Quiz Tha Great Conveys Nostalgic Contemporary Hip-hop Narrative

There was once a time in the Nigerian music industry when hip-hop artists with nuances of contemporary gospel sound were listed amongst those calling the shots. That beautiful era when music was generally not barricaded for carrying ‘inspirational religions content’ or receives praise only for ‘explicit gratification’, but rather for its creativity. Now, listening to Quiz Tha Great’s ‘Based On Grace’ EP, there’s this nostalgic feeling that those days when artists like Rooftop Mcs and B.O.Q.U.I wow the industry with their inventiveness is coming back. This lad is special.

Words By Sesan Adeniji

Born Shedrach Quiz Tejiri Edirin in Borno State Northern Nigeria but raised and grew up in his hometown – Sapele, Warri Delta state, Quiz Tha Great is a contemporary Urban Rap Artist with influences that cut through country and Hip-hop music. With a formative years listening to Don Williams, Don Moen, Kenny Rogers, Oliver De’Coque, Mike Okri, Phil Colins to Wu-Tang Clan, Scarface, and 2Pac, Nas, Wyclef Jean and Jay-Z, Quiz Tha Great knows his onions.

“I started loving music from the age of 5 as I observed my father to be an ardent lover of countryside music and my brothers love hip-hop. So basically everywhere I turned to in the house was just music playing. My mind was inundated with different sounds from that tender age. I lost my dad when I was 8 years old, and so music became my escape route as a young boy. Listening to my favorite artists, Pac & Nas on my cassette player, I would write out their lyrics and start miming and rhyming to them.

Fast forward to 2009, I formed a group called Da Twinkles Boiz. We recorded
a few songs, performed on some big stages like Kennis Music Easter Fiesta
and appeared on TV a few times but in 2012, I went solo and released my
first debut single “I Know I Can” produced by Kuebounce and directed by
StoneBlaze for RapHill gang, which gathered a lot of attention from music enthusiast and gained several airplay on radio stations. The single was talked about by radio heavyweights like Teddy D’ Fresh Prince of Star FM and DJ Boombastic.

DOWNLOAD – Based On Grace By Quiz Tha Great

From then on, I churned out a couple of covers like “Started from Sapele”
which also had a video, and “5:00am In Oshodi” a cover of Drake’s “Started
From The Bottom” and “5:00am In Toronto”. I have been consistent with my craft as I kept releasing other songs like “Ufoma”, “The Way You Love Me”, “Loke Loke”, “Show Me Your Love” and “More Money” – a cover of Wizkid’s One Love. But in 2015, I had a rethink about my career – I started to re-evaluate what impact I wanted to leave for generations to come.

After those thought process, I decided to infuse my faith into my craft, and in 2016 on my way to South Africa I wrote my first Kingdom Song “Spiritual Flow” (Audio+Video) followed by songs like “Christ is the Greatest”, “Papa Do Am”, “Blessing Come My Way”, “Based On Grace” intro and so on. It has indeed been an amazing journey so far, thriving in a competitive industry as an unsigned artist. In October 2018, after my birthday celebration I was inspired to release my debut EP. It was an amazing experience recording that project.

Looking back through the years, for a young man who lost his dad at age 8 and his mum at age 17 but still thriving and gaining grounds musically, I realized its nothing but grace that has brought me this far and that was what inspired the titled of my Debut EP, “Based On Grace” – (B.O.G) which was released in April 2019 and currently available on all Digital Platforms worldwide. A 7-track body of work carefully designed to stir up your faith in GOD as well as entertain you to the brim.