In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, Nigerian rap lovers were only exposed to the hard core American-English style of the genre from the United States of America (USA), later Nigerian artistes started to interprete the art in our own version of English language as well as pidgin.
Rap stars like Trybesmen with Eldee D’Don, KB, Freestyle and Swat Root, a group which included Mode 9, Terry Tha Rapman, Six Foot Plus and Rule Clean as well as Eedris Abdulkareem became pioneers of the contemporary form of the genre in Nigeria.
However, another set of rappers came up almost simultaneously who preferred to adapt the urban American Street expression to our own indigenous languages unlike the early pioneers, these rappers earned some appeal since they flowed in languages Nigerians understood.
These days, the pioneers have been replaced by more popular acts like Olamide, Phyno and Reminisce, but their legacy will never be taken for granted. Among the popular pioneer ‘naija’ rap artistes are ‘Lord of Ajasa who leads the pack.  With his first single ‘ma yi lo’ in 2000 he went on to produce a monster hit “Fenusa” featuring Gice on his second album “second turning by the right”. He is known for strictly rapping in yoruba with English words mixed into his rhymes.
Then came ‘2phat’, another Yoruba rapper under ID Cabassa’s coded tunes. He is popular for his “Bere mi” track featuring Gice released in 2009.  I ll Bliss pioneered raping in Igbo with his first album, “Dat Igbo Boy” which had hits like “Aiye Po Gan” and “You Go Wound”, he has gone on to release three studio albums namely ‘Dat Igbo Boy”, “Oga Boss” and “Powerful”.
After Ill Bliss came ‘Niga  Raw’ who now goes by Mr Raw another Igbo rapper popular for his track ‘Obodo’ featuring comedian “Klint Da Drunk”. However, with the rise of Dagrin came a new twist in the game. He brought in modernity and streets vibes.  Although his first album “Still on the Matter” did not make much  waves, his second attempt ‘Executive CEO’ did.
He brought life to the game and what many indigenous rappers today leverage on popular for his hit track ‘pon pon’ and over 200 collabos before his untimely demise on April 22, 2010 that left the whole nation mourning.  Dagrin’s death paved way for new school indigenous rap artistes like Reminisce, Olamide, Phyno, Lil Kesh CDQ, Chinko Ekun, Base One among others.
Phyno, Olamide and Reminisce have gone to be the faces of indigenous rap in Nigeria. Others include Mode 9, Ice Prince, Naeto C, Falz, Skales, Ycee, Vector, M.I. Abaga among others.