#Recommended: 10 Creative Faves on Top Pick Content for Lockdown Survival

ARTISH reached out to some of our creative faves from around Nigeria and beyond to get a sense of how they have been staying stimulated during the lockdown.

MI Abaga

Rapper, Entrepreneur

So, shows; I just finished watching Ozark. Listening to God’s Engineering by AQ and of course “The Judah” EP. And “A Written Testimony” which is Jay Electronica’s album that features Jay-Z, Drake’s new stuff “Toosie Slide”. I’m also watching the show called Avenue 5 and I just finished watching Homeland season 8, episode 10. So I’m watching Homeland, Ozark, Avenue 5 and listening to those albums.

Feyisola Ogunbanjo

Events Curator, Media Girl

I’ve pretty been binge-watching “Community” and “The Office”. I saw the new episodes of “Insecure” and I’m definitely following up with that and finishing up on “Skinny Girl in Transit”. I got my hands on a couple of LGBT movies as well and I have a couple lined up “Room in Rome”, “Loving Annabelle”, “Bound”, “Lost and Delirious”, “Professor Marsten” and “The Wonder Women”. And pretty much everyone’s Insta lives, been enjoying the battles. With music, I curated this playlist that’s helped me keep sane. And I pretty much listen to that every day as well as my fave Lana Del Rey, especially Norman Fucking Rockwell her most recent album that explains my love life. Also been listening to Obongjayar, The Weeknd, Dua Lipa and DaRe’s Isolation, there’s a lot of new music and I try not to let a lot of those pass me by and oh my god, my friend sent me this article that was really helpful.

Sydney Love

Disc Jockey, Entrepreneur

During this pandemic period, staying at home, I’ve just been doing a lot of writing. I’ve always wanted to write a script of a movie or a show so I’m writing one and I’m not sure if it’s going to be either of yet, but I’ve been doing a lot of writing. As far as shows, I haven’t really been watching anything. I have been watching a lot of movies. I would say like “Superman”. A lot of end of the world superhero movies and as far as music, I’ve been listening to a lot of R&B music so music that just speaks to the time that’s just you know calm and soothe rather than you know the usual hype so that’s just how I’ve been getting through so far. Trying to keep busy, trying to stop sleeping. I’ve been listening to a lot of Erykah Badu, a lot of old R&B from like the ’99s and the 2000s, 2001, 2002. I’ve been also watching anything from like Marvel; you know “Wolverine”, “X-Men” and any action movie, it’s nice to see other people outside in movies so I guess that’s where I’m escaping to.

Blaqbonez

Rapper, Musician

I’ve actually been seeing anime like Seven Deadly Sins, Nanatsu no Taizai, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. I’ve been seeing Blacklist also and that’s basically it. I’m looking for new anime to watch today so I’m about to go on the internet and search. As regards songs, I created this playlist that has PARTYNEXTDOOR’s new album, Don Toliver, some Tory Lanez, some Playboi Carti, some Summer Walker, some New Drake, some new Justin Bieber as well. It’s just a mixture of you know urban sounds that I’ve been fucking with.

AQ

Rapper, Musician

I’m not necessarily a TV guy but because of the isolation, that’s the only form of entertainment right now. There’s no football. So I like a lot of epic stuff, so I’m seeing Vikings. There’s this Chinese or I don’t know Japanese or whatever (It’s actually South Korean). I watch a lot of their epic movies but there’s this one on Netflix called Arthdal Chronicles and it’s very interesting and I think its’s like 4/5/6 seasons or thereabout, so I’ve seen it all. Homeland, I really love Homeland, and I’ve been following it from season 1 so yeah that’s what I’ve been watching. For music, Jay Electronica’s “A Written Testimony”, “Eternal Atake” by Lil Uzi Vert; I really like that album. Tory Lanez’s “The New Toronto 3” is also very good. “A Written Testimony” by Jay Electronica and Jay-Z; that album is something I always go back to and of course “God’s Engineering” - my own album. I work out to my album. I mean I made it while I was working out. I mean most of the songs were written while I was working out and it just makes sense, and I work out like 2 and a half – 3 hours a day so “ God’s Engineering” is in high rotation during that period. Yeah, that’s basically what I’ve been up to during the isolation.

Camille Storm 

Music A&R, PR

So staying sane is def on my priority list since, besides the anxiety of COVID-19, we did already have other things stressing us out in our personal lives. This just adds on top of it. I’m definitely prioritizing meditation more and also making sure I have a good amount of social hours since I also live by myself. It’s been great to dive into shows like Tiger King, and Money Heist but weirdly enough it’s been interesting going back to shows I watched as a teen like Vampire Diaries. Music-wise I’ve also been a tad nostalgic and kinda dove into albums from my teen years like “Chapman Square” by Lawson or “Paradise Valley” by John Mayer. I think for me since I work in African music, what has been beautiful about this time is reconnecting with music I loved listening to aside of what I keep up with for work which has always been deep house or techno. So in a way, I’m getting reinspired. At this point in time I’m diving into shows I said I’d never watch like Love Island but turns out it’s not so bad. 

CJ Obasi

Filmmaker - Director

I’ve been working. I’m supervising post-production on Juju Stories - an anthology feature film by the Surreal16 Collective. We completed principal photography right around the time the first COVID-19 case in Lagos was announced. I’m also writing down a lot of ideas and developing various pitches and formats. Shows: Narcos, Narcos: Mexico, Curb your Enthusiasm. Games: Shadow of the Colossus, The Last of Us, Injustice 2, FIFA 2020. Music: World Music. Books: Historical Books

Justin UG 

Comedian, Content Creator

So I’ll start with music. I’ve been listening to a whole lot of throwback Afrobeat and tbh it’s been one of my best things to do, for movies I don’t watch a lot of movies but during this period I watched a couple of series, Castle & Castle, Money Heist, Sons of the Caliphate all on Netflix. For games I play Fifa 2020 and 2K but because I have online classes I don’t get to do that often. Above all, I’ve been doing a lot of creating, trying out and practising different ways to give out my content

Kiki Mordi

Journalist and Documentary Filmmaker

I've actually been working lol. But I spend more time on Twitter now when the work isn't heavy on me. Plus I downloaded TikTok and shot a short film just because. Literally my first time as a DP (director of photography). It has also been hellish because motivation is hard to manage. Usually, I'd take a trip to fix that but I can’t quite do that so much now

Sir Bastien

Producer, Sound Engineer

Oh well, what I’ve liked to do during the lockdown is some stretching exercises, yoga, meditation, just to think about stuff. Then to embrace nature, sit in the garden and look around, then try and channel that feeling into your sound — because I’m a producer. The energy that you get from around you is what you put into the music, but not necessarily in some random spiritual form which is real to me, but also in the sense that you could take your phone and record some birds chirping, or record the rain or record the street outside and use that as texture for your music.