These habits probably aren’t disappearing. We’re realistic about that. But if they can’t be abandoned completely, can we at least reduce them? That’s all we’re asking.
As the year winds down, the Nigerian music scene remains as chaotic and eventful as ever. We’ve seen everything from the Odumodublvck and Blaqbonez saga to the erratic “cancellation” of Burna Boy in recent times. We have witnessed the continued iconism of the big 3’s, a new wave of new school artists, the dumbfounding rise of Mavo, even if it meant we had to spend months dissecting lyrics like “your body na meat pie”, and adding the suffix “-izzy” to our every word.
But while 2025 gave us plenty to talk about, it also highlighted some continued exhausting habits. If we want 2026 to be a better year for the culture, certain things need to be left behind at the stroke of midnight on December 31st.
1. The Two-Minute Teaser
We need to talk about the death of the “snippet.” Why is your teaser half the length of the actual song? By the time the track finally hits streaming platforms, we’ve already heard the hook, the pre-chorus, and the producer tag fifty times on TikTok.
The worst part is that by release day, the hype is often dead. You’ve posted 15-second clips for six weeks straight. Your fans have already made seventeen different remixes, and every influencer has used the audio for a generic “get ready with me” video. The song is stale before it even officially exists. There is a fine line between building anticipation and running a marketing marathon that nobody signed up for. If the song is ready, drop it. If it’s not, stay out of the studio’s “ring light” and finish the work.
2. The Wizkid FC and 30BG Cold War
This is the war that will likely outlive us all. Nobody expects 2026 to arrive and these two fanbases to suddenly start sharing a bowl of jollof rice. Twitter Nigeria would probably collapse if FC and 30BG agreed on the time of day.
However, it has become genuinely ridiculous. The “war” isn’t even about the music anymore; it’s a race to see who can be the most obnoxious person on the internet. An artist drops an album? Instant comparison. Someone wins an award? World War III. Meanwhile, Wizkid and Davido have clearly moved on. They are global superstars living their best lives while their fans are still in the trenches fighting over a verse from 2017. We’re tired, the artists are tired, and even the algorithm is tired.
3. The 30-Minute Dissertation
Apparently, everyone with a smartphone is now a professional music critic. An artist drops a 14-track album at midnight, and by 12:30 AM, there are already threads explaining why it’s “mid” or “the death of Afrobeats.”
How? You didn’t even finish the project. You skipped through three songs, checked the features, and decided you had enough information to write a thesis. Nuance has died. There is no middle ground anymore. A project is either an instant classic or total garbage. We’ve lost the ability to say, “It’s a solid effort, even if it’s not their best.” If we want artists to experiment and grow, we have to stop crucifying them the second they try something different.
4. The “Phantom” Project Announcement
If we had a naira for every album that was “coming soon” but never arrived, we’d be richer than the artists themselves. We’ve normalized a culture of broken promises. An artist posts a blurry studio photo with the caption “Album mode,” and we get excited like we don’t know how this ends. Spoiler: it ends with nothing.
Don’t announce a collaboration with an international star until the file is in the distributor’s hands. Don’t give us a release date if you’re still “rebranding” the title. When you cry wolf for two years, the excitement eventually turns into apathy. By the time you actually drop the music, nobody is looking for it.
5. Lazy International Features
There was a time when an international collaboration felt like a cultural event. Think P-Square and Akon or D’banj and Snoop Dogg. Those records had synergy.
Now, half of these collaborations sound like they were handled via a cold email with zero communication. The international artist drops a generic verse that could have been on any song in their catalog, collects the check, and disappears. We’re wasting world-class talent. If you get SZA on a track, why is she only doing ten seconds of background vocals? If you’re going to feature someone, make it count. We are past the point of needing Western validation. If the collaboration doesn’t add soul or substance to the record, keep it in the drafts. We’d rather have a fire solo track than a mediocre song that only exists for the “feat.” tag.
6. Numbers Over Artistry
The industry is currently obsessed with “numbers” to a point that is genuinely depressing. You can’t have a conversation about music quality anymore without someone bringing up “first-week streams” or “Apple Music Top 10” rankings.
Numbers lie. Playlisting can be bought, bots exist, and radio play can be forced. A song can have 50 million streams and be completely forgettable in three months. Conversely, a song can have modest numbers but actually move the culture. Artists are now shortening songs and bloating albums just to game the Spotify algorithm.
If we keep treating music like a stock market instead of a cultural movement, we’re going to wake up in 2026 with a catalog of “hits” that nobody actually remembers the lyrics to.
RELATED: If you’ve ever wondered why artists are so obsessed with hitting certain numbers, click here exactly how much Nigerian artists actually earn from streaming.
7. The “Masterpiece” Gaslighting
Stop telling us we “don’t get it.” When an artist drops a lukewarm project and it fails to land, the immediate response shouldn’t be a three-week damage control tour.We see the cryptic tweets about being “ahead of the curve” and the Instagram Lives where they explain the “complex layers” of a song that was clearly just a rush job. It’s okay to miss. Every legend has a project that didn’t land. What’s not okay is gaslighting your audience into thinking they’re “too uneducated” to appreciate your work.
Growth comes from taking the L and going back to the drawing board, not from pretending that every lukewarm track you drop is a misunderstood masterpiece.
So there you have it. Seven things that absolutely need to stay in 2025 where they belong. Will any of this actually change in 2026? Probably not.
But at least we said it. At least it’s out there. And who knows? Maybe 2026 will surprise us. Or maybe we’ll be back here next December writing the same article with different examples.
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