Olamide is an all-time great with a discography that’s up there as one of the greatest for a contemporary Nigerian artist. The legendary rapper and label executive has 10 solo albums, 2 collaborative albums and 1 EP to his name. With a whopping number of 13 projects, he’s easily one of the most prolific artists of all time and what’s even more impressive is that he’s hardly ever put out mediocre albums, as most of these projects are great albums, whereas a handful of them have attained classic status.
For this article however, we’ll be focusing solely on his solo albums and ranking them on the basis of sheer quality alone.
10. Lagos Nawa – (2017)
Perhaps the only album in Baddo’s discography that you could classify as mediocre, Lagos Nawa arrived hot on the heels of the Shaku Shaku championed sound that Olamide himself propagated to the mainstream with the smash-hit Wo. It wasn’t the wrong decision to capitalize on the success of Wo and attempt to build a sonic soundscape around it. It just wasn’t executed quite well and the evidence is glaring in the fact that Olamide himself attested to the fact that the entire album was recorded in just 2 days.
That speaks volume to the very spontaneous and carefree approach to curating the album, and whilst Olamide’s methods on some of his previous classics might not have been the most meticulous—it yielded great result anyways, because he was at his creative best. Despite its shortcomings, Lagos Nawa produced a gem in Shine, one of Baddo’s best album rap cuts. The song was also produced by him.
9. Eyan Mayweather – (2015)
Eyan Mayweather is fondly remembered as a major highlight in Olamide’s discography, because it’s the album released in the year of his commercial peak, 2015 when he was the biggest artist in the country. The album houses some of his most iconic and culturally impactful singles in Bobo, Lagos Boys and Melo Melo. However, the overall album is nowhere close to Olamide at his best.
At 20 tracks and no features, it feels very laborious in some particular sequences and the fact that Olamide treads very familiar sonic terrains that he had explored on previous albums, without a fresh dynamism to it—doesn’t help it. But it’s a more than decent offering that pales in comparison to Olamide’s best. Nevertheless, it also houses some incredible rap cuts in Jega and OG Wahedee.
8. Rapsodi – (2011)
One thing Olamide established from the get-go on his debut album was his unique sonic identity as a rapper, that was constructed on the identity of a hungry, relentless emcee that was evident in his raw, dexterous flows. Baddo wore 20+ t-shirts in the video of his breakout single, Eniduro and this is perhaps the most significant reminder of just how much personality he had then and the underlying humor that was infused into his music.
He’s mostly become reclusive in present day, in contrast to his glory days and so it’s easy to forget how energetic he used to be, a particular trait that Rapsodi conveyed immensely well. Songs like Apa Ti Jabo, Emi Lo Mi ft. 2phat and Boys Are Not Smiling ft. Terry Da Rapman were standout tracks that went on to to have reasonable cultural impact.
7. UY Scuti – (2021)
The fact that an incredibly cohesive, immersive album experience like UY Scuti is low on this list is just a testament to the quality of Olamide’s discography. This is the album era that’s the farthest from Hip-Hop and another glaring evidence of Baddo’s underrated versatility. The album is Dancehall and RnB fusion at its best and not many artists of Olamide’s magnitude can pull off the same feat on such a scale.
UY Scuti is also Olamide’s most cohesive album, as all the songs are cut from the same sonic cloth and fit into the meticulous sonic environment crafted by Eskeez. Even Rock, the Afro-RnB hit single off the LP has similar sonics with the other dancehall records on the albums. The transitions are also at their absolute smoothest and at 10 tracks, it’s very concise. Matter of fact, if it was a few tracks longer the tight cohesion could have become monotonous.
6. The Glory – (2016)
Olamide’s most English-rap leaning album is easily one of his most underrated and underappreciated albums. Don’t get it twisted, Baddo is at his nuclear best when he’s rapping mostly in Yoruba and spicing it with English but The Glory is concrete evidence that he’s more than a decent rapper, when rapping majorly in English and can hold his own well against the country’s best non-indigenous rappers.
The album housed the amazing Journey Of A Thousand Miles, which is one of this writer’s favorite Olamide rap songs. Infused with a lot of soul and choral background vocals, Baddo reflects on his journey from being an underground rapper to his status as the Kingpin of the country’s Hip-Hop scene. Letter To Milli is also arguably Olamide’s most heartfelt song, as he writes an elaborate letter to his son, seeking to inspire him years later in the future when he can make sense of it. Almost like a message left in a time capsule.
