Whether or not you belong to the school of thought, that believes 2025 was an underwhelming year for mainstream Afrobeats or you’re a connoisseur that was tapped into the underground scene and support the motion that the younger generation salvaged the year—one thing we can all agree on is that the music scene was more active than ever.
Rife with drama from album roll-outs, tweet-off sessions and PR theatrics—these are the albums that ensued from the music of the aforementioned shenanigans, ranked by the AlbumTalks staff. Was the music better for it? We’ll let you decide that for yourself.
Criteria: Quality/Critical acclaim, mainstream acceptance and commercial success.
Notable mentions:
Peruzzi’s SABALI
Cosamote’s Files ’26
Show Dem Camp’s Afrika Magik
10. No Excuses – Blaqbonez
In November 2023, Blaqbonez dropped his third LP in three years and aimed for the holy grail of completing a stellar trifecta of great albums. Emeka Must Shine was many things, but it wasn’t as critically revered as Sex Over Love and Young Preacher. Neither did it attain the heights of commercial success it strived for.
Blaq revealed in an interview to this writer that he kept his rapping tendencies on a leash, to make an accessible pop album but the ensuing result was an unbridled dilution of his artistry. No Excuses on the other hand treads the same pop-rap soundscapes, but Blaq is unapologetic about being a rapper now and his immaculate flows seeps into every melody and rhyme on the LP. Especially that one diss song that set the internet ablaze.
9. Blown Boy Ru – Ruger
Ruger might not be churning out those pop hits in the effortless fashion he used to about two years ago, in his viral twitter snippet era—but he’s been putting out great music nonetheless. After his stellar debut album that fused Dancehall and Afrobeats in perfect synergy, he released a collaborative EP with BNXN last year that produced some really soulful, R&B deep cuts and one mainstream hit.
Blown Boy Ru is his third project in three years and it speaks to his commendable work ethic. Granted, it’s nowhere near the quality of his first but this one barely feels like a sophomore slump because the music is indeed good and offered something distinct. Where Ru The World’s highlights came from its Carribean soundscapes, Blown Boy Ru‘s emotive R&B cuts stole the spotlight. Perhaps, it’s time for the artiste to make full blown Blues music.
8. This One Is Personal – Tiwa Savage
In an interview back in 2023, Tiwa announced that her next album was going to be R&B-centric. Not Afro-R&B or Afro-Soul, but pure R&B. Of course, this made many wonder as to why the Queen of Afrobeats would make such a claim and severe ties with her culture and roots at such a pivotal point in her career, but now that the album is here—we can definitely see the intention.
Ironically, this album is not pure R&B and neither is it Afro-R&B either. It has both genres in almost equal proportions and it’s the emotional core of this genre that enables her vulnerability to thrive in great length, while providing enough range to navigate either soundcapes and make great music that embraces her roots as the genre’s most successful female artist. The earnestness of the music doesn’t dilute the core sexiness that’s synonymous with Tiwa either.
7. SPIRAL – Tim Lyre
If the once thriving alté scene is ever going to experience a renaissance, then it’s going to be in the form of ingenious fusions with other genres and budding communities like the R&B one. Since the wake of the lockdown slowed down the tempo of mainstream music, R&B has thrived and artists like Mannywellz, Nonso Amadi and Tim Lyre have dropped amazing albums.
SPIRAL is Tim’s sophomore and despite being good soul music, the production is grand in every sense of the world that it provides context to Tim’s alté and gospel roots. Despite the sonic experimentation and divergence, Tim’s greatest strength as an artiste remains his pen and how he wields powerful and profound stories of emotional resilience, identity turbulence and musical liberty.
6. Protect Sarz At All Cost – Sarz
After building an incredible discography off the back of collaborating with incredible talents in EPs, Sarz finally released his debut studio LP—making a sharp deviation from spotlighting upcoming talent and joining forces with some of Afrobeats biggest hitters. This means less creative leeway for Sarz because he can’t direct superstars the way he would underground ones, but this ensures more mainstream acceptance—which in his eyes is a decent bargain.
