Ozzy B brings new sound to Nigerian hip-hop

A couple of weeks ago I stumbled upon a young cat called Ozzy B and after listening to his music, he left me asking: “who the hell is Ozzy B?” Let’s start this review by asking three simple questions.

Question 1: Who is Ozzy B?

Born Osayaba Ize-Iyamu, he is a Nigerian singer/rapper currently based and studying in Dubai.

Question 2: Why am I asking who he is?

The reason I have to ask this is because of what he did. This leads us to question 3.

Question 3: What did he do?

Ozzy went and created a sexy track that left me shouting: “wow, wow, wow” with my fingers intertwined and placed on my head after the first listen. The song that caused this effect is called ‘’ and it features upcoming singer Tay.

Read: Ozzy B drops 'Queen Esteem'

My expression may have seemed a tad bit melodramatic, but this was probably because I had spent two hours listening to poorly produced Nigerian music (story for another day).

‘Queen esteem’ has that sound you can quite easily hear Canadian R&B singer The Weeknd or even Drake on! I’ve probably played this song 40 times or more. The song is void of Nigerian vernacular and lacks that uniform melody we tend to hear in most of our songs nowadays. The song simply falls under hip-hop and rap and not afro-pop or afro-rap or any of those new afro terms we’ve recently come up with.

The rapper himself has that international flavour that can appeal to any lover of hip-hop, rap and R&B. His lyrics and his style of delivery are quite easy to fall in love with.

Newbie to the Naija music scene, Ozzy B dares to dip his foot in with a different pair of shoes. While most newcomers are dabbling in afrobeat and commercial music that can gain them quick recognition and radio play (there is nothing wrong with this), Ozzy dares to be different by bringing a whole new vibe to the Nigerian hip-hop scene.

His choice and style of music may not gain him so much popularity but it's about time someone showed and remind people we can create quality music outside of the afrobeat genre. Ozzy B is definitely one to look out for. Listen to 'Queen Esteem' below: