Okay, so right here is one thing the Nigerian music business has by no means seen earlier than: an artist who didn’t discover a style; he constructed one. Tudac, born Oghenevwogaga Daniel Ekwekere in Ughelli, Delta State, has carried out what no artist of Urhobo origin has tried at this scale: he coined Urhobo Afro-Pop as an actual, named, fully-realised style, a fusion of the traditional rhythmic traditions of the Urhobo individuals and the worldwide sound of recent Afrobeats, after which proceeded to construct its total basis himself, brick by sonic brick. His debut album Evolusion (2024) was already being known as the primary full Afro-Pop challenge ever recorded totally within the Urhobo language. Then got here the follow-up, Epicfany, and with it, observe six: Our Father: the tune that’s quietly approaching 100,000 streams throughout all digital platforms and making a really sturdy case that the Delta isn’t ready for permission anymore.
And this isn’t a sudden in a single day factor; this man has been cooking since 2007, when he first began producing music in his last yr at FUTO. He spent over 16 years behind the boards, mastering sound, earlier than stepping ahead as a solo artist in 2023, the identical yr he accomplished his MSc in Environmental Sustainability at Keele College within the UK. That persistence? That precision? It reveals in each bar. The Impartial Nigeria Information Platform described him as a drive reawakening Nigeria’s hip-hop scene, whereas Each day Belief Newspapers known as his rise the pioneering emergence of Urhobo Afro-Pop, noting his skill to mix Urhobo cultural heritage and fashionable Afrobeats in a means that has merely not been carried out earlier than. Erigga, Yung6ix – nice artists, all of Urhobo heritage, however none of them constructed a whole inventive world within the Urhobo language. Tudac is doing precisely that. He has in contrast his mission to what the Maori Haka has carried out for indigenous New Zealand tradition on the world stage: carrying a individuals’s identification someplace it has by no means been taken earlier than. Massive imaginative and prescient. And the receipts are coming in.
Now, Our Father, the tune that’s pulling the numbers, is one thing particular. It takes the Lord’s Prayer and brings all of it the way in which into 2026 Afrobeats: a person calling God on the telephone, asking Him to lastly choose up, telling Him the tables have been turning for too lengthy, and this must be his flip now. It talks about changing sweat into wealth, about every day bread, about attempting to forgive others within the streets whilst you’re nonetheless discovering your personal footing. It’s religious. It’s private. It’s deeply, unapologetically Nigerian. And the truth that practically 100,000 individuals have chosen to stream it tells you that this style Tudac invented, this Urhobo Afro-Pop, isn’t a distinct segment experiment. It’s a actual cultural motion within the making, and he’s its solely founder. You’ll find the whole lot: Evolusion, Epicfany, the standing single Ododo Me, and Our Father on all main digital streaming platforms. Observe @Soundsoftudac throughout socials. Belief us: you wish to be on this wave earlier than it will get to the highest.
