Rhythm Unplugged

The tradition & historical record

Rhythm Unplugged is annual music concert in Nigeria, West Africa. CEO of the Flytime Group, Cecil Hammond, organised the first concert in 2004. The concert features a lineup of Afrobeats, Hip-Hop, and RnB artists from within and outside Nigeria. It is organised by Flytime Promotions, a subsidiary of the Flytime Group. The 2024 edition marked its 20th anniversary and was headlined by American rapper Gunna. Other performers were Burna Boy, BNXN, Fireboy DML, Shallipopi, and Tyla. The 2011 Lagos edition of Rhythm Unplugged unveiled artists including Wizkid, Olamide, Davido, Tiwa Savage and Seyi Shay. ¹

Rhythm Unplugged was first organised by Cecil Hammond in 2004 via his company Flytime Promotions. The entertainment event was designed to promote Nigerian musicians and comedians at a time when the Nigerian music industry was just gaining recognition on the international music scene. Rhythm Unplugged concerts featured dialoguing co-hosts, notably, co-hosts Julius Agwu and Okey Bakassi, who hosted several Flytime Promotions events in the early years. Rhythm Unplugged also pioneered the extensive artist line-up for single concert events in Nigeria. ¹

The first Rhythm Unplugged concert was held in 2004 at Fantasyland in Ikoyi, Lagos and tickets sold out. Following the success of the first Rhythm Unplugged concert, Flytime Promotions announced that it would host the concert annually at a larger venue in order to accommodate the growing fan base. In years since, Rhythm Unplugged has been hosted at the Federal Palace Hotel, the Ocean View and, most recently, at the Eko Convention Center all in Victoria Island, Lagos. ¹

The concerts have taken place in multiple cities across Nigeria, including Benin, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Jos, and Ibadan. There have been over 40 editions of Rhythm Unplugged since 2004 in various cities, however, the primary concert is still held in Lagos, at the Eko Convention center. In 2010, Rhythm Unplugged was hosted in Benin City. It was the first Rhythm Unplugged concert hosted outside of Lagos. In 2011 a Rhythm Unplugged concert was held in Abuja. The 2011 Lagos edition of Rhythm Unplugged unveiled artists including Wizkid, Olamide, Davido, Tiwa Savage, and Seyi Shay. In 2012, two Rhythm Unplugged concerts were held outside Lagos. The first concert was held in Port Harcourt, Rivers State and featured the popular singer from Rivers State, Duncan Mighty. The second concert was held in Ibadan, Oyo State and featured performances from Wizkid, Davido, 2Baba and Olamide. In 2013, Rhythm Unplugged was held in Lagos and featured major international and domestic acts including Wyclef, P-Square, Burna Boy and Olamide. This edition of the concert was sponsored by Harp Lager and was branded Harp Rhythm Unplugged. The 2014 edition of Rhythm Unplugged marked its 10th anniversary and featured P-Square, Davido, Mavin All Stars, Olamide, MI, Patoranking, Waje, Yemi Alade, Seyi Shay, Skales, Runtown, Bovi, Julius Agwu, Okey Bakassi, I Go Dye and Akpororo. It was Flytime Promotions' largest and most well-attended Rhythm Unplugged. ¹

Also, in 2014, Pepsi became the major corporate sponsor of Rhythm Unplugged, and the concert was correspondingly named Pepsi Rhythm Unplugged. Pepsi remains the concert's major corporate sponsor, and subsequent editions of Rhythm Unplugged maintain the Pepsi prefix. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Rhythm Unplugged”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

Rhythm Unplugged is music festival, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 1 external register, which can be verified through the citation. ²