In 2024, there was a notable shift in the sonic zeitgeist as the younger generation dominated discourse and music, with the OGs seemingly content with taking a backseat. This deviation was the first in over a decade that signalled that perhaps, momentum and power was about to transition and power was about to change hands but the course of events that transpired in 2025 pulled the brakes on that.
The OGs all had recently released albums that dominated conversation, while also wilfully stirring controversies with inflammatory statements and indulging in the petty arts of drama. The younger generation were on the back-burner but they seem to be plotting a return for this year, because quite a few number have albums due for 2026. Let’s talk about the most anticipated albums of the year.
1. Asake – M$NEY
Asake’s fourth studio album was teased all year in 2025 and the artiste led people into believing he was releasing a fourth project in quick succession, but it never dropped so it seems we’re getting it this year. Anticipation will be at an all-time high for this one because Asake has finally given the audience an avenue to miss him and also notably made himself scarce throughout the course of last year.
Money is probably going to be more of the same Asake we’ve gotten in the past two years. Unlike his other albums, 2024’s Lungu Boy marked a tonal shift for Asake from an aggressive dynamic approach of deliveries into a more laidback, lax one that embraced equally tempered BPMs. His last two singles also reflect this sentiment, as they exist on the mid-tempo pop spectrum and lacked the melodic rapping we had come to know Asake for.
2. Omah Lay – Clarity Of Mind
It’s a new year and the cycle of anticipation for a new Omah Lay album is open us again. It’s natural at this point, like the dawn of the new day and ensuing fact of the sun rising. Whether or not, we’re finally going to get the pop-star’s sophomore album is still a mystery, but there is only so long he can postpone releasing an album and the threshold should be three years after the release of his last project? Right?
Like 2024, we did get a new single and it confirmed our earlier hypothesis that the singer’s new album would shift from the much darker and traumatic themes that Boy Alone was saddled with and exude something much more lighthearted and celebratory. Waist follows the pattern of the preceding singles—Holy Ghost and Moving—being more upbeat and groovy, with Omah Lay seemingly mesmerized with the sweet pleasures of life.
3. Rema’s Third Studio Album
We haven’t gotten official confirmation from the artiste or his camp yet, but a Rollingstone article published in 2025 confirmed that the rave lord has an album slated for release this year. It would be his third in four years and be consistent with his two-year break in between projects. As for what to expect? We have absolutely no idea, as Rema is someone who loves to move in secrecy. HEIS wasn’t announced until a week before its release.
Despite not dropping a project, 2025 was quite stacked for Rema. His first two singles were Afroswing and R&B adjacent, signalling a stark shift from the hyper-pop soundcape of HEIS. The reasonable deduction is the conclusion that the artist is primed for global dominance by electing to make music more suitable for a Western palate, but his follow-up single to the aforementioned songs was a huge tonal whiplash that didn’t resonate with audiences either, so we can assume Rema won’t be re-treading Kelebu territory anymore.
4. Wizkid & Asake – REAL, VOL 1
This writer, like most Afrobeats enthusiasts familiar with Wizkid antics know there is a high probability this album isn’t ‘real’ and doesn’t exist. Wizkid likes to tease and bait his audience and it won’t be the first time. The duo however did a handful of press runs together and spent a lot of time hanging out, that it isn’t farfetched to assume this project exists.
Asides from their Sarz collaboration, both artists have two songs with each other and they exist on extreme ends of the pop spectrum. Bad Girl is uptempo and is a party starter, while MMS is much more introspective and solemn. An album from this pair would most likely deliver songs that vary in sonic templates like their collaborations do.
5. NSG – Sounds Of The Diaspora
The self-dubbed kings of Afroswing are back with a new project in 2026, which would make it their second in two years after 2025’s The Big 6. Ayo Maff, Mavo, King Promise, Bien and Nasty C are set to make guest appearances. Going off the caption by which the project was announced on X and the featured acts, the music would most likely tap into their Afroswing roots to deliver Afrocentric music suitable for global consumption.
6. Shoday – Hybrid
Shoday’s approach to 2026 epitomizes the real lock-in sentiment of a new year, with the artiste releasing a brand new song fearuring FOLA on the second day of the year. Titled Paparazzi, it’s more of the same catchy, easy-on-the-ears street-pop music that the artiste has used to carve out a niche for himself and said music is most likely more of what we’ll be getting on his debut album, when it eventually arrives.
7. Cheque – YAZI
After releasing his debut album in 2021, Cheque has released two EPs in the past couple of years and is now set to release his sophomore album in 2026. With Cheque you can never be too sure of what you’re getting, because he’s one hell of a dynamic artiste. He’s carved out a lane for himself in the melodic trap territory, and has also proven he can excel at Pop and R&B fusion too.
8. P. Prime’s Debut Album
If there is a title for the most prominent producer of the current decade, who has had the sort of trajectory that can only end in an all-timer legacy—it is most definitely P.Prime. Last year, he confirmed the arrival of his debut album in a tweet and speculation around the project have Wizkid and Asake attached to it. Olamide, Rema and Fireboy are other frequent collaborators of Prime that could also make an appearance.
Other artists: like Fireboy DML, Chike and even Wizkid might release new albums this year—as they have notably developed a pattern since 2020, of dropping a new LP every two years but nothing is confirmed yet. Ayra Starr and Tems might also follow suit, but it’s more unlikely for the latter seeing as she dropped an EP some months back.
