Music Review: NSOMNIAK

NSOMNIAK: You may have heard of this vibrant hip hop duo taking the Baltimore area by storm. Formed in 2007 by two young Nigerian men, NSOMNIAK has been releasing hits ever since.

The members of this group, Osaretin Obaseki, aka OC and Olusegun Adelegan aka YB, first met each other in 2007 in Baltimore through a mutual friend. As they both had long discovered their passion for real music, both OC and YB were each doing music on their own. In fact, YB started singing when he was just 11 years old. OC started by writing poetry when he was 14 years old; and in high school, he started writing rap while composing and producing music. Up until they met, OC recalls music just being a hobby; it was-n’t until the two met that they decided to take it to the next level. YB says that he has always had the ability to flow; he just knew that a time would come when he would put that gift to work. YB’s flow can be described as innovative wit combined with a dash of old school, while OC’s style may be described as fluid and thought-provoking.

Some of NSOMNIAK’s hits in-clude “Put it in the Air,” an inspirational song that en-courages people to keep on going and the favorite of many ADC women (for obvious rea-sons!), “African Woman,” an-other up-tempo song that shows the duo’s appreciation for women of Africa. Since its debut, the group has released two albums: The Nsomniak Compi-lation Vol I and the remarkable R-rated, just released in June of 2009. The latest album R-Rated in-cludes samples from Com-mon’s “PunchDrunkLove,” and also Nigerian artists’ 9ice’s, “Gongo Aso.”

The group’s objective is to make a change in the world by “creating positive and uplifting music that people can also jam to”. When asked where their inspiration is derived, OC and YB say that they get their inspiration not only from legends like Bob Mar-ley and Fela Kuti but also from their everyday experi-ences in life.

Though NSOMNIAK has not done any major concerts nor have they been nomi-nated for an award, they continue to be the highlight of many shows in the Balti-more and DC area.

Their last appearance was at FestAfrica on Sunday Au-gust 9, 2009. If you are one of the few that has yet to see these guys grace the stage with their thoughtful lyrics, positive songs and beats that make you want to dance, then I have one question---what are you wait-ing for? “Don’t sleep on Nsom-niak.”