often happens. We’ve got tunes now where people have been WhatsApping demos and slapping a verse on in one place, and sending it onto the next place. For me, there’s a new route that completely circumnavigates all the traditional structures of power and control that are largely in a very small group of companies. We’re finding ways to work around that and hopefully give artists better deals using the tools that we have.” 

Here we can see that cruise is part of a bigger conversation, in which artists on the outside aren’t let in until it’s overwhelmingly obvious that their sound is part of the current landscape. At that point, they’re exploited, their sound diluted, and the money often wasted.

“Everything is still done in the same way.” McQuaid says. “It’s unconscionable that a label can take an 85% cut of someone’s money. That only made sense if you were making physical products and you controlled all the distribution systems. How the hell was someone going to get a record in Taiwan from Hull without a huge machine behind it? Now, I can do that with a Tunecore account. What the majors have done is started ramping up video budgets to justify this huge swinging amount of royalty rate, to tell artists who’ve got to be on this level which makes it beyond the reach of most people. That’s bullshit. You don’t need that.”

In Lagos, that process has resulted in a divided culture, where those without lavish lifestyles on the Island (aka Victoria Island, an exclusive, affluent part of Lagos) don’t have music that’s about their own lives. After the Afrobeats explosion around artists like Burna Boy and Wizkid, huge production budgets became a selling point for many artists, promoting an unattainable lifestyle that alienated some of its listeners. Cruise is in some ways a response to that. Like the familiar narrative of the original punk scene growing out of a desire to subvert a bloated and expensive prog-rock market, cruise has developed out of necessity and community spirit.

“It’s created a void where this music has come in to fill,” says McQuaid. “It’s cheap. It’s very DIY. Anyone can make it with a shit laptop and a rip of FruityLoops. It’s found a gap where people actually need something that reflects their lives, as opposed to the aspiration of the mega-rich. There was a big gap where the scene was providing what people needed.”

The filling of that gap can be seen in real time at New Afrika Shrine, a venue co-managed by Femi Kuti . Unlike many other club venues that cater to high earners, the Shrine has an open door policy that makes it accessible to working-class people who are frequently priced out of other live music venues. At the club’s afterparties, venue goers started requesting sped-up amapiano, and eventually, original freebeat tracks. That sound began to bleed into venues elsewhere. Now, a rural and unpretentious street sound is beginning to take over Lagos. 

This has also led to smash crossovers, like Portable’s ‘ ZaZoo Zehh’ , produced by P Prime. Prime made the smart move to reign in some of the wilder tendencies of the sound, sculpting into a more accessible form, and the results have pushed cruise into the mainstream. Hybrid forms of cruise seem to be popping up everywhere.

“What makes this exciting to follow is that it is driven by people’s burning desire to make music, outstripping the technical requirements that might hold them back,” says McQuaid. “It’s is comparable to the early house music scene, or the early grime scene, or jungle, hardcore, or jersey club – any of these really exciting dance music scenes. There’s always been this incredible creative moment where there’s no rules. No one even knows what it’s called. The people making this, they don’t think there’s any sort of reward attached to it. They’ve not come from that position. They’ve come to get these tunes out to dancers. Quite a lot of them are erratic people. There’s a certain wildness in it. I find that incredibly exciting because it’s music where as much as possible, the distorting influence of commerce has been minimised.”

At its heart, cruise is a vehicle for a constant stream of bangers, simply because that matters more than anything else to the people making it, and the dancers dancing to it. What’s notable is that many of these songs are constructed like punchlines. DJ Cora’s Street Virus mixtape ends in a flurry of fart samples for no other reason than it’ll make people chuckle. Even in the most serious and substantial examples of a cruise song crossing over, there’s a sense of fun that permeates everything. 

In a recent mix for CRACK , DJ Cora was given the task of representing cruise on an international platform for the first time. His mix is a giddy and energetic journey through the various strains of Nigerian street and club music, not discriminating between afrobeat, amapiano or any other related sound that you might hear when walking through a neighbourhood in Lagos. It’s an ideal entrypoint for anyone interested in the genre. 

“I want people to be familiar with DJ Cora, to associate DJ Cora with cruise when they hear it,” he says when we mention the mix. “Cruise is happiness. Cruise is what will make you happy. When you laugh you’ll be happy. When people hear DJ Cora they’ll hear happiness; DJ Cora is happiness; DJ Cora is cruise.” 

Just like the Cruise! EP series, his mix highlights the conversation happening between creators, and between the audience editing the tracks for their own purposes. There’s a sense of healthy competition within the scene which makes it exciting to follow – even with all the ripping off and unofficial uploading that goes on. 

This is a crucial turning point for a genre that, in places like the UK, might be dismissed simply for the cheap-looking single covers and its freebie delivery; yet to do so would be to miss out on music that’s hard to listen to without beaming. 

“I honestly wish I could take my sound more than Nigeria,” says DJ Cora. “I want to travel to more countries, maybe Kenya, so I can use their shit, what’s trending there, for cruise. I’m sure they’ll love it.”

“In many cases, the stuff that’s seen as the most throwaway in society often goes on to define it,” McQuaid says. “That’s what I think is happening here. It’s a process I’ve seen happen a number of times. I’m old enough to know that when things are demonised as useless crap in the mainstream, we should be paying attention to it.”

Lead photograph by Olapixels

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• Lists & Guides

Crashing into Nigeria’s cruise beat generation

Cruise beats is the new hyper-fast sound popping off in Lagos outskirts, going viral on TikTok with cheeky voice samples and providing the soundtrack to apartment parties and legwork dancers hunting for more bpms.

Welcome to the #cruisebeat rabbit hole. Look out for virus sounds, “ e dey shakes ” and free mp3 downloads. This is where you find wahala djs and TikTok deadends. It’s DIY sonics that saturate speakers and a pollyannaish punk ethos made for carnal relief. Hold on tight. The waters are deep and it’s hard to keep up. Who did, what’s hot and how it came to be is all on a content treadmill that moves at the pace of a trigger-happy TikTok feed. Signposts? Some Afrobeats melodies, an amapiano log drum, a sample from your favorite Nollywood actor or televangelist. Otherwise it’s less talk and more vibe. The slappy sound’s name, cruise, means funny after all. Or to smile in a serious situation. Good vibes.  Catching content with your friends. To play… it depends on who you ask.

