Daniel Strongman, the Lagos-Born, Atlanta-Based Artist You Should Already Know

Daniel Strongman, the Lagos-Born, Atlanta-Based Artist You Should Already Know

Entertainment

 

When both This Day Live and Vanguard flag the same name in the same week, that is not a coincidence. That is confirmation. Daniel Strongman, born Daniel Nwadike in Surulere, Lagos, on November 22, is the artist both publications have spotlighted as one to watch in 2026 and for very good reason. Raised in a household shaped by Nigerian entertainment (his father is a film producer), he built his foundation the hard way: behind a drum kit as a child, then in a church choir, then as the frontman of a university band he founded called The Embassy, all before earning a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Southern University in 2020. Yes, the man can wire circuits and write bars, and he applies the same precision to both. Now based in Atlanta, Georgia, he is operating under a philosophy he calls DSM: Dreams Shape Men, and every record, every performance, and every move in his career is a calculated step in that direction. His 2023 single “Big Brudda” was his introduction to the world, and it spread organically across Atlanta’s Afro-diaspora community and straight back to Lagos ears without a label pushing it, which tells you everything you need to know about the quality of what he is creating.

What This Day Live described as a compelling case in modern Afrobeats, Vanguard echoed as the sound of the Lagos-to-Atlanta wave done right, and if you stream his catalogue, you will hear exactly what they mean. Strongman’s  music moves between Afrobeats, Afrofusion, Alte, and Afro hip-hop like a man who was born speaking all four languages at once, drawing on Fela Kuti’s defiance, M.I Abaga’s pen, Burna Boy’s global reach, and the raw grit of Kendrick Lamar and Wu-Tang in the same breath. His releases: from “On Me” (2022) through “Handle It,” “PREE,” “Koma Roll,” “Never Change,” and the fresh-out-of-the-oven “I’m OK” (2026), read less like a young artist finding his feet and more like a seasoned craftsman sharpening tools he has been holding for years. He carries a dual persona: Daniel Strongman, the disciplined architect building for the long game, and Da Big Brudda, the magnetic, unbothered stage presence that has been selling out Atlanta shows at FUSA Live, Bantu Festival, and MyAfrobeat Nights and walking off stage to encore calls every single time. His forthcoming EP, Beauty in the Beast, is already being described as a defining moment, a duality-driven project that sits both identities in honest conversation and refuses to flatten modern Black masculinity into something easy to package. The blogs are talking. The papers have been written. Now the music needs to be in your ears. Find Daniel Strongman before anyone else claims they knew him first.

REPORT NAIJA March 18, 2026

He Lost Every Recording From His Best Creative Period, Then Released It Anyway. Meet Tusabi

He Lost Every Recording From His Best Creative Period, Then Released It Anyway. Meet Tusabi

Entertainment

 

There is a point in every real artist’s journey where the industry tests whether they actually mean what they say about their  music. For Tusabi: the Lagos-born, Paris-based Afrobeats artist whose full name is Oghenetchouwe Adegor, that test came when the hard drive failed. Every session from one of the most creatively alive periods of his life, gone. Recorded inside a villa with an in-home studio, surrounded by artists feeding each other’s energy and freestyling late into the night, those recordings were never supposed to disappear, but they did. And what he did next is the reason you need to know his name: he released them anyway, unmastered, unpolished, exactly as they were, and called the project Lost Tapes: Unmastered.

Music & Audio

What makes Tusabi different from most artists you’ll come across in the Afrobeats space right now is not just the story, it’s the process. He doesn’t write his lyrics. Not a single line. Every song he has ever released started as a freestyle, born entirely from whatever emotion was sitting in his chest the moment the beat dropped. That’s how Lost Tapes was made. That’s how his 2024 EP Motion Detector was made. That’s how hits like “Good Energy,” “Touching Clouds,” and “Another Level” found their way to listeners across Germany, the United States, and beyond. He has said it himself: “Music is therapy for those in need," and when you hear his catalog, you believe it, because nothing in it sounds rehearsed. It sounds live.

With his debut studio album Fighting For Survival, now in the works and a new single, “Get Open”, on the way, Tusabi is building toward something that feels less like a career move and more like a culmination. This is a man who started from scratch in a foreign country, built an international audience without a major label machine behind him, and refused to let even a hard drive failure stop him from sharing his truth.

Stream Lost Tapes: Unmastered now on Spotify, Apple  Music, Audiomack, Boomplay, and SoundCloud; and follow @Tusabiflow on Instagram to stay locked in for what is coming next. Trust us, you don’t want to be late to this one.

REPORT NAIJA March 18, 2026