Distinct music crew, Bantu crew have been nominated for the 2018 Headies best alternative song category. This popular crew have been nominated alongside Aramide, Reminisce, Nonso Amadi, Johnny drille and Adekunle Gold.
The Bantu crew band, eclectic and varied, has both activist and fun inclinations. Its listeners and fans, as seen at the Afropolitan Vibes concert, comprises various nationalities. As the band itself was birthed away from Nigeria and then consolidated on the motherland, this blend of nationalities and sound seems fitting.
Bantu began as a group of four young men then living in Germany. Ade Bantu, Abiodun, Amaechi and Patrice. The name BANTU comes from the middle name of the late, great Steve Biko; it is also an acronym: Brotherhood Alliance Navigating Towards Unity. In 1996, the band released its first song ‘No Vernacular (Humber Version)’. An album, Fufu, followed, two of its singles ‘Nzogbu’ and ‘Fire Inna Dancehall’ becoming hits in Nigeria, home country of three of the group’s members.
