Collabo culture is the way to grow, says Nigeria’s Yung L

Yung L was speaking on Tanzania’s Bongo 5 TV last Friday after a successful three-day promotional tour for his Better Late Than Never album.

“Collaborations between artists from different countries boosts creativity and even improve productivity,” he said. “I'm currently working on two projects with Vanessa Mdee and Harmonize. I'm excited because I'm a big fan of East African music and I hope that I can work with more individuals such as Tanzania’s Navy Kenzo and Kenyan group Sauti Sol.”

The 19-track Better Late Than Never was released in 2017 and features Caribbean influences as well as Nigeria's most popular sound, Afrobeat.

“This was me finding ways in which I can penetrate other markets,” Young L said. “The type of genre I do is a mixture of Afrobeat, Caribbean dancehall and ragga music. So this technique provides an opportunity for my music to spill over to other countries that are interested in dancehall music and still happen to love Afrobeat.”

“The competition is serious in Nigeria because there are so many talented artists so in order to be noticed, you have to be doing something exceptional.”

Young L said he opted to tour Tanzania because the album had received traction in the East African country. 

“The reason we started with Tanzania is because when we checked the statistics on the album we saw that there was a lot of downloads from here. So I had to come here to meet and have a one-on-one interaction with my fans and people from the local media houses.”

Asked whether Tanzanian music was popular in Nigeria, Yung L said: “Nigerians love bongo flava music. We like the sound. It might not be as mainstream as our sound but there is space for it on Nigerian TV and radio stations because the music is based on melody and lyrics, so spreading that is not difficult.”

The singer also named Tanzania’s Vanessa Mdee, Diamond Platnumz, Ali Kiba, Harmonize and Navy Kenzo as the most popular Tanzanian acts in Nigeria.