Street-hop music has always been a popular genre in Nigeria. The genre represents the pulse of the street, telling tales of the joys and struggles of common man. However due to the unpolished sound, street-hop music never fully penetrated the mainstream ensuring that the popularity of the genre has never really reflected on the charts.
This changed with the recent emergence of a golden age of street-hop acts, who blended street hop essence with pop elements that led to mainstream acceptance. One of such acts is Mohbad. With hit songs like ‘Pariwo’, ‘Ko Por Ke (KPK)’ and ‘Blessing’, Mohbad contributed to the growth and fame of Street-hop music that it enjoys today.
His breakout song, ‘Ponmo’ which featured artists Naira Marley and Lil Kesh, made him hugely recognized in the industry as a talented musician. The song was nominated in five categories at The Beatz Awards in 2021, and spent 20 weeks on the streaming Charts, peaking at No.5 on the chart. It also gained entry on the Top 50 chart, and peaked at No. 24.
He went on to release several songs after his breakout song like ‘Ko Por Ke (KPK)’ featuring Rexxie. ‘KPK’ was a hit by all standards. It spent 30 weeks on the Top 50 chart where it peaked at No. 3, 26 weeks on the Radio charts where its highest position was No.4. It also spent 27 weeks on the streaming charts where it stood at the very peak of No.1. In addition to doing well on the charts, ‘KPK’ was nominated three times for The Headies awards 2022.
MohBad was listed in Audiomack's top 21 Afrobeat artists of 2021. In 2022, he released ‘Peace’ produced by Rexxie which peaked at No. 24 on the Top 100 charts. The song also spent 39 weeks on the Afro-Pop charts, peaking at No.8.
But his opus has to be ‘Feel Good’, a song built on James Brown’s song by the same name. Mohbad added his own touch to the song that ended in the creation of a hit song. The song peaked at No.1 on the Streaming charts and lasted 30 weeks on the chart. In addition to the streaming charts, ‘Feel Good’ spent 31 weeks and 29 weeks on the Top 50 and Radio chart, peaking at No.7 and No.14 respectively.
‘Ask About Me’, the song where he sings about overcoming his battles and conquering his enemies was a hit, peaking at high numbers across the charts. It peaked at No.7 and No.2 on the Street Pop and Streaming charts respectively.
His ‘Blessed EP’ has seen an increase of 530% across streaming platforms in Nigeria in the weeks following his death and his debut EP, ‘Light EP’ recorded a staggering 6,840% increase in streaming activity in Nigeria week-over-week. The 'Blessed' EP is the first EP to get the No.1 position on the album charts.
In the past week, he gained the No.1 spots on the Artiste and Streaming charts with ‘Beast and Peace’, while he held the most positions in the Top Ten position of the Top 100 charts with the songs, ‘Ask about Me’ at No. 2, ‘Beast and Peace’ at No.3, ‘Peace’ at No. 5, ‘Pariwo’ at No. 7, ‘Sabi’ at No. 8 and ‘Feel Good’ at No. 9. Such is a testament to the musical prowess of the young musician, who influenced the Street-Hop Genre massively since his entry to the music industry.