Besides, if anything it’s the stars on this project that truly shine and not Sarz’s usually cutting edge production. Perhaps, he is content with taking a backseat and tailoring each song to the sensibilities of the featured acts. Connoisseurs who have gotten accustomed to the legendary producer pushing new boundaries on his projects might be a bit dissapointed, but it’s never a bad thing when a producer is solely concerned with amplifying the strengths of their artists. In fact, it’s their primary job.
5. 5ive – Davido
5ive was arguably 2025’s most anticipated album and for good reason. As the follow-up to 2023’s Timeless—a record that is soon to tread classic status—it had big shoes to fill. The pre-released singles didn’t help the momentum much, but Funds was a really good Highlife/Pop fusion song that got me excited for the new direction the superstar was going in his fifth studio album. So no one was more surprised than me, when we basically got Timeless Part 2.
Inherently that’s not a bad thing. Although, it’s detrimental to try and recreate the formular of a previous classic as it almost never works, but in the rare case of it done well—the success is usually instantly monumental (Work Of Art.) But reworked formular or not, it was always going to be a difficult thing living up to the lofty heights of its predecessor and 5ive is at its utmost best when it’s charting new territory and doing its own thing.
4. Olamidé – Olamide
Olamide is paying absolutely no heed to the statement he made two years ago of Unruly being his final album. Since then, he’s released two projects in quick succession—Ikigai Vol. 1 and now his self-titled 11th studio album. Ever since the turn of the new decade, Baddo has explored more laidback and midtempo templates, most notably on the Hip-Hop leaning Carpe Diem and Dancehall inspired UY Scuti.
However his dexterity and energetic flows that were maintained on those projects are now missing on Olamidé, with the rapper fully embracing the mellow ambience. In the Apple music editorial, he revealed that he wants the listener to feel like they’re at a jazz bar, fully immersed in the pathos of the music and allured by it. His avid fans might feel cheated out of the usual charismatic Baddo, but no one can deny the fact that the music is quite good for what it’s striving to be.
3. Fuji – Adekunle Gold
Whether you’re a fan of Adekunle Gold or not, the fact that he’s one of the most intentional artistes in Afrobeats is an undeniable one. From his stage performance and craft in the utilization of live bands and orchestras, to the curation of albums that depict eras and signal thematic shifts to the exploration of his culture in both sonic and visual terms. His level of artistry is unrivalled.
Moreso, it’s a genuinely astounding thing for an artiste to put out his sixth studio album, a decade into his career and said album would be in contention for his best ever. Sure, one might have a bone or two to pick with the glaringly lack of Fújì music in an album titled Fuji, but the music is unabashedly good in its progressive exploration of culture in a contemporary way that’s very refreshing.
2. CAPTAIN – BNXN
Chances are if you weren’t a fan of BNXN’S debut album, CAPTAIN isn’t going to convert you into one either. It’s more of the same Garage/Afro-Swing fusion template that he explored in its predecessor but CAPTAIN does feel like an improvement because BNXN’s debut wasn’t exactly a classic on arrival and he gets room to fine tune his formular on here.
And to BNXN’s credit, he does get a bit creative on here. It’s pixel clear from the onset of the album that this project has a Hip-Hop twist to it, which works to a tee for BNXN’s skillset as one of Afrobeats most talented writers. Indeed, he would have to step out of his comfort zone for sure on his next outing but for now, the music is good and that’s all that matters.
1. catharsis – FOLA
It’s been three years since a breakout act of the year, released album of the year. While Asake’s stake to that claim in 2022 is not arguable, and FOLA’S is—the fact remains that catharsis has been one of the biggest moments for an album released in the year. It’s a bold, statement-making album that capped off an amazing year for the talented Afro-pop star.
The magic about FOLA is how adaptable he is, to the point of being a sonic chameleon. He comfortably habits the territory and BPM of Afro-R&B, while deploring Yoruba and English deliveries in equal symmetry—in a way that also qualifies him to be a street-pop “Afro-Adura” talent, all the while making accessible pop music. On catharsis, he proves beyond reasonable doubt that he isn’t a one-trick pony and has several tricks up his sleeve. If there is a flaw to this album, it’s the minimalist production and not FOLA’s immaculate shift all through the runtime.
