Remilekun Abdulkalid Safaru, known by his stage names Reminisce and ALAGA IBILE, is a Nigerian singer, rapper, and songwriter from Ogun State. He performs in both English and his native language, Yoruba.
He recorded his first song in a studio in 2006 and recorded a hardcore rap album at Coded Tunes, but the album was never released and he decided to focus on his studies and complete schooling. In 2008 Reminisce returned to the music scene, performing a rap verse on a track titled “Bachelor’s Life” off 9ice's sophomore album titled “Gongo Aso”. His first single, “Ever since”, featured 9ice, and was a story about his life till that moment. His second, “If Only”, was a love song produced by Dtunez, where he showed his versatility as singer and a rapper. Both songs established Reminisce in the Nigerian music scene. REMINISCE is signed to Edge Records and is also the founder and creative director of LRR Records. Growing up listening to various genres of local and foreign music helped form Reminisce's versatile musical style. In 2014, TIME Magazine named REMINISCE “one of the seven World Rappers You Should Meet” He was also named by Nigeria's largest music site, NOTJUSTOK, as one of the top three hip hop artists of 2014.
Book Of Rap Stories
Reminisce's first album, Book Of Rap Stories, was released on 31 March 2012. He started recording the album since 2010 after linking up with the studio producer Sarz at Edge Records Studios. The studio allowed him to carve a niche for himself and make the album bilingual. He went on to release the track Kako Bii Chicken, a commercial song which is recognized as the breakout single. After this, other songs like 'If Only', '2mussh' were released. The album was a 13-track album with production credits to Sarz, Legendury Beatz, Joshbeatz, Jospo and PastorChild, The album did well commercially in the southern part of Nigeria.
ALAGA IBILE
His second album, ALAGA IBILE, was officially released on 15 November 2013. The album featured acts like wizkid, naeto c, davido, olamide and Sossick. It was an instant breakthrough album, with hit singles like Eleniyan, featuring Wizkid, Fela,Daddy featuring Davido, Fantasi and 3rd World Thug. Sossick, who produced 80% of the album, and Reminisce also worked with Sarz, chopstix and Jospo. The album sold an estimated million copies before the end of 2014. In 2014, Time Magazine named Reminisce as one of seven "world rappers you should meet".
Reminisce's third album, Baba Hafusa, was released in 2015. The Baba Hafusa Album project has already broken barriers and charted unknown territories. Just recently, Reminisce became the only hip hop artist in all of Africa to have an album debut on Billboard ChartsWorld Music category at no. 12. With over 500,000 copies sold in Nigeria in 2 weeks and the album claiming the number one spot in iTunes for more than a week – The Baba Hafusa album is already arguably as one of the most successful hip hop albums in Nigerian history. Already described as a “genre busting album”, it is a strong contender for album of the year with music critics and fans alike applauding the fusion of sounds to form a unique blend of hip hop, fuji and afrobeats.
