Blaqbonez’s 'No Excuses' Proves His Relentless Brilliance

Blaqbonez has been one of African music’s most reliable rappers for a while. Since the late-night salvo of “Mamiwota,” which was released in 2019, he has consistently created projects with an edgy, contemporary style, bringing a vast compositional quality into the technical parameters of rap. His latest album, No Excuses, makes a strong case for being his edgiest body of work yet, an audacious collection of songs that move through a plethora of subjects and angles that cut his celebrity appeal in musical stone. 

As he told OkayAfrica, his creativity flows with the conceptual framework of projects. “I’m always in project mode,” he says, “as soon as I put out one, I’ve already started on the next one, ‘cos time waits for no man. And when I start making a project, I just start making bare music till I find the spine, and I just keep building on that.”

For No Excuses, that spine came earlier this year when he’d created quite a number of the songs for the project. He felt he had the key pieces that propelled the album towards its eventual shape. On the 17 songs one finds on the album, there’s a charismatic fusion of Blaqbonez’s previous forms: the exuberant participant of Sex Over Love meets the acute observer of Young Preacher, and they pour a glass of wine for the maturing hedonist of Emeka Must Shine. 

A record like “Bizzy Body” would find a place in all four albums as a colorfully youthful showcase of dancefloor activities. So would the FOLA-assisted “Despacito,” where the year’s breakout star flexes his melancholy vocals in a detached way to amplified effect. The same goes for “Aura 4 Aura,” a ‘Hausa pop’-sounding record which places Pa Salieu in the raving territory that seems to have been waiting for him all along. There’s even space for Ghanaian American artist Mellissa to flex her entrancing rhythms over a love-led narrative. 

Blaqbonez’s execution of this wide range of features reveals an artistic and curatorial mastery. It’s a skill he’s grown into since he started making music. “[On my previous album], I had a certain gospel, a message that was very clear in terms of what I was talking about,” Blaqbonez explains, “but as you grow, you experience different things that change some perspectives. Here, the message is a little bit different. The message is more hustle-related. I’m more vulnerable in different places.”

It must be exciting to watch Blaqbonez achieve all he’s done. With the album cut “ACL” trending over the weekend for its well-aimed shots at Nigerian rapper ODUMODUBLVCK, the No Excuses album has flown on the type of cultural currency he last attained during the run of Sex Over Love, but such moments are not new to Blaqbonez — neither the diss record nor the acclaim.

Those versed in his trajectory know how, at different times, Blaqbonez has relayed a keen understanding of rap’s confrontational history. A medium of settlement and a showcase of lyrical ability, diss records have been purposely strewn on the cosmos of the Blaq star rising. He came up within the gloried rap forums of Nairaland, attempting to set flames to anyone within reach, building up the toughness required of a rapper. When asked about this peculiar history, Blaqbonez has nothing but fond thoughts. 

“It definitely [shaped my tenacity],” he says, “in terms of how I write and everything. At the beginning, those were my first group of fans, the ones that pushed me to keep going.” Though often lauded for his intentional cultivation of community, from pop-out shows to his everyday style of social media communication, Blaqbonez considers it a natural duty. 

“For me, it’s more about connecting with the people that support me,” he says, “because if I build a strong bond with those people, they’ll always be there and they’ll always ride for me. I talk to them, I listen, I engage them. That in turn became this persona of Blaqbonez, marketing genius, blah blah blah. But it’s just me trying to connect with people that show me the most love.”

There are different sides to Blaqbonez, and it’s been an element in his continued relevance. Even the music carries the traits of a complex personality, at once quirky, intelligent, and most of all, relatable. No Excuses, which ranks high in his impressive catalog, shares these qualities with his best work. For the artist, this is no mistake — every piece of music takes after a characteristic energy. 

“I create a project that I like to listen to,” he explains, “and I’m someone that likes to listen to different things. I don’t want a project that’s one-dimensional. So I create a project that fits my listening taste, a project that carries me through my day. So whatever emotion I’m feeling, I can just turn it on and it could carry me.”

He cites Nigerian rap great M.I Abaga as a referential source. “M.I was very pivotal in my learning process of making albums,” says Blaqbonez, “he has this way of mixing a lot of things. If you go back to M.I2, you hear all that. It was an important project in my life.” 

Before No Excuses, Blaqbonez achieved a fresh milestone as he debuted on the runway for Vivienne Westwood at Paris Fashion Week. Sporting a loose-fitting golden suit with a petal-designed blue shirt underneath, Blaqbonez’s latest knots crowned the look, a subtle parallel of the defiance he’s showcased throughout his decade-long career. “That moment was really exciting,” affirms Blaqbonez, whose self-directed “Back In Uni” video had him cosplaying looks from his Nigerian music colleagues. “Getting a taste of [modeling] makes me want more and more and more.” 

Blaqbonez confirms we’ll be seeing him dabble in other such non-musical projects in the future. “There’s so much I can do and I’ll keep on pushing the boundaries,” he says. “I wanna direct a movie at some point, I wanna create a Netflix series, something of that sort. I feel like I have the mind to achieve so much, and I’m not going to limit myself to doing one thing.”