I've known about Tobe Nwigwe for a number of years now but was never really drawn to his music. Although he clearly had skills lyrically he had a choppy flow that felt out of sink with the beat, making it hard to bob my head to. It almost reminded me more of spoken word rather than rap. So I didn't pay him much attention...until recently!
I was checking out an episode on the Dissect podcast (a popular mainstream podcast) in which they were talking about their favorite music from 2022, and they mentioned Nwigwe's new album. Until now I had only heard of Nwigwe through Christian rap sources, so I associated him with Christian rap, but here he was being mentioned on a major mainstream music podcast in their discussion of their favorites of 2022! As a long time listener of Christian rap it's exciting when someone who rising up in the Christian rap world get's recognition from outside the Christian rap world. And to add to my surprise, when I checked out his 2022 album moMINTs, I saw a bunch of major names being featured on it: Pharrell, EARTHGANG, Chamillionaire, 2 Chainz, Royce Da 5'9", and CeeLo Green! When you have those names on your album you know you've made it pretty big.
So I gave the album a listen, and I loved it! I was happily surprised to hear that he had mostly left the choppy flow from his earlier years behind and made much catchier music now. In my opinion it's a no-skip album: every song on it is good and doesn't need to be skipped.
Now, before you rush off to listen to it I need to make something clear. There are two types of people who may be reading this. The first type is those who listen exclusively to worship or Christian music, and whose idea of being edgy is listening to Lecrae. The second type is those that are comfortable listening to secular music and even to secular rap music. If you fall into the first category, you are not the target audience of moMINTs. Nwigwe is not trying to target a Christian audience with his music. He says clearly that he makes his music for his people "on the streets", i.e. non-Christians who live in urban and/or rough communities. This is an important distinction because if you are comparing his music to worship music, you may be taken off guard by mature themes and some salty language. However, if you are comparing his music to popular secular rap music, his music will seem almost squeaky clean.
It's also worth mentioning that because I enjoyed that album I went back in his catalogue and listened to his 2020 album CINCORIGINALS, which I also quite enjoyed (although not quite as much as moMINTs). So check out that album as well if you like moMINTs.
I'll be adding some of his tracks to the Spotify playlist of my favorite Christian rap songs.
Favorite tracks from moMINTs: Lord Forgive Me, Been Broke, Head to Hades
Favorite tracks from CINCORIGINALS: Wildlings, Father Figure, Cujo