Weird M.C.

Producer - Rapper - Songwriter Weird MC (born Adesola Adesimbo Idowu on July 9, 1970, in London), is a Nigerian rapper, songwriter, and producer, also known as Shola or Sola Idowu. Influenced by Fela Kuti, Miriam Makeba, Queen Latifah and Jimi Hendrix, Idowu competed in various rap battles including Club 291 contest, similar to America's Apollo, in which she came third. After working with music producer Kevin Best for two months, Idowu released the single "I Wanna Make You Jack/Let's Get Wet", which received positive reviews from music critics and reached number one in the Choice FM charts. By now, Idowu had begun to use the name by which she is now known - Weird MC, which was coined from the name of her former group. She also toured the UK with DJ P Tee Money in the latter half of 1990 and throughout 1991as a dynamic duo. In 1996, Idowu returned to her homeland where she released the album Simply Weird - a blend of American-style hip hop and Afrobeat - and featured the self-produced video-single "Allen Avenue", making her the first Nigerian artiste to release a song via that medium. Although Simply Weird has been described as the first ever full-length rap album, this milestone had been reached nearly a decade earlier by Nigerian/American band Sound on Sound with the album From Africa From Scratch, and Pidgin rap duo Junior and Pretty were also a household name in the early ninties. Despite the popularity of "Allen Avenue", Simply Weird failed to sell an impressive number of copies; critics agreed that it was ahead of its time. Despite this setback, Idowu was honoured with several awards, including the very first AMEN award for Best Hip Hop Album. In 2006, Idowu released her second album, After Da Storm. Hip hop was now recognised as a major form of music in Nigeria, and the Don Jazzy and JJC-produced single "Ijoya" was a massive success, earning her an AMEN award for Most Pop Song, and a Channel O Music Video Award for Best Special Effect.