Native to the urban outskirts of Lagos, it’s Nigeria’s emergent people’s music, breeding online and providing the soundtrack to apartment parties and footwork dancers hunting for more bpms. It’s an alternative to the 800-pound Afrobeats gorilla that flexes its American production collabs, 25k clips and sold out O2 Arena shows. “ Who the fuck are you? You don’t know Kaywise? ” shouts DJ Kaywise on “Who the fuck are you”. Is he talking to the 70% of Nigerians under 30 in Africa’s largest nation, ready to cruise amidst political and economic strain. Maybe he’s calling out to the international ear that’s often a prerequisite for newcomers before earning cred at home. The point is, cruise is calling banging bashing mocking and murdering the beat for a new West African club music that is turning up all the nobs. “ Cruise Beats does not have limits, ” DJ CORA confirms with a laugh. 

Speed it up DJ, we wanna cruise

DJ Yk Mule ’s Instagram bio reads, “ cruise beat originator, you’ll dance, you’ll laugh ”. Short and sweet from the man behind some of the first cruise sounds to appear online. Digging into the origins, Yk reveals how a few tweaks to his dance instrumentals, some necessary feedback from creators and crews and a personal need to innovate spawned the early cruise records. In the beginning Yk was making music purely for dancers, blowing up online around 6 years ago with his “Dance Instrumental” track that has been remixed in footwork videos all over the internet. In it, you can hear the early essence of cruise. The drum machine, repetitive synths and creative breaks with a solid bottom. “ I used to drop official dance instrumentals before. Made for dancers. Club bangers, DJs… Just like EDM! ” Yk explains, though it’s a liberal take on the term “ EDM ”, and a common auto-misnomer for many African electronic genres be it EDM or Techno. Digressions… Then, one day, “ I was just thinking of what to add to my craft. So I thought about adding vocals, live funny vocals And people love it. They dance to it. That’s where I got the cruise from. ”

But something was still missing, and it boiled down to the age-old feedback loop between DJs and bodies, now transposed to the digital sphere. It needed juice. Gas. Energy. “ Before I didn’t used to make it fast. I normally put it on like 125 bpm, but because of my TikTok fans and TikTok dancers, I have to make it faster so that it will be danceable for them. ” Ask and you shall receive. DJ Yk turnt up the speed and it didn’t take long for the first cruise to break the internet in the form of “ Zazu Beat ” around 2020 featuring the online comedian Portable Zazu. Now a music sensation, before Yk and cruise, Zazu was known for his raunchy and outrageous humor. Right place, right time and right attitude; Zazu was made for cruise. Since, the mechanics of cruise have evolved into a science. 

Voice notes, TikTok dancers and 150bpm beats

“ Send me a voice note now. I add a beat to it. Then turn it into a dance, take it to TikTok and people vibe to it, ” Maxivibes breaks down with straightforward precision. Cruise is a genre that lives online, and since the Yk breakthrough, savvy cruise beats producers tap into digital trends for audio samples that can make a cruise record pop. Take DJ CORA ’s “YEYE BEAT” for example. The vocal riff is snagged from a scene on the Yoruba Comedy Series, Saamu Alajo, with actor Odunlade Adekola screaming, “ are you fucking yeye me Dajo? ” roughly meaning “ are you trying to mock me? ” DJ CORA ripped this hilarious and salacious slur for “YEYE BEAT” packing precog and snickers. The vocals are chopped and blasted, slowed down and grafted upon the track making it ripe for viral potential. 

The official “YEYE BEAT” audio has over 15k videos on TikTok to date. “ If a clip or a sound is trending, ” DJ CORA says over WhatsApp, “ the faster you are to make sound, the better for you. ” Or take “Warisi Cruise Beat” by Dj Yk Mule released in early 2022. The original vocal audio comes from a viral clip of some friends hyping up their buddy Warisi as he busts a move on video. Yk snagged the little jam that was already making rounds on mobiles around Nigeria and… cruise. “ You know, I have a lot of fans. When they find something funny online they will tag me to the cruise, to the video, and say ‘Well, did you like it? We want you to do something on this.’” Yk laughs, “Then I get to it. ” 

Surfing the hype is tubular but it means nothing if it’s not fast. “ Initially [cruise] wasn’t that fast, ” says DJ CORA, reminiscent of Yk’s early cuts, “ but people don’t really enjoy it because if it’s not fast they won’t be able to dance to it. ” Clocking the average bpm of our cruise beats playlist we see the norm hovering around 135 with the more hardcore tracks being in what we call the “Tobzy range” of the mid-150s. This is approaching the manic keys of Singeli on the musical superhighway. “ In Nigeria they don’t want songs like that, ” DJ Tobzy says of the slower and sweeter Afrobeats. Maxivibes agrees, when asked what makes cruise popular, what sets it apart, he replies, “ What makes it different is that it’s just fast. The tempo is very fast. It’s a fast beat. ” Just fast. Very fast. Fast beat. Got it?

Listen to “Who ate that Bread (Cool Down) Water” off of Dj Tobzy’s 2022 TIKTOK VIRUS SOUND MIXTAPE (notice the eponymous vocal sample of a pastor and congregant on “Prophecy God Time” television).  Or check out the recently trending and suggestive “Dindo Cruise Beat” by Omo Ebira which charted on Nigerian music blog City Trend TV . 150bpms of repetitive synths, vocal rips and a steady log drum.  Need visuals? Take a mainstream cruise from Portable, Poco Lee and Olamide, yes that Olamide, on “ ZaZoo Zehh ” and its accompanying dance video. It’s broken glass, footwork and cutlass sounds. Shatter me ZaZoo. 

The final layer in the cruise cake is, of course, dance. “ All they want is danceable songs here in Nigeria, ” explains cruise beat innovator and fresh Nyege Nyege signee DJ Tobzy. “ Take ‘ E Jon ’ by Son of ika jamokay, ” Tobzy continues, “ If you listen to this song you will surely vibe to it. ” Proof is in the pudding. The cruise with the most vibe is snatched up by dancers and dance crews who create challenges and interpret the frenetic step of the beat. Checkout Dance Life Machines’ breakdown of “ E Jon ” on Instagram. Or the lifecycle of DJ CORA’s “Skilo Dance Beat”. In theory made for legwork dancer Skilo Richie, a TikTok star who’s accumulated over 5 million views on the platform. After Skilo made a dance video for the song, it started trending in 7 countries. Another dancer from Guinea picked up the baton. Algorithms and young social medialites keep the cruise alive. “ The sound moves on TikTok. It moves faster, ” says Maxivibes. Some DJs conceive trends and choreography pre-release, or as DJ CORA, target specific dancers for organic promo. Others, like the savvy Maxivibes who has a background in music blogging and social media marketing, blast out 30 cruise beats a day and hope one sticks. How many cruise beats has Maxi made? “ I can’t even count them, ” is his answer. [Note: Maxivibes asked me to send over a voice note after our call. 20 minutes later he sent back a custom cruise]. 

