Patoranking and Olamide Link Up on “Welcome To Lagos”
Lagos got a new anthem at midnight. Patoranking released “Welcome To Lagos,” featuring Olamide, at midnight on November 10 via Amari Musiq — a high-energy reunion between two of Nigerian music’s defining voices, a decade after they last shared a record.
The production comes from Ctea, and the record does what its title promises: it plays like a homecoming, built for the city that made both men. Patoranking’s dancehall-rooted delivery over an Afrobeats engine, with Olamide — the YBNL founder whose street-pop blueprint shaped a generation — riding alongside him, is a pairing that carries history in every bar.
“Welcome To Lagos” is the fourth single from Patoranking’s forthcoming fifth studio album, which means the rollout is past the warm-up stage. Each single has widened the picture of what the album is aiming at, and a reunion record with Olamide is the kind of statement single artists save for when the album is close enough to feel.
An official video, directed by UAX, is due this week. HipHopStories will add it here when it lands — for now the audio carries the story, and it carries it well.
For American readers who came in through the Afrobeats wave of the last few years, this is a record worth your time: not a crossover play, but two architects of the Lagos sound doing it for home, at full strength.
“Welcome To Lagos” is out now across streaming platforms. When the video drops and the album date firms up, HipHopStories will have both.