5. Street OT – (2014)
Olamide’s commercial peak was 2015, but it was 2014 that we witnessed the most technical version of his rapping. He was simply relentless, with flows that were aggressively quick and raunchy, accompanied by rhymes laced with the best of his bars and double/triple entendres. Songs like Zero Joy, Blood Money and Goons Mi are the best showcase of this particular elements. Olamide in his pure, unhinged element as a rapper.
But that isn’t all there is to Street OT, as it still had enough range from Olamide as it had some emotional, soul cuts in 1999, reflective rap episodes in Hustle, Loyalty and Respect ft. Reminisce and groovy rap anthems in Story For The Gods. Street OT also completed Olamide’s 3-peat of the Album of the year award at The Headies and completed his trifecta of 3 consecutive classic albums.
4. YBNL – (2012)
Street OT might have featured the most technical version of Olamide’s rapping, but it’s YBNL that houses his best and most iconic rap anthems that have the biggest chokehold on indigenous rap culture and the Hip-Hop scene as a whole. Voice Of The Streets is Olamide’s best rap song and one of the greatest Nigerian rap songs of all time. Ilefo Illuminati is a cult classic that still gets referenced in present day. (Asake’s Sunshine)
The sophomore slump is a conundrum that plagues many great artists, but Olamide absolutely obliterates the quality of his great debut album on YBNL and the album went on to rightly become his first classic and the inception of his trifecta, that continued with BGEL and ended with Street OT. The peak of this album is absolutely bonkers and if not for a few filler tracks, it could have been placed much higher on this list.
3. Unruly – (2023)
Ever since entering his graceful, veteran years—Olamide has been curating his best sonic experiences. Carpe Diem and UY Scuti are the most sophisticated, enjoyable offerings from Baddo from an album experience standpoint. When you consider their sonic and thematic cohesion, seamless transitions and lush production—they are Baddo’s most refined and polished albums.
Unruly retains the best elements of these aforementioned albums, making it another immersive, great album experience but unlike CD and UY Scuti, it features even more energetic rap anthems from Baddo that we haven’t seen since 2016’s The Glory. It’s the perfect balance of a refined album experience, whilst still showing flashes of Olamide in his rap peak years ago. It might be an unpopular opinion at the moment, but this writer believes this album is on its way to notch classic status.
2. Carpe Diem – (2020)
Unarguably the only Hip-Hop album out of Nigeria in the streaming era that can be called a classic, Carpe Diem arrived at the exact moment it was needed for Baddo to make a solid statement. It had been 3 years since his last album which was undoubtedly his worst and album culture was getting awakened once again, after the huge success of the debut album of a protégé of his, Fireboy DML. And when Carpe Diem arrived, it re-integrated Baddo back into the mainstream and did everything he needed it to do.
Carpe Diem had it all. Goundbreaking, psychedelic production courtesy of the young prodigy, P.prime, ethereal and pristine visual aesthetics, the absolute best of Olamide’s melodic rapping and singing chops and groovy rap hit songs that set the dance floor on fire. It is the best album experience from Baddo and is pretty much interchangeable with the no. 1 album on this list. Baddo himself confirmed it in an interview that CD and BGEL are the best albums he’s put out.
1. Baddest Guy Ever Liveth – (2013)
Baddest Guy Ever Liveth had Olamide at his magnus opus in the mainstream when he transitioned into a cultural icon and a voice for the streets, that he prophesied a year before on YBNL. The album simply features all the best versions of Olamide’s artistry from emotional and tear-jerking rap confessions on Anifowose to aggressive, raunchy rap deliveries on Dope Money ft. Phyno to braggadocious flexes on Sitting On The Throne and soulful cuts on Higher ft. Bez.
There are also multiple cultural significant moments on BGEL, as songs like Durosoke, Turn Up and Eleda Mi were smash-hits in the mainstream and became the staple of measuring true success and impact of Hip-Hop songs. Olamide was the hottest emcee in the country at the moment and rightly so. He was unearthing uncharted waters and making great music that paid homage to his roots and redefined the essence of Nigerian Hip-Hop.
–This article is written by T.J. Martins, an ‘Album Talks writer and avid lover of music.
