1. Keeping It Real
Rappers need to tell believable stories. All our rappers want to be gangsters, drug dealers, killers, and made men. When in actuality, they attend Private Uni, or they were the good boys when growing up in a rough neighbourhood. https://twitter.com/murziswvy/status/1300276755169763329

I grew up in a rough neighbourhood and I f*ck massively with Alaga, Baddo & Burna because the things they say about hardship is Nigerian, not Nigerianised Yankee.
Murder isn’t an everyday thing in the ghetto, but phone snatching, dubious schemes, robbery and obtaining are.

Still, our acts choose to pin point their hardness only towards violence.

The other aspect of keeping it Real is sayin shii as it is. Up and Comer talking about blowing money in the club and benzes, yet, not one single official video exists.

M.I in The Movie “From a leg-des Benz to a Honda”
At that time, that was what he either drove or could afford. Over the years, the cars he mentions are either those he owns or can buy/rent.
Up and comers should do the same.

2. Individualism vs. Collectivism
234 Twitter is what it is because we keep pushing individualism agenda, while we were all raised with and still practice collectivism.
Africans are wired to be Interdependent. We are communal in nature.

That being said, if an American Rapper comes with lyrics like “Put food on my niggas table” “I made 10 mill and put all my niggas in bentleys”, it appeals to us because we know that’s an individualistic society.
Over here, lyrics like that won’t get you anywhere.

Using Burna Boy as a case study, he uses collectivism well in his lyrics.
“My people (team) work, now dem must chop”
“Call Up my manager, WE can pay for the damages”
Etc.
Being an interdependent people, we appreciate bosses that give proper accolades to their team.

They know that yes I make the music, but my team makes sure I make bread from it. Thus, just the way I owe my lifestyle to my fans and my hardwork, I also owe it to my team.
Our rappers need to fix that up.
It’s bone deep. Nobody likes to be told “I fed you”

3. Sampling
Hip-hop gained prominence by sampling music from all other genres.
Afrobeat, Hi-life, Juju, Apala, Afro-Juju, etc all have thousands of minutes in music that samples can be pulled from, but we choose to stick with kicks and snares.

The sampling of old skool sounds draws our bias towards your music. These were sounds we grew up with. Why I won’t I dig a rap Artiste that samples Shina Peters, Obey, Musiliu Ishola, Paul Dairo, Tunde Savage etc.
We need to take existing Nigerian sounds, then make it hip-hop.

4. Sportsmanship
Rap is a sport, thus, our rappers focus on themselves winning and forget that sportsmanship is a thing in Sport.
If there are 1million rappers in Nigeria, they will