The cruise alchemy, from hardship to laughter

October 20th 2020, Nigerian army officers opened fire on a group of peaceful EndSARS protesters on the Lekki Toll Gate, an event now known as the Lekki Massacre. At the same time youth unemployment in Nigeria is hovering around 20%. 79 year old President Buhari approaches the end of his second term and political prospects for his replacement look bleak. Two thirds of the Lagos megapolis live in informal housing, which includes over 380 slum communities spread throughout the state, according to Human Rights Watch . Gas shortages. Food inflation. In the brief words of DJ CORA  “ Nigeria is very hard. ” 

“ I came from a family where everybody is just struggling, ” DJ Tobzy explains over the phone. Coming up as an artist, Tobzy was self taught, using makeshift solutions on mobile devices for DJing. Tobzy Imole Giwa’s come-up was some uphill DIY. “ Before as a DJ I did a lot of work like graphics, computer engineering and online stuff. So I make use of everything, ” he explains. Progenitor DJ Yk has a similar story. “ I really have a poor background. Before I was a Poor Boy, I was just trying, hustling,” he says with a rare solemnity. “ Back then, it wasn’t easy. I was just keeping my strength, you know? No weakness. ” For Yk, Tobzy, MaxiVibes and the cruise captains, strength is found in smiles. 

“ In Nigeria, now what we need is to smile. We don’t have to pay attention to the government because they are not really helping us. ” Tobzy concludes; a common sentiment among Nigerian artists. During an Instagram livestream Afrobeats starchild Rema once said, “ There’s nothing really sweet about Nigeria except music, ” responding to criticism that his songs focuses solely on sex and love. “ Tell me one thing that’s better than sex in Nigeria. I’ll wait… ” he concludes. “The only way we try to make ourselves happy,” CORA continues, “is through music and through sounds like cruise beats. ” Therapeutic or escapist? Keep your opinion to yourself. The rare beauty of laughter, like pain, is it’s involuntary. “ When someone is not happy, when you are depressed and come across my sound, it’s too funny. ” says DJ Yk. “ Whenever you come through my post we always laugh. And you need to laugh. Even if you are struggling, you still gotta laugh. ”

Though behind the cheap laughs of cruise cuts is often a snide criticism of the status quo, a poking of fun, a small sympathy for the plight of others. In Tobzy’s “ SMOKE BEAT CRUISE ” he samples an interview with a Nigerian marijuana smoker. The smoker laments getting busted by police, looking left then right before lighting up. It’s funny but sympathetic. “ This smoker, when they wake up they don’t have any other job. Like it’s just for them to smoke ,” Tobzy explains, not a smoker himself. “ When you see that they don’t have any other job, it’s only cruise beats that’s there for them. That’s what’s fine. ” Talking about the state of affairs in Nigeria, Tobzy meanders to the injustice of a new law that penalizes landlords of yahoo boys (a term for sophisticated young Nigerian internet scammers) to 15 years in prison. “ Wow, that was bad. Not making sense. Like he’s trying to make money for a living and, ” *ah* Tobzy winces. It takes some alchemy to cruise in harsh conditions while wincing at the darkside. CORA is also experimenting with some chemistry in the cruise lab. “ You know, APC chairman Adamu is trending in a video now. There’s one word he said that was trending, but I am afraid to mix sound with it because I might get arrested ,” CORA laughs, “ but I’m very sure if I make sound with it, it is 100% greenlight. Everybody will like it. ” Everybody? 

Move over Afrobeats, cruise is coming

“ There’s this huge delta between what’s been put out as the sound of youth culture and the funds required to make that, ” Ian McQuaid, founder of MOVES Records and head behind the recent series of Cruise! compilations explains, comparing cruise to its richer, flashier Afrobeats cousin. “ Only a very select few people can make that and that creates a void. Something is gonna rush in there and [cruise] is what’s rushing in; the punk energy and couldn’t care less attitude. ” Featured on the Cruise! comps is DJ Slimfit, Professional Beatz, DJ Khalipha, DJ Stainless, Fela 2 and a bunch of other names that maintain the cruiseverse. It’s a mega-solid introduction to a sound that has until this point lived on TikTok backchannels, free mp3 blogs and the meta-data graveyards of Distrokid deliveries. It’s also fitting coming from a label that has defended, “pure, unfiltered urban culture”. “ It’s a crass comparison but it works when you compare it to the conditions that created punk,” Ian says of cruise. 

Not so crass when you imagine the super indulgent groups of the 1970s with synthesizers the size of school buses and a maturing music industry with its golden gate keepers and lofty sounds disconnected from the gritty suburbs of recession families. “ The only challenge we’re facing with cruise beats is from Nigerian artists, ” DJ CORA says. “ Because they know this shit goes viral, and their own song that they use the whole year to produce doesn’t. ” Sound familiar? Subvert the latest trends, open new channels and popularize production. Or in the words of Sid Vicious “ Undermine their pompous authority, reject their moral standards, make anarchy and disorder your trademarks. Cause as much chaos and disruption as possible but don’t let them take you alive. ”

The mocking of televangelists, inclusion of salacious content and expletives, the embrace of the inhuman and incomprehensible TikTok algorithms and the blasting of cruise-noise into the machine like you’re holding an AR-15 are all cruise trademarks.  “ I make a sound in 30 minutes and it can trend, ” CORA boasts, even if cruise is far from its “ Love Nwantiti ” moment. Regardless, it’s no wonder the big cheese and Afrobeats elite are picking their feet up off the digital riptide. “ In time, I think we’ll be entering number one, we’ll be topping charts, ” predicts DJ Yk Mule.

