Nigerian rap star Odumodublvck has set off an online debate after declaring “Hip hop is dead” in a post on X, reacting to a chart showing the country’s top monthly Spotify listeners, a list with no rap acts on it.
Scanning the numbers, the “Declan Rice” hitmaker argued the absence spoke for itself about rap’s place in Nigeria’s streaming-dominated mainstream.
The comment immediately drew comparisons to Wizkid’s 2022 remark dismissing rap as “boring” and effectively dead commercially in Nigeria, a statement that triggered fury from rap artists at the time, with Oladips, Vector, M.I Abaga, and others firing back publicly, some with diss tracks.
By echoing that sentiment, Odumodublvck, one of the genre’s most visible current ambassadors, appeared to turn the same accusation on his own peers, and reaction has been swift.
Fans and fellow artists are split. Many accuse him of throwing his own genre under the bus, arguing he’s uniquely positioned to defend rap’s relevance rather than pile on. Critics also note that hip-hop remains a dominant global force and that one domestic streaming snapshot is a weak measure of a genre’s health.
Others side with him, conceding the numbers reflect a real decline in rap’s commercial pull within Nigeria specifically, even as individual rap artists keep loyal followings.
The chart itself underscores how singer-dominated Nigeria’s streaming landscape has become. Burna Boy leads with 40.68 million monthly Spotify listeners, just ahead of Tems at 40.64 million. Rema follows with 29.43 million, while Ayra Starr (16.84M) and Wizkid (16.81M) round out the top five. Omah Lay (11.24M), Davido (10.83M), CKay (10.71M), Fireboy DML (9.23M), and Asake (8.69M) complete the top ten entirely singers and Afrobeats acts, with no rap-driven artist in sight.
That’s notable given Nigeria’s deep rap talent pool, from veterans like M.I. Abaga, Vector, and Olamide to a newer wave including Odumodublvck himself, blending the genre with drill, grime, and Afrobeats.
Born Tochukwu Gbubemi Ojogwu, he broke out nationally in 2023 with “Declan Rice” and signed with NATIVE Records in partnership with Def Jam Recordings, building a sound he calls “Okporoko Rhythms”: a fusion of hip-hop, grime, Fela Kuti-inspired Afrobeat, and progressive R&B.
That track record is part of why his comment stung, coming not from an outsider, but from one of the genre’s standard-bearers.
He hasn’t issued any further clarification, and it remains to be seen whether the remark will provoke the kind of organized pushback and diss tracks included that followed Wizkid’s comments three years ago.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
Odumodublvck’s “Hip hop is dead” comment landed hard because it came from inside the house of a leading rap artist, pointing to a Spotify chart with zero rap acts in Nigeria’s top ten, all dominated by Afrobeats singers like Burna Boy and Tems.
It echoes Wizkid’s 2022 jab at rap, which sparked real backlash then, and now has fans split on whether he’s stating an uncomfortable truth about Nigeria’s streaming economy or betraying his own genre.
