Chief Boima x Teju Cole – Lagos Nights Club Mix

Here’s a new mix I wanted to share with the Dutty familia. OkayAfrica recently conscripted me to do mixing duties on Teju Cole’s dream mix of Nigeria pop songs – a set he put together to accompany a short essay on the Lagos clubbing experience:

It doesn’t really get good until about 1 am, but you do want to be there by then, because you’d like to get in at least two solid hours of dancing by the time the clubs shut down. Afterward you run the gauntlet of cops on Falomo Bridge. “Oga, anything for us?” “Ehn, don’t worry, on my way back.” And on the way back, you lie. “Officer, I already saw you before na. You no remember?” Naturally, you’re not trying to drive to the Mainland at that hour. You’ve made arrangements to sleep in some Island neighborhood, assuming you’re not rich enough to already live there: Ikoyi, V.I., Lekki 1, Lekki 2, Lekki 3, Ajah. At this hour, you’re taking the uncannily clear roads at speed, stopping not even for traffic lights. The breeze is blowing, the great lagoon sleeps. Twenty-one million people are in whatever form of shelter they call home, these human energies at rest, numerous as the stars above the endless city. The past two hours begin to come back to you, a blur of moves and bodies, and the two or three things you saw and were reluctant to believe, good things, bad things, badt guys, as Lagosians say, and bad gyals dem.

Check it out the mix below and read the rest of Teju’s essay on OkayAfrica.com.