 “ Everybody actually likes cruise beats more than Afrobeats ” Tobzy continues. “ When you play at an apartment party, most of the requests are cruise beats. ” While cruise is still making its rounds online and at apartment parties, some notable clubs are taking notice. Fela Kuti ’s legacy The New Afrika Shrine, a spot that has embraced people’s music and accessibility was said to book cruise DJs for closing hours, but a brief call with the Shrine’s manager showed he was totally unaware of the genre. Later, Tobzy hit us up to see if he could play Felabration at the Shrine…backward shit. So “real world” progress has been incremental and xenocentric musical make-r-breakers often gaslight local talent. “ If I do a show in the UK, I will be more important in my country just because it was in the UK, ” DJ CORA says, exasperated, “ If you can see international likes, that’s when people will start respecting us. ” A blessing or a curse for subcultures that need time to marinate and grow before being squeezed out by greasy hands worldwide (I’m looking at you Kumerica). As CORA says, “ It’s still individual. Everybody’s doing it on their own. ” But don’t undermine the interest. “ They are always waiting for me ,” Dj Yk says of his loyal fans, “ like, ‘Dj Yk drop another one! We wanna dance!’ ” 

The transcendent cruise

“ Cruise Beats is very spiritual. ” CORA says to me, dead serious. “ Once you’re at a party and you put on Cruise Beats, people won’t want you to stop! ” In a world of poppy-muzak and background noise, cruise demands the attention of the mushy stuff in your cerebral cortex. It’s impossible to ignore, insists on participation and carries a louder-is-better, faster-is-funner, look-at-me attitude. Dance damnit. And maybe laugh… “ I play normal sounds before I indulge in Cruise Beats, ” CORA concludes. Emphasis on the “normal”. The best music is always unexpected, maybe even unwanted, but totally and tragically out of your control. And so the strange marriage between the hardcore sounds and happy laughs makes perfect sense. You don’t choose what’s funny. You don’t realize you’re tapping your feet until you hear the happy smack on the floor. “ We do believe in God, ” says Tobzy, “ I pray about it; whether I can go through it or not ” he says of his cruise career, hoping that he’ll be able to provide his fans with more cruise. “ More strength, no weakness, ” in the words of Dj Yk Mule.  “ I do it for my people, ” says MaxiVibes. The minds sampling and snickering at preachers seem to have a pulpit of their own. In the meantime, keep on the cruise, clap to the beat and have a laugh. Life’s too hard, too short and too ridiculous not to cruise. 

For more cruise, listen to PAM’s official cruise beat playlist .

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by MOVES x Cruise featuring DJ Slimfit, Professional Beat, DJ Cora, DJ Khalipha and DJ Stainless & DJ S

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MOVES Recordings releases compilation spotlighting Nigerian Freebeat, 'Cruise!': Listen

Emerging from Lagos, the sound fuses amapiano, Afrobeats, gqom, house and more

UK label MOVES Recordings has released a new compilation of Nigerian Freebeat music, also known as Cruise music.

Titled 'Cruise!', the release collects five tracks from key artists within the scene, which has mainly emerged from the outer areas of Lagos. The sound fuses amapiano, Afrobeats, gqom, house and techno, as well as meme culture. The producers featured on 'Cruise' are DJ Cora, Professional Beat, Slimfit, DJ Stainless and DJ Kalipha.

Cruise's popularity outside of its Lagos base has come with the help of TikTok dance videos, while, much like gqom, music from the scene has initially been shared around via WhatsApp messages and as low-res files on music blogs.

Writing about the scene, MOVES Recordings said: "The music [is] powered on a similar chaotic energy rush which imbued the early days of house in Chicago and Hardcore in London. Samples are flung in at will, entire passages are lifted from other producers works, and a song lives or dies on how well it does on TikTok."

Three further EPs of Cruise music will be released through this year, with a larger compilation of music coming later this year too.

Check out 'Cruise' below.

Revisit DJ Mag's feature, from February, on the most exciting amapiano producers around right now .

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Nigerian Cruise Special: Mixed by DJ Cora

There’s a new musical movement currently emerging from the Nigerian city of Lagos.

Dubbed cruise – or ‘freebeat’ – the sound can be categorised by its hectic high-tempos, oodles of samples and nods to South African dance movements (and fellow street-level scenes) amapiano and gqom, as well as techno. 

This is irrepressible and immediate music for dancing the night away – so long as you have the stamina. It’s no wonder, then, that cruise  has found an eager audience on platforms such as TikTok – where sped-up beats go down quite the treat. 

Cruise has also found a home on MOVE Recordings , with the UK imprint at the helm of a four-part compilation project spotlighting the style and its stars. One of whom, DJ Cora, is also behind this specialist mix that winds through cruise music and the occasional amapiano offering.

“I am a lover of cruise [and] anything that will make me happy,” says DJ Cora. “That’s why I love cruise beats, including ones made by other DJs. This mix is a classic one for my fans at home and abroad to enjoy.” Cruise! 2 EP is out on 8 July via MOVES Recordings

Cruise is Nigeria’s New DIY Dance Craze (Resident Advisor)

This frenetic, TikTok-ready sound is taking over the streets of Lagos—and beyond. But is it ready to go mainstream?

I’ll throw in some more adjectives: frantic, colourful, fun, free, almost punk. “Cruise came from the trenches part of Lagos,” DJ Khalipha told me. “[The people] don’t really like to vibe to slow songs there, so we play these faster songs and they love it. We’re trying to create something different from the Nigerian mainstream people already know. We want to increase the genres of music we have but also sometimes create a relationship with the mainstream.”

This hectic party music is the latest dance craze in Nigeria. The rhythms sometimes resemble techno or UK garage but are actually based on the wholesale sampling of amapiano and Afrobeats songs. The drums land at around 130 BPM, while everything else—samples, melodies, basslines—feel so sped up that they all end up as part of the rhythm section. The aesthetics are lo-fi and undeniably effective, and the genre’s key figures are young and heavily influenced by the everything-everywhere pace of TikTok.

DJ Khalipha, who hails from the Lekki peninsula to the south-east of Lagos, epitomises this quick-fire, DIY approach. He’s a self-taught producer who learned through YouTube tutorials and tenacious practice. “I first started DJing with just my phone, playing at different events with it and then moving to a PC and console,” he told me. “I also started producing beats with it, using an app called Beat Snap, and then professional software made specifically for music production.”

His passion for music goes back to his school days, when he loved drumming and singing for his classmates. “I used to beat match songs with just my mouth,” he said.

DJ Khalipha, Poco Lee and DJ Cora are three key artists at the forefront of cruise’s frenetic growth. The sound’s rough-around-the-edges style appears to speak to people in a way that the stars of Afrobeats are starting to struggle to do.

Cruise’s drums are dry and the mixdowns are generally wildly unbalanced, focusing on the mids and highs heard best through phone speakers. Vocal samples smash through the soundscape and limit everything else, building an aural hallucination that displaces and captivates the listener. The song structures are simple and repetitive yet thrillingly unpredictable. They seem to stumble, finish and then restart, losing themselves before coming back stronger a second later. This captures the feeling of living in an eternal, multicoloured present, close to the dizzying information overload of feverishly scrolling through video after video on social media.

This pace, sound and distribution style reflect the everyday lives of cruise’s creators’ in Lagos, one of the fastest-growing and most complex cities in the world. Despite its embryonic state, cruise is already becoming a staple in local clubs. It came from the distant suburbs and is now reaching both the coolest and wealthiest spots in town, bridging together different groups and classes of people. Given the recent worldwide success of Afrobeats, the general feeling is that this music can only get bigger—everywhere.

DJ Stainless, a major cruise figure from the outskirts of Lagos, believes Nigerian music is “going global.” But right now, cruise toes a fine line between global aspiration and hyper-local pride. There’s a reason why DJ Khalipha also calls the genre “street beats”: it’s still moulded primarily by life in Lagos. By 2050, Nigeria’s population will surpass the US, and the UN estimated its population in 2011 at between 500 million and one billion. It’s also one of the world’s youngest countries, with a  median age  of 18. This drives its buzzing and ever-changing culture.

Lagos is also at the forefront of Nigeria’s fast and sometimes brutal change. As the economic capital of Africa, it welcomes people from all over the continent and beyond, constantly evolving and looking ahead. Cruise reflects this tireless energy. Just listen to “ Aborin N Tayin ” by Dtop and DJ Professional Beatz. The drums, synths, samples and voices fuse into a frenzy, forming a monolithic groove that stops and starts at its own maddening pace. But what really shines is a synth that resembles a classical guitar, looping around the dense, rigid kick drums.

DJ YK’s “ Bunch Of Women ” is another highlight. This groovy, hilarious track is built around exaggerated synths and a sample of a woman speaking. “A bunch of women, surrounded in my room,” and then, “take it easy,” over and over, while the drums and synths chase each other around like Roadrunner and Bugs Bunny. The video for DJ Khalipha’s latest track with Poco Lee, “ Obirin ,” brings us into the middle of a carefree and colourful party, the music offering a carnivalesque atmosphere.

Cruise’s samples, drums and sounds are created and arranged in free DAWs like FL Studio. The genre features a distinctive drum loop, which is actually just the demo provided by the free version of the software (hence “freebeat”). The other key ingredients are samples of songs from across Afrodiasporic genres and voices snatched from TikTok. There’s been no shortage of talk on how the social media app is influencing the music industry, and cruise is no different, but it also has something of a unique position. This scene was not a pre-existing style that had to adapt to a rapid new form of consumption—it’s something fresh that actively exploits this new pace and sonic grammar to its advantage.

TikTok is how Ian McQuaid, founder of London label MOVES Recordings, discovered the genre. The outlet has released the only official and easily accessible cruise albums, and has a history of working with contemporary African music. “I was just looking at dances on it,” he said. “I found this DJ Cora tune, ‘ Yeye Beat ,’ that was really crazy. It had the log drums of amapiano but it was playing at 130 BPM. Loads of Nigerians were dancing to it and it just sounded so extreme—it blew me away.”

Amapiano is famously slow and steady, averaging around 113 BPM. Cruise kicks it up a notch, replacing the iconic smooth and jazzy sounds of the South African genre with wacky samples and percussive programming. What survives this rough treatment is the distinctive log drum sound, which is often mixed with the crash sound from gqom, another massive South African export. But compared to those precursors, cruise songs have a more pop-friendly structure—no long intros and instrumentals, instead focusing on short, to-the-point verses and catchy choruses. Perfect for TikTok.

“Just like the way hardcore records in the UK took older dance music records and sped them up to 140 BPM, that’s basically what the guys in cruise are doing, and pissing off loads of people in the process,” McQuaid said. “I often [talk] with a group of ‘old’ Nigerian DJs who moan and complain about these young guys. It’s so funny to me, because I’ve seen this before. [Innovation] has always happened like that.”

He added: “I grew up listening to and playing in punk bands, and also fell in love with the first wave of jungle and hardcore—high-tempo music, made by people with far more enthusiasm than technical ability or access to equipment. That chimed with me in the same way as a lot of UK drill artists—because they have that rawness and immediacy. [You have to] collapse the time between when someone thinks of something, when they make it on their computer and when it comes out.”

DJ Stainless lives more than two hours from Lagos in a town in the neighbouring Ogun State. “I’ve never learned studio production,” he said. “I just use my brain. I had this producer friend who showed me some things. But I never used [production] software for music production. I use VirtualDJ to make beats. Nobody knows how I create them, they all think I use a studio. I thank God for the wisdom he gave me.”

McQuaid said something similar just a few days before my conversation with DJ Stainless: a lot of the tracks are actually live performances. Recording and production methods remain shrouded in mystery, and everyone does things differently.

“DJs are taking other people’s tunes, pitching them very fast and cutting up two versions of the song, hammering the sample over the top of everything,” he said. “This looseness used to be a part of all dance music, when people were using hardware samplers to create loops by eye, observing the waveform. They were always a bit rough, a little bit off. Since the computerisation of it all, everything has become slick and on-point. Hearing something that has a human element to it, where things are a bit messy and all over the place, makes everything feel more alive and exciting.”

Cruise’s rough-around-the-edges style appears to speak to Nigerian people in a way that the stars of Afrobeats are starting to struggle to do. Afrobeats and amapiano are now global phenomena with a lot of money, influence and heavily polished sounds. Their focus is on reaching an international audience. Cruise is growing, but in a more organic and authentic way.

Moses Johnson, the Nigerian project manager for MOVES Recordings (who also works with Poco Lee), puts musicians, producers and artists all in the same basket: influencers. “The next stage for cruise is a huge co-sign from a big influencer,” he said. “One of the reasons that sounds travel across scenes and borders is because of the people that champion them. It happened with Afrobeats (eg. Drake and Wizkid), hip-hop and amapiano.”

Still, it’s hard to imagine a smoothed-out, mainstream version of cruise retaining the genre’s raw appeal. Johnson said it “was born as a response to the marginalisation of some people,” and this marginalisation has to be understood in terms of the sound itself, and what that sound represents. Cruise captures the chaotic and spontaneous pace of Lagos and its young people, not something refined or made to fit into the larger pop music machine.

“There is no formal vibe, no accreditation,” Johnson said. “Everything you’re seeing right now is very natural and organic. This is just the people in the grassroots that are saying to themselves—’You know what? We can do this, we can put this together, we can have our voice.’ It’s a representational form of music.”

So how can these two forces—cruise’s sincere spontaneity and its search for global success—coexist? The genre is now being exposed to European audiences (“it’s getting attention, and has been heavily claimed as garage music—but it’s really not garage,” Johnson said) and has been getting  airplay  on global stations like NTS Radio.

