Kedu America

Since the late 1950s, Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe has been pursuing his musical muse. It was during this time the young singer made the trek from the rural village of his birth to Lagos, the capital city of Nigeria and the center of the pop music scene known as “highlife”. Starting as a backup singer with popular highlife band leader Stephen Ameche, Chief Stephen soon blossomed into a band leader of renown. In fact a history of Nigerian highlife reads like an Osadebe bibliography, and in the early 1980s Osadebe released the album that would come to define the genre: Osandi Owende, the first and only platinum record featuring a Nigerian artist. Now on Kedu America (Greetings From America), “The Consistent Highlife King”, returns, letting (getting) loose on an album of scintillating polyrhythmic African drums, jazzy horn lines and sultry repeating guitar riffs that show why Chief Stephen is the undisputed ruler of the Nigerian dancehall.

Artists: Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe, John Odagwe, Ezikel Uti, Fidelis Mazua, Dede Uzoma, Chukwodozi Obi, Christian Ibekwe, Stephen Udechukwu, Joseph Ugokwe, Willie “Pepper” Chijioke, Obi Osadebe