This year was certainly off to a bang with an unexpected but pleasant release from the Nigerian record label Chocolate City. The Chocolate City cypher was announced to simultaneously celebrate its 20th anniversary and 50 years of Hip-Hop dominance. Talk about making a statement.
Besides its abrupt release, the Chocolate City Cypher also had an exciting lineup of rappers who contributed to making it a project worth listening to. This project is an excellent follow-up to the Martell cypher five years ago, which also made headlines.
This time, the Chocolate City cypher features Blaqbonez, Loose Kaynon, A–Q, Ice Prince, Jesse Jagz, and MI Abaga. Are you curious to know what parts of the cypher had everyone talking? Let’s explore that shortly.
Celebrating Nigerian Hip-Hop With The Chocolate City Cypher
Kicking off the cypher is Blaq-bonez, who goes right in and heads for the jugular with an unapologetic flow. He takes jabs at Hush Puppy and solidifies his ambitions to be just like Jeff Bezoz in six months.
The next verse on The Chocolate City cypher is A-Q’s, who follows through with a declaration of his albums, God’s Engineering 1 & 2 and hints about a third. Without mincing words, the rapper also pays a beautiful tribute to his late mom and ends his verse with a quirky exit: “… press pause. What the fuck am I doing here? I’ve got meetings with investors.”
After a brief intermission, Loose Kaynon uses brilliant wordplay to take a piss at his enemies and wanna-be rappers. He also mentions a nameless favourite rapper who sells his soul for publicity. But before we can have time to figure out who it is, Ice Prince seamlessly transitions into his all-too-familiar flow.
On The Chocolate City Cypher, Ice-Prince’s verse begins by reminiscing about his little beginnings as a young rapper. He keeps his verse short and sweet, ending it by giving props to Choc City for sticking with him since 2007. You’re not alone if you listened to Ice Prince’s verse and felt like it should’ve been longer. It ended way too soon.
Jesse Jagz closely follows Ice Prince’s verse with braggadocious efforts of his own: “…no need to introduce myself.” He gives accolades to Choc City but also hints at self-producing his music for a bit. His verse lasts a little over a minute but follows the unmistakably catchy flow that we all know and love.
Mr. Incredible comes up next and last on the Chocolate City cypher. He starts by giving tribute to Mohbad before self-appraisals that refer to himself as the Kunta-Kinte and Adam of rap music in Nigeria. In what seems like a reference to the rap debate that trended on Twitter just a few months ago, he states, “….how the six best rappers from the same fucking crew what you niggas going to do…”
M.I. also credits his predecessors and thanks the fans for sticking with them through 50 years of Hip-Hop. It’s a befitting end to a 9-minute masterpiece if you ask me.
Naturally, I would follow up by asking when the next cypher would be. However, M.I. explicitly mentioned not doing cyphers anymore in his verse. We may not be getting another collaboration like this for a while. Regardless, it was well received by the Hip-Hop audience in Nigeria.
So, what did you think about the Chocolate City cypher? I thought it was phenomenal, but I also want to hear your thoughts on it. Comment below or head to our social media page and let us know!
For now, let’s listen to the cypher one more time, just because we can. Enjoy!