Spotlight Sunday: Who is Sigag Lauren?

Electronic Dance Music is a genre that’s slowly but surely gaining precedence in Nigeria. Considering how much Nigerians love to dance, one would think the genre would be more popular. However, lovers of EDM can take solace in the hopes that their genre will eventually have its day. If that faithful day eventually comes, it would be a capital crime not to give rightful plaudits to Sigag Lauren.

He is an individual who has been at the forefront of EDM’s push for mainstream relevance. It would be treacherous not to acknowledge how this genius’s amazing strides are paving the way for more artists to express themselves within this musical landscape.

Born Emmanuel Seiyefa, Sigag Lauren has pretty much cemented his place in the history books. He’s a multi-talented artist with well-established proficiency as a DJ, Producer, singer, and songwriter. However, he will mostly be remembered as a new-age pioneer of EDM music in Nigeria.

Recently, he clocked 1 million streams for his July 2021 EDM remix of “Memories.” That is an impressive feat for any artiste, never mind one who’s operating in an understated genre. He has become the go-to person for EDM in the country, built a sizeable fanbase, and scored several cosigns from industry powerhouses. All of this is incredible for someone who is only four years into his career.

Sigag Lauren’s stock in trade is remixing. Every DJ’s job description is knowing what people want to hear, and Sigag Lauren is aware of that. So, he revises many of the biggest hits and serves them back to the audience on an EDM platter, exposing a surprisingly delightful new side to the songs.

He has put out two mixtapes using this format. The first came in 2019 as a collaborative tape with DJ Neptune. On this project, he gave six of DJ Neptune’s biggest hits the EDM treatment, including “Marry,” “Why,” and “Tear Rubber. The second tape was a solo collection appropriately titled “Remix Tape.” On the 2021 tape, he reimagined hits like Joeboy’s “Baby” and Brymo’s “Entropy.”

In addition, he has a slew of remix singles where he remixed hits from Wizkid, Johnny Drille, Ladipoe, Simi, and Chinko Ekun, just to mention a few. On all those songs, he demonstrated an uncanny ability to blend Afrobeats and EDM to create something new yet familiar. He can induce an almost psychedelic experience with sounds that well and truly immerses the listeners.

And yes, Sigag Lauren has more to him beyond EDM remixes. He has a couple of original records of his own, “Jollof” and “Silver Lining” being great examples. He also dabbles into other genres, namely House, Electro-Pop, Future Bass, and Dubstep. Only a couple of months ago, he put out “…Sounds From The Internet” EP. Here he quite literally laid random sounds from the internet over self-produced House music instrumentals. It made for a fascinating listen, to say the least.

While we’re on his production skills, it is worthy of note to mention he was the producer behind Johnny Drille’s “Something Better” from 2020. Such is the depth and width of Sigag Lauren’s musical ability. With that arsenal of ability and the industry finally beginning to sit up and take notice, there is little stopping him from achieving his self-professed ultimate goal of propagating and exporting new and different sounds from Africa that are not Afrobeats.