Asake, Burna Boy, Tems, Wizkid make Rolling Stone’s ‘250 greatest albums of 21st century’ list

Rolling Stone has released its list of the 250 greatest albums of the 21st century, featuring four Nigerian artistes.

The list, which was published on January 10, comprises music projects released from 2000 to 2024.

Burna Boy’s ‘African Giant’, Wizkid’s ‘Made in Lagos’, Asake’s ‘Mr Money With the Vibe’, and Tems’ ‘For Broken Ears’ are among the albums featured on the list.

Nigerian artistes who made it to the list:

• Burna Boy – ‘African Giant‘ (120): Released in July 2019, the body of work won ‘Album of the Year’ at the All Africa Music Awards and was nominated for ‘Best World Music Album’ at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards.
• Asake – ‘Mr Money With the Vibe‘ (142): Released in 2022, the 12-track project gained massive reception locally and internationally, with hits like ‘Terminator’ and ‘Organise’.
• Tems – ‘For Broken Ears‘ (222): Released in 2020 as the songstress’ debut EP.
• Wizkid – ‘Made in Lagos‘ (228): Released in 2020, the singer’s fourth album houses 14 tracks.

Beyoncé’s 2016 album ‘Lemonade’ took the top spot, followed by Radiohead’s ‘Kid A’. Beyoncé and Taylor Swift secured the most entries with four albums each.

Rolling Stone stated that the 250-album list represents a quarter-century of music and aims to “show the possibility of ambitious stories of big-name artistes”.

“In compiling our top 250 albums of the quarter-century, we wanted to show as much of the scope of this story as possible. So when given the choice between including multiple albums by an artist and finding room for a record that added something important or interesting to the list, we almost always took the second option,” the publication reads.