For the longest time, the sonic adrenaline of Afrobeats overwhelmingly dominates the vibrant, often frenetic landscape of Nigerian popular music, but in the background has also been a quiet yet profound rebellion waged by a distinct breed of artists. They do not court the viral dance challenges or the relentless, commercially mandated hype. They are the philosophers, the folklorists, and the poets. And chief among them are three names, disparate in generation and stage persona, yet inextricably linked in their cultural import: Asa, Beautiful Nubia, and Brymo.
What unifies this triumvirate of sonic outlaws? It is not a genre tag, though their music often dances around Neo-Soul, Folk, Roots, and Alternative. Nor is it a simple geographic origin. Their common ground is a shared, profound commitment to lyrical depth, a stubborn adherence to artistic nonconformity, and a deep-seated connection to indigenous African musicality and storytelling. They represent a critical counter-narrative to the mainstream, prioritising substance over fleeting trends.
The Primacy of the Word
The most immediate and striking similarity is their unapologetic elevation of the word as the primary vehicle for their art. In a contemporary music industry where lyrics are often functional, serving merely as rhythmic anchors for a beat, Asa, Beautiful Nubia, and Brymo treat their words with the reverence of a scribe.
Beautiful Nubia, the elder statesman, embodies the Griot or the traditional Akewi (Yoruba oral poet). His music, often described as ‘Folk Roots,’ is didactic and philosophical. Tracks like “Jangbalajugbu” or his countless ballads are less songs and more sermons, a public enlightenment campaign wrapped in traditional percussion and melodic lilt. He speaks directly to social advocacy, justice, cultural preservation, and national resilience, all through the lens of ancient wisdom. His is the voice of the collective conscience, a call back to a purer, more value-driven society.
Asa takes this lyrical depth and filters it through a smoky, globally-aware Neo-Soul and Folk sensibility. Her words are introspective, empathetic, and devastatingly precise. From the searing social critique of “Jailer” and “Fire on the Mountain,” to the intimate, existential musings of her later work, Asa crafts narratives that transcend national borders while remaining rooted in the African experience. She is the introspective observer, the global citizen who uses her guitar as both shield and scalpel, dissecting societal ills and personal vulnerabilities with equal grace.
Then there is Brymo, the mercurial enfant terrible. His lyrics, often written in English, Yoruba, and Nigerian Pidgin, possess a raw, visceral poetic quality, blending the sacred with the profane. Since shedding the skin of a mainstream pop artist, Brymo has plunged into a space of alternative folk and fusion-rock, using his music to explore themes of love, survival, ego, mental health, and socio-politics with an almost confrontational honesty. He is the existentialist poet, the defiant individualist whose work, from Merchants, Dealers & Slaves to Oṣó and Yellow, feels like pages torn from a deeply reflective and often turbulent diary.
The Artistic Nonconformity
All three artists share a powerful, almost ideological, resistance to being boxed into the commercial constraints of the Nigerian music mainstream. They are pioneers of the ‘Alternative’ movement, long before it became a marketable tag.
Beautiful Nubia’s decades-long consistency in Roots Renaissance music, rejecting mainstream production gloss for a raw, traditional sound, is the ultimate statement of defiance. He has intentionally built a career outside the market dictates, prioritising artistic integrity and his philosophical mission over pop radio rotation.
Asa, whose earliest hits were already an anomaly in the early 2000s, forged an international path rooted in acoustic instrumentation and jazz-inflected melodies, demonstrating that Nigerian music could be complex, quiet, and profound, yet still achieve global platinum success. Her sound is a genre cocktail that refuses definition, always evolving yet always recognizably Asa.
Brymo’s journey is perhaps the most dramatic, characterised by a deliberate and highly public abandonment of the mainstream for an uncompromising alt-folk/fusion identity. His sonic choices, from sparse acoustic ballads to tracks infused with Apala or rock, are dictated solely by his creative vision. He consistently challenges the listener to meet him where he is, not where the market expects him to be.
Their common thread here is courage: the courage to be difficult, to be different, and to trust that a loyal audience will find them, even without the deafening amplification of the industry machine.
The Roots of Resonance
Despite their diverse sonic palettes, from Beautiful Nubia’s traditional percussion to Asa’s neo-soul guitar riffs and Brymo’s alt-rock leanings, they are all profoundly connected to the indigenous sounds and languages of their Yoruba heritage.
Their music, even when sung in English, carries the unmistakable rhythmic and melodic cadence of West African folklore and musical traditions like Apala and Fuji. They are cultural preservationists not by mandate, but by instinct. They use native languages, Yoruba, Igbo and Pidgin, not as a stylistic garnish, but as a foundational element of their storytelling, preserving the richness and nuances that are often flattened in a purely Westernised musical format.
This deep rooting allows their messages to resonate with a local authenticity that bypasses manufactured commerciality, connecting directly to the soul of the Nigerian, and indeed, the African, experience.
A Critical Cultural Compass
Asa, Beautiful Nubia, and Brymo are more than just musicians; they are cultural critics operating through song. They stand as a vital check and balance against the fleeting spectacle of pop culture, offering longevity and intellectual sustenance in an era of rapid-fire consumption.
Their shared conviction is that music should not merely entertain, but should challenge, teach, and heal. They are the artists for the thinking listener, the ones who give voice to the unspoken anxieties and the enduring hopes of a complex society.
In a nation perpetually navigating social, political, and cultural turbulence, this quiet rebellion is perhaps the most enduring form of activism. They remind us that the artist’s greatest commonality is not a beat or a chart position, but a profound and unwavering devotion to truth, expressed with a sovereign voice. They are the same because they are all singing from the same, ancient, and fiercely protected well of African authenticity. And that, in an age of imitation, is a cultural legacy worth more than a thousand hit songs.
