NEW MAGUGU
I’ve known Magugu for nearly two decades now and it’s been a pleasure to see his rise in recent years. He has the wisdom and skills of a veteran with the energy of an artist on the very edge of breaking through His latest self released EP ‘Guguland’ is out today and it’s a great musical start to the month (which incidentally is Black History Month folks).
In many ways ‘Guguland’ is a return to the Afrobeats sound he embraced with 2014’s ‘Na Me Be This’ when we first witnessed his rebirth as Magugu, heavily embracing his Nigerian roots after already making a name for himself as a foundation stone of the Welsh Grime scene under his Magnus moniker, heading up the Brothahood crew with fellow MCs: Medman; Ill Doc; P.R.O.; Gamma; and M3, back in the early noughties.
Born in Ireland but raised in Nigeria before settling in Cardiff, Wales, the Nigerian accent was always in his delivery throughout the early days, but as Afrobeats and West African culture exploded around the world, it was a perfect time to fine tune and introduce his now established ‘Pidgin Rap’ style.
Never really sitting comfortably with other UK based West African diasporic artists like Fuse ODG, Mista Silva, Weary ENT, Kwamz and Flava who were blowing up around the same time that ‘Na Me Me Be This’ dropped. Magugu has always had his own thing going on, and besides, nobody was really looking to Wales for Afrobeats, Grime or any black music at all really, so you could be forgiven if this is your first introduction to him.
Magugu’s leftfield approach was compounded in his many collaborations with Stagga, the Welsh super producer and my old friend and compadre who sadly died late last year. Tracks such as ‘Confam’ and ‘Gugu Gang’ brought in elements of Trap, Footwork, Dubstep, Hip-hop and 90s Dancehall working perfectly alongside Magugu’s deep ragga inflected flow which sits some place between Sukku from Ward 21 and Dr Alban. I highly recommend 2016’s ‘Pidgin & Chips’ that the pair put out.
Stagga is featured on the cover of this latest release (above) which is adapted from an original 16th Century carving and shows Magugu as the Oba of Benin, another nod to his roots in Edo State, Nigeria. It’s fitting also that this release drops today on Nigerian Independence Day.
Definitely more accessible than some of his previous work, ‘Guguland’ has laid back jams such as ‘No Bring Am’ and ‘Love Sick’ but ‘Te Te Te’ has still got that dancefloor energy we’ve come to love from recent Famous Eno, Tony Quattro and Dom 877 collabs. Then there’s the Reggae Trap of ‘Jah Jah Energy’ which is crying out to be played through a huge sound system. Here’s the video for that which also came out today.
Buy the whole release from Bandcamp here and if you’re in or around Bristol on Thursday 4th November then make sure you check out his live show alongside the mighty Afriquoi at Lost Horizon, the new venue from Glastonbury’s Shangri La crew (you can also view online at twitch.tv/losthorizonhq
