Words by Ehis “Combs” Ohunyon

Saturday evening (25th February) at the car park area of the Ikeja City Mall witnessed an event that will leave a lasting memory in the minds of all those who saw it, either from within the arena or from outside.

Popular rap artist Remilekun Khalid Safaru, aka Reminisce, hosted his fans to the maiden edition of ‘The Street Concert’ – it was a free event and this was the artist’s way of showing love to music lovers and fans that have supported him over the course of his career.

Backed by major endorsements from two of the leading brands in the country, Reminisce – with the support of his industry friends and colleagues – was able to put together a standard and enthralling concert.

The event was billed to kick off by 4pm, walking into the sectioned venue, security was pretty tight as heavily muscular guys paraded the grounds with mean-looking dogs. One was also immediately awed by the stage setting, a lot of work was put into this and the optics were world class, lightning and logistics was also at a premium.

Fans had started trooping in before the scheduled time but the concert didn’t officially commence till an hour after with a deluge of upcoming artists having their ‘5 minutes of fame’ – though most of them failed to take proper use of this opportunity given. Deejays on the night, DJ’s Instinct, Eni Money and Gunzee were later joined by DJ Lambo and Spinall, and together they kept the music going.

The concert gathered storm around 8.30pm when Reminisce appeared to officially kick things off, aided by DJ Eni Money on the wheels. Wearing black shorts and sporting a face cap, Baba Hafusa set the ball rolling with energetic performances as he got the fans screaming to the chants of ‘Asalam alaykum’. There was an unveiling from one of the major brands sponsoring the event and this was followed in quick succession by his industry friends such as Terry Apala, Mz Kizz, Eva, Base One, Seriki, Yonda amongst others entertaining the fans.

Reminisce was to resurface shortly after, this time in a changed outfit, leading out the likes of OlaDips and Seriki as they upped the energy with “Feego”. When he started performing “Local Rappers”, very few expected that he was about to introduce his close friend and Ibile General Olamide on stage that early. Baddo soon joined him and churned out tunes from his unending bag of hit songs leaving the fans singing along to every line.

My highlight of the night was when his new signing Davolee joined him on stage as they performed “Pepper Dem Gang“. Olamide was to later announce the addition to the YBNL family, and the young act entertained the crowd to his breakout single ‘Festival Bar’ with a large majority of the audience rapping with him bar-for-bar.

Immediately Olamide finished his act and left the stage, for some of the fans, the show had ended and a fair number left the event. Other acts who performed on the night were Falz, Mr Songz, Reekado Banks, Niniola, Viktoh, Ice Prince amongst others.

The show could have been better in some areas such as timing, crowd management and again live performance was hardly considered, however it was a successful event and the turnout was quite impressive as the streets yielded to the clarion call of the Alaga Ibile.

View more pictures from the event:

Mayorkun

Lord of Ajasa

Ycee

Reekado Banks

Uche Sensei

Ehis “Combs” Ohunyon is a Lagos-based realtor, asset valuer and writer