How Blaqbonez Has Stayed Consistent and Relevant Year After Year

Since Blaqbonez became a mainstream artist in 2018, following the release of his debut EP, Bad Boy Blaq, he has always found a way to remain in the ears and consciousness of his audience. In Nigerian music, one of the greatest challenges for artists is time, because as it passes, audiences evolve, and the taste and choice of music evolve too. Which is why artists like Wizkid, Davido, Don Jazzy and others are considered exceptional for their consistency and longevity in the game. With Blaqbonez, the rapper, beyond music, has rather adopted and invented different patterns to stay relevant and consistent.

Apart from releasing music, Emeka (his actual name) understands that the game requires more to continue playing it. As a hip/hop artist, a genre that is not the most celebrated in Afrobeats, he has managed to stay shoulder to shoulder with pop artists in the genre. So what are some of the things Blaqbonez has done to stay relevant each year?

At the early stage of his career, one of Blaqbonez’s most effective tools was humour. Long before the skit culture became a promotional tool, Blaqbonez was already using comedy to keep his audience engaged. He made funny videos of himself promoting a new music release or simply being funny. He was most likely doing that at the time without knowing that people most likely remember what or who makes them laugh. His skits kept him visible between music releases.

Probably for a short stint, but in 2022, when Blaqbonez released the video of “Back in Uni”, the video became the talk of the entire country on Nigerian social media. In the video, Blaqbonez cosplayed other artists like Wizkid, Oxlade, Asake, BNXN, Ruger, Burna Boy, Portable and Ayra Starr.

Another tool, and definitely the most effective, was choosing what can be considered alien to Afrobeats. Afrobeats artists are lovers; they sing about missing their lover, being cheated by their lover or meeting their lover someday. The male artists, especially, sing a lot to women, but Blaqbonez chose to be otherwise. Instead of being a prophet of love, he chose to break the “yoke of love.” He stretched the theme of being resistant to the idea of love with his debut album, “Sex Over Love,” released in 2021 and “Young Preacher” in 2022. Blaqbonez is a strong advocate against the concept of love; he preaches that there isn’t anything like a soul mate. He held a “Breaking The Yoke of Love” in 2022; he was that head-on.

Choosing a theme that is not often in Afrobeats made him different as a singer and rapper. Listeners always need to have a reason to listen to an artist. Being resistant to the concept of love was the reason a lot of young people, who shared his belief, chose him as their favourite.

Although his recent beef with his fellow rapper has been much of the conversation around him online in recent times, even more than releasing an album, “No Excuses”, another major part of Blaqbonez’s relevance is how chronically (?) online he is. In today’s era, many artists treat social media as a notice board; Blaqbonez treats it like a living room. He is participating in conversations, responding to trends, teasing fans, and making his audience feel like they are part of his day-to-day life. He likes his fans as much as they like him, and in the re-release of his popular track, “ACL”, the voices of his fans are featured on the song. That is the kind of accessibility that builds familiarity, and familiarity builds loyalty.

Blaqbonez knows exactly who he is in the public imagination and has learned how to weaponise it. He leans into his image as the witty, sometimes unserious, highly self-aware rapper. Instead of resisting memes or online jokes, he often becomes the architect of them. In doing so, he controls his own narrative and ensures that even criticism often works in his favour.

The first thing Blaqbonez understands is that in the music industry, attention is currency. Releasing good music is important, but it is often not enough to sustain relevance. Artists now have to compete not just with other musicians, but with films, skits, trends, and the endless scroll of social media. Blaqbonez recognised this early and chose not to fight the internet, but to become part of it.