10 tracks that defined Sound Sultan’s life and career

10. Koleyewon

Sound Sultan was among a group of young men who took to the recording booth to realise their musical dreams in the early 2000s. He became affiliated with Nelson Brown of Dove Records, who also played a role in the career of Tuface (2Baba), then a member of Plantashun Boiz. As can be perceived from ‘Koleyewon’, Sound Sultan was a conscious artist right from the start of his music career.

9. 2010

This track was a reminder to the political class about the promises made concerning transforming Nigeria into a country with better electricity supply by 2010. Sound Sultan could have updated this song any year between its release and his recent death without much rewriting. It features rapper MI Abaga.

8. Kokose

This playful song saw Sound Sultan collaborating with Wizkid and showing his ability to mix it up with a younger generation of popstars. It became a hit. Along with the singers, several famous Nigerians feature in the video, including younger versions of comedians Obus and Princess, as well as Banky W, John Njama and actresses Aduni Ade and Yvonne Jegede.

7. Mathematics

An early favourite, ‘Mathematics’ showed Sound Sultan’s way with wordplay by using mathematical concepts to talk about the issues plaguing his country. He did all of this with his trademark winking humour.

6. Natural Something

Sound Sultan took his humour to relationships on ‘Natural Something’. On this song, he played a hapless man who declares he has no problem paying the bills for a woman who doesn’t date him. The music video is a funny one, substituting loser boyfriends (mugu or maga in Nigerian lingo) for alcoholics attending an AA meeting. In his telling, he loses a million dollars while wooing a woman and is rendered bankrupt. He receives a slap when after his story he says, “But I love her”.

5. Bushmeat

One of the most popular activist tracks of its time, ‘Bushmeat’ predicts a time when the abused citizenry decides to ridicule its leadership. “One day, bushmeat go catch the hunter,” he sings.

4. Orobo

This song (featuring Xcel) and its remix (featuring Flavour) praised the full female form with humour. Accordingly, the video features women who are not usually associated with the average Nigerian music video.

3. Campus Queen

Although Sound Sultan is associated with activist music, this early cut shows him in loverboy mode. The song features members of two of Nigeria’s most popular music groups of the early 2000s, Eldee from Trybesmen and Faze of Plantashun Boiz.

2. Human Being

Sound Sultan’s stellar songwriting meant that musicians could always count on him to deliver on collaborative projects. On ‘Human Being’ – alongside MI Abaga, who owns the song, and frequent collaborator 2Baba – Sound Sultan created a truly remarkable song about the darker parts of celebrity. “Somebody tell them say I cry, somebody tell them I hurt, tell them say I bleed,” he sings.

1. Motherland

Sound Sultan’s activism and consciousness wrote several songs about Nigeria’s leadership. But the subject of one of his most popular songs, ‘Motherland’, was the average Nigerian. The song mentions some of the deplorable actions of the immigrant Nigerian both to the people he has left behind and to foreigners. The song insists that there is “no place like home”. “All these people when dey do laws make una try make Naija sweet so that people go come home,” he says at the end of the song. It stands to reason that because his advice went unheeded, when he took ill, he had to receive treatment outside of a country he so clearly loved.