McQuaid is keen to support cruise’s rise but also to stay out of the way. “It’s an early days scene,” he said. “I’m conscious of not wanting to overly influence its development. Because who should do that is [people in] Lagos and Nigeria—that will be the best guidance for it. The minute you have international attention on stuff, some people get elevated and some people are forgotten about. We bring a distorting lens as Europeans. I’m acutely aware of this and I grapple with it a lot of the time—wanting to support music that I love and give people more opportunities to make more of this music, but also not wanting to be a corrupting influence and fuck things up.”

Ultimately, it’s all about awareness and being conscious that throwing a lot of money behind something pure might damage it. In that sense, middlemen like Johnson are very important. “No matter how original we try to keep [cruise], for it to transcend to the next level, there has to be some [outside] influence,” he said. “When Drake jumped on the remix of Wizkid’s ‘Ojuelegba,’ the sound remained authentic. And a new audience heard that. It merged two communities together. This happens across all music. That’s exciting, no?”

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About the author: michele sensale.

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Cruise Beats

The new hyper-fast sound popping off in Lagos outskirts and going viral on TikTok.

24 Songs, 1 hour, 12 minutes

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Featured artists, moves x cruise, dj yk beats, dj khalipha, dj stainless, ajimovoix drums, africa, middle east, and india.

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[Music] Coblaze – Cruise

Nigerian singer-songwriter, Coblaze , has returned with a brand new track titled " Cruise ". This well-crafted song serves as Coblaze 's latest entry this year, following the release of previously released songs. Fans of the talented artist will be thrilled to hear this new offering, which showcases his unique style and musical prowess.

The song is the 3rd track off the 6 tracks body of work project, " Orbit ". This project promises to be a hit among fans of Nigerian music, and "Cruise" is just a taste of what's to come. With its catchy beat and infectious lyrics, this song is sure to be a fan favorite.

In creating this masterpiece, Coblaze enlisted the help of renowned producer TMXO . The result is a track that seamlessly blends different genres and sounds, creating a unique and unforgettable listening experience. From start to finish, "Cruise" is a testament to Coblaze 's talent and dedication to his craft.

If you're a fan of Nigerian music or just looking for something new and exciting to listen to, then "Cruise" by Coblaze is definitely worth checking out. So why not give it a listen today? You won't be disappointed!

DOWNLOAD Cruise by Coblaze MP3 [3.99 MB]

Do you want your song on JustNaija? Upload Your Song .

Recent Coblaze Songs

Trenches Boy

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The Alte Cruise Scene in Nigeria (the Lifestyle, Music and Fashion)

Nigeria is home to many diverse talent, and the biggest entertainment export from Africa. Nigeria music industry is huge and has seen the rise of many of his artist reaching international stardom.

Why Afrobeat music seems to be the biggest music genre from Nigeria, However, It is not the only musical genre out of Nigeria.

today we will be looking at the less known but growing Alte cruise genre out of Nigeria.

Alte is a short way of saying Alternative. The alte music is a kind of music which infuses afrobeats with different sounds to create a unique kind of music which sounds slightly different from the well known afrobeats music from nigeria. This genre started in lagos nigeria.

The Alté movement is a group of Nigerian youth with a unique sense of fashion and music. They often call members of this movement Altéist (pronounced: all-tist).

The Alte cruise is not just about music, Its a lifestyle. its about their choice of cloths, thier style of music, their vibes which is generally different from other afrobeat artist.

Alte cruise generally tends to have its followers wear vinatge clothes and exudes vintage vibes. Its a really cool thing to see as this lifestyle is steadily growing in Lagos nigeria.

‘Alté’ goes beyond music. Alte followers are decked in clothing that disregards the norm of dressing in Nigeria. there is a disregard for poular fashion rules its followers dress to express themselves.

Here are some of the pioneers of the alte cruise music genre in nigeria.

• Odunsi the engine

Odunsi the Engine is a fast rising star of the Lagos alté scene. Born Bowofoluwa Olufisayo Odunsi, he has created global buzz around his synth-pop-meets-R&B music that smoothly infuses afrobeats production. Establishing this unique sound on his debut album, Time Of Our Lives (2016), Odunsi followed up with a second album, rare, in 2018. As an artist, Odunsi flies a flag for a new wave of Nigerian creativity – often flying in the face of traditional gatekeepers at a time when Nigerian culture is undergoing big shifts, spearheaded by the younger generation. (Source Google Arts and culture)

Listen to Star Sign by odunsi the engine

Sadiq Onifade , known popularly known as WurlD , is a Nigerian singer and songwriter. Born in mushin area of Lagos , Nigeria, WurlD relocated to Atlanta , Georgia to pursue a secondary education and record music. He describes his style of music as electro-fusion. He released his debut EP Evolution in 2013

Sadiq Onifade’s music is a unique sound that just takes you out of the world

Wurld has stated that he grew up listening to Nigerian music, especially Fuji and Juju music, which his parents love to listen to. Wurld has been able to create a disticnt sound from mixing different sounds of music from Nigeria like juju, fuji and afrobeat music with electrop pop, and RnB to create his own distinct sound

Listen to Mad by Sarz and Wurld

Its amazing that in 2021 Tems became one of the biggest artist from nigeria despite having hard time to get record labels in Nigeria to sign her. record labels in Nigeria just couldnt understand her sound and style of music. But she sticked to her style and didnt change.

Born Temilade Openiyi, she earned two US top 40 entries on the Billboard Hot 100, with her collaboration with Drake on the song “Fountains” and on Wizkid song essense.

Guess her sound wasn’t bad after all. Kudos Girl.

Listen to Try Me by Tems

4. Lady Donli

Lady Donli was born in cleveland Ohio, United states. She spent her early years in Abuja and Kaduna, Nigeria. LadyDonli moved to the United Kingdom after her secondary school Education where she obtained a degree in law, from the University of Surrey. [1]

Donli’s earliest musical influence was the ECWA church in Nigeria, where a particular style of synchronous praise-chanting had become established. She was also influenced by the music of Brenda Fassie, Angelique Kidjo and Erykah badu.

Donli is part of Nigeria’s alté music scene, which is known for blending sounds from multiple genres of music, including Afrobeats, R&B, and soul

Listen to Cash By lady donli

5. Cruel Santino

Cruel Santino or simply known as Santi is a Nigerian artist and prominent member of the Alté movement.

Born Osayaba Ize-Iyama on June 3rd, 1992. He grew up in Nigeria. Santi debut album proived that he was a unique and different artist who like many Alte artist from nigeria is not afraid to create his own sound.

