Celebrating the global dominance of Nigerian music with the intimacy of a house party, Obi’s House is a high-octane DJ night emanating out of Lagos. With the sounds of Afrobeats, AfroHouse and Amapiano in tow, the so-called “star-studded house party” shuffled all the way over to London’s E1 venue last month (June 29), selling out the venue well in advance and attracting a number of surprise celebrity appearances.
“London has always been a music culture hub,” founder DJ Obi told Dazed in the run-up to the event, “I feel like it is more receptive to new sounds than other parts of the world”. This is true for Afrobeats in particular. With one of the largest populations of Nigerians living abroad, and world-renowned artists like Burna Boy, Shakka and Naira Marley all spending formative moments of their career in the city, London has enjoyed a long and rich cultural collaboration with the sounds coming out of the continent. “I actually come to London when I want to feel inspired,” Obi continues, “from dancehall to drum and bass, to garage and even afrobeats, London gets it first and fresh.”
Winning Best DJ at the Nigerian Entertainment Awards all the way back in 2011, Obi has witnessed this rapid ascendancy of Nigerian music firsthand. “The club scene back then was dominated by foreign music, but now you hear more Nigerian music being played in the clubs,” he explained.
Pictured: DJ ObiPhotography Ore Alli (@_oray_)
Aided by a slew of break-out stars in recent years, and a flourishing economy more widely, Lagos has now cemented itself as an international music hotspot, drawing artists from across the continent. “Even with this new global exposure I feel like the Nigerian music scene is still very promising. It is extremely diverse and that diversity is what the world would also benefit from as they tap into the music coming out of the country,” said Obi.
Obi’s House itself, however, was conceived during the decidedly less-popping pandemic era. “It started out as a way to keep people company during those dark days of everyone being indoors,” Obi explained, “and a way to welcome people into my own living space which is why I called it Obi’s House.”
As the world opened up once more, so did opportunities for Obi’s House. A turning point for the series came with billion-streamed artist Rema’s first visit back in 2022. Obi recalls how the event exploded with energy, sparking complaints from neighbours and forcing them to relocate to their new home at Hard Rock Cafe in Lagos, where they’ve held a weekly residency ever since.
Over the past two years, Obi’s House has grown into a rite of passage for Nigeria’s emerging DJs, boasting breakthrough sets from Lagos hometown heroes Dope Ceasar and Sarz. Touching down in London last month, the event was a lively celebration of Lagos party culture in a city that has long supported the scene, full of cross-over bangers from both capitals and even a singalong to Obi’s new Afro-fusion single “Take Me Away”.