Santi was inspired by drakes thank me later album, saying hearing Drake sing and raps made him wants to do the same thing. Also in high school, Santi use to rap and sing, and while in school Santi won the mostb promising act.

Santi has released a good number of work and his song rapid fire gained wide acceptance in nigeria.

Listen to rapid Fire By Santi

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Millennials go bonkers over lil jon’s surprise dnc appearance: ‘this is our hour’.

CHICAGO —  Rapper Lil Jon made a surprise appearance at the Democratic National Convention Tuesday night during Georgia’s roll call — with Millennials quickly losing their minds on social media.

The Atlanta-born artist performed his hit song “Turn Down for What” and led the crowd in a raucous chant of “We’re not going back.”

Lil Jon, whose real name is Jonathan H. Smith, even belted one of his trademark “yeeeeaaahs” upon entering the stadium and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for president.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are here tonight to officially nominate Kamala Harris for president,” he bellowed out to the crowd. 

“VP Harris to the Walz.”

The unexpected cameo enamored Millennials online. 

Lil Jon coming out for Georgia during the roll call is… turned down for what. Gotta get that millennial vote, baby. Fire up that loud, another round of shots. 😅 pic.twitter.com/vVDQXB2q2o — Kristopher MacGregor (@krismacgregor) August 21, 2024

“Lil Jon coming out for Georgia during the roll call is… turned down for what. Gotta get that millennial vote, baby. Fire up that loud, another round of shots,” one commentator  quipped on X .

“Telling 16 year old me that one day lil jon would perform at the DNC, I would have laughed. The millennialization of the Democratic party has begun and I’m here for it,” a Millennial X user wrote .

“Lil Jon? Millennials, this is our hour! #DNC2024CHICAGO,” another watcher joked . 

“Across America, Gen Z, X, and Millennials are explaining to their boomer parents who Lil Jon is and I love it,”  noted another . 

Okay, the Lil' Jon cameo is cool. — Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) August 21, 2024

“Okay, the Lil’ Jon cameo is cool,” National Review writer Noah Rothman admitted.

Rep. Nikema Williams (D-Ga.) then took to the microphone and announced that Georgia’s delegation would cast 123 votes for Harris, while Jon’s music played in the background.

Technically, Harris is already the Democratic nominee for president, meaning the ceremonial roll call Tuesday evening is merely a symbolic measure.

Democrats conducted a virtual roll call earlier this month and Harris officially became the nominee on Aug. 6.

The virtual roll call was done in order to avoid any potential ballot access snarls, particularly in Ohio, which had an Aug. 7 deadline to finalize its ballots.

Party officials billed the ceremonial roll call as a nod to the tradition of past conventions being the place for officially designating the party nominee.

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Fresh Cruise

Fresh cruise (20).

• 1 Feeling ft. Buju LADIPOE Feelings 03:44
• 2 Intwind ft. Reespect Luddy Dave Her Ecstatic Royalty 03:23
• 3 Kura ft. Q-Dee & Ezzie Wonder Dark Poet No Cap (EP) 02:56
• 4 Holy Water Starfaze Holy Water 03:25
• 5 Door ft. Kwesi Arthur Joeboy Door 02:32
• 6 Ripple Effect ft. Falz & M.I Dark Poet Ripple Effect 04:14
• 7 Shakara Vonita Shakara 03:02
• 8 Nu Level Idowest Mafia Culture (Vol. 2.0) 01:56
• 9 Focus Vibe Slimcase Focus Vibe 02:02
• 10 Love For You Mr Eazi Something Else EP 02:33
• 11 Too Correct ft. Rema Crayon Twelve A.M 03:28
• 12 Focus Joeboy Somewhere Between Beauty & Magic 02:32
• 13 Infinity ft. Omah Lay Olamide Carpe Diem 02:51
• 14 Focus On Me Daviblue Focus On Me 02:58
• 15 Jackpot ft. Bella Shumurda Crayon Twelve A.M 03:06
• 16 Kabaa ft. Mayorkun Idowest Mafia Culture (Vol. 2.0) 03:18
• 17 Run The Cheque Dusten Truce Smoke Break 02:16
• 18 E Be Mad Mr Eazi Something Else EP 02:54
• 19 Show Me Joeboy Somewhere Between Beauty & Magic 02:48
• 20 Go Come Creen Caesar Go Come 02:40

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Cruise Lanje by Portable

Portable – Cruise Lanje

Cruise Lanje by Portable [Full Audio]

Portable, a sensational Nigerian street entertainer artiste and Zeh Music Boss, has released a brand new single he captions “Cruise Lanje”.

Stream and share your thoughts on Portable Cruise Lanje.

ENJOYED PORTABLE CRUISE LANJE, DOWNLOAD THIS MP3: In My Mind by BNXN (Buju)

Click on this link to join our telegram group, click here to join our whatsapp channel for latest update, click to subscribe to our new youtube channel, contact (+233) 549-830-824 to upload your song on halmblog.com.

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Last updated on May 12th, 2023 at 08:26 am

Cruise FM – Nigeria Top Radio Station for General, Mixed Listen Online

Welcome to cruise fm – nigeria.

Welcome to Cruise FM, one of Nigeria’s most popular radio stations. Broadcasting from the heart of the nation, this station promises a unique blend of General, Mixed rhythms that cater to a diverse range of music lovers.

Experience High-Quality Entertainment

Cruise FM has been delivering high-quality entertainment to its listeners for years. With a frequency of , the radio station reaches a vast audience across Nigeria. Its commitment to providing a vibrant mix of genres has made it a go-to choice for many music enthusiasts.

General: Discover a Broad Spectrum of Content, Catering to a Wide Range of Interests

This station provides a diverse array of programming, including music, talk shows, and news, ensuring there’s something for everyone. With its broad selection of content, this station keeps listeners engaged and informed on a variety of topics and genres.

Mixed: Immerse Yourself in a Blend of Music Genres and Styles

This station plays a blend of music from various genres and styles, creating an engaging and versatile listening experience. From well-known hits to undiscovered gems, this station delivers a mix that appeals to a broad audience with diverse musical tastes.

Tune in and Enjoy Diverse Musical Offerings

Don’t miss out on the chance to tune in to Cruise FM and enjoy its diverse musical offerings.

Simply click on the following play to start listening live radio.

Discover the Rich Sounds of Nigeria

Join the thousands of listeners who have already discovered the rich sounds of Cruise FM, and immerse yourself in the diverse music landscape of Nigeria.

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Guchi is keeping summer going with a new song titled, 'No Touching'

'No Touching' is available for streaming and download on all preferred digital music platforms.

Africa’s dynamic pop treasure- Guchi is strutting in with a peace offering for her ravenous fanbase, after 4 months off the grid.

Recommended articles.

Having asserted presence in the upper half of 2024 with Leave Me Now and Blood Tonic, she turns the creativity up a notch to accommodate the requirements of a mid-year hit.

“No Touching” is the beautiful product of this effort, with Guchi leaving no stones unturned to make up for the time away.

"No Touching" represents a fusion of Guchi's established style with innovative elements. On the Tuzi-produced piece, she shares that her new muse has reignited her passion for love, with lyrics like " I for don give up on love but I got you ".

One of the song's notable features is its nod to James Brown 's 1964 hit "I Got You (I Feel Good)." Guchi reinterprets the classic with a contemporary twist, singing: " I for come pull up on you when I want to, paranranranran na your love dey make me feel good. "

No Touching is available for streaming and download on all preferred digital music platforms.

Stream/Buy/Download HERE

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Onyeka Onwenu remembered: Nigerian pop star, activist and voice of national unity

Professor of Music, University of Ghana

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Austin Emielu is affiliated with Rhodes University, Makhanda, South Africa as Visiting Professor.

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The news of the death of Nigerian musician Onyeka Onwenu on 30 July 2024 hit me, as a musician and popular music scholar , like a thunderbolt. I have listened to and appreciated Onyeka’s music since I was in my 20s.

Onwenu was aged 72 – and video clips of her last performance at a birthday ceremony showed her energy level and exuberance, making the sudden transition hard to fathom.

Aspiring musicians in Nigeria looked up to the big names in the industry as models and sources of inspiration. Onwenu stood out as a rising star in the early 1980s, when I first heard her name. But it went beyond music. I watched her 1984 BBC-NTA documentary Nigeria: A Squandering of Riches on television. Written and presented by Onwenu, it was a masterpiece in terms of technical quality and its underpinning ideological intent. It spoke to the corruption of the Shehu Shagari administration (1979-1983).

Aired at the onset of the Muhammadu Buhari administration, the documentary made a strong political statement. It signposted Onwenu as a lover of, and strong voice for, a new Nigeria.

It also showed Onwenu’s talents, expertise and sound educational background. With these credentials and many more, Onwenu entered the Nigerian music scene with a bang. Although based in the financial hub, Lagos, she made an impact on the entire country.

Her song that first caught my interest was Onye ga b'egwu, an Igbo children’s folksong. In the 1990s and 2000s when I led my dance band and that of the Department of Performing Arts at the University of Ilorin, we frequently played covers of her popular songs like Ekwe, Wait For Me, You and I and Madawalowu, to the admiration of our audiences.

And when I won a government grant to do research on the contributions of Nigerian musicians to the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, I analysed her song Winnie Mandela. She eulogised Nelson Mandela’s wife as a heroine and extolled the virtues of womanhood in very trying conditions.

Onwenu brought class, style and respectability into the entertainment business and elevated the status of women in the performing arts. She proved that a woman’s worth and respectability do not necessarily lie with being a wife but in how she fulfils her destiny. She came into the music business at a time when respect for women in the industry was at a low ebb and quickly changed things. She was unstoppable in her exploits as a songwriter, singer, activist, media personality, actress and political figure.

Her style of music was unique and defies categories. Most importantly, she was a voice of national unity, calling for tolerance and justice through her music and her films.

Early life and education

Onwenu was born in 1952 in Obosi, then Eastern Region of Nigeria. She had her roots in Arondizuogu, present day Imo State, south-east Nigeria, where her father was from. She was the youngest of five children of educationist and politician D.K. Onwenu. Her father is said to have died tragically when Onwenu was only four years old, just a week before he was to start work as minister of education. She was raised in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

She had a BA in international relations and communication from Wellesley College, Massachusetts, and an MA in media studies from The New School for Social Research, New York, in the United States.

Despite years of schooling and working abroad, Onwenu remained connected to her roots as an Igbo woman. She revamped and recontextualised Igbo folksongs for contemporary relevance, as exemplified by songs like Onye ga b’egwu, Ekwe and Iyogogo. Yet she cannot be described as an ethnic musician. With smash hits like For the Love of You, In the Morning Light, One Love, You and I, Dancing in the Sun and the duet Wait for Me with King Sunny Ade, Onwenu established herself as a national and international artiste and personality.

By singing in her native Igbo and English, living in the multi-cultural and cosmopolitan city of Lagos, working with professionals and corporate bodies of diverse backgrounds, and her marriage to a Yoruba Muslim, Onwenu broke social and cultural barriers and communicated across a broad spectrum of audiences worldwide.

She not only brought global pop sounds into Nigerian music but also helped to spread Nigerian popular music abroad. Her signing on to the Benson and Hedges label, an international tobacco company that promoted Nigeria music massively in the 1990s, was significant.

Roles in public life

She used her music as an entry point to other roles – and as a political weapon. She performed her song Winnie Mandela to the great pleasure of Winnie and Nelson Mandela during their visit to Nigeria after his release from prison in May 1990 .

She was criticised for her involvement in the controversial “one-million march” in 1998 in support of the political ambitions of the later dictator Sani Abacha. However, in her book My Father’s Daughter she said she was tricked into performing at the event.

Onwenu was also a good actress, who featured in films like Rising Moon and Women’s Cot (2005), Half of a Yellow Sun (2013), Lion Heart (2018), Foreigner’s God (2019) and Ije Awele, (2022) among others.

Due to her activism and advocacy for women’s empowerment, she was appointed director general of the National Centre for Women Development in Abuja , Nigeria in 2013. She also served as chair of Imo State Council for Arts and Culture.

She demonstrated boldness and tenacity in dealing with issues in her life, including her struggles in marriage. Her career sustainability in a male-dominated entertainment industry is also commendable. She showed women they could be whoever they wanted to be even in the face of challenges in life.

At this time in Nigeria, where agitations for secession and ethnic profiling are threatening the country’s unity, it is worth recalling her message of One Love Keep us Together.

• Documentary
• Anti-corruption
• Muhammadu Buhari
• Popular music
• anti-apartheid music
• Winnie Mandela
• Anti-apartheid struggle

OzGrav Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Student Administration Officer

Casual Facilitator: GERRIC Student Programs - Arts, Design and Architecture

Senior Lecturer, Digital Advertising

Manager, Centre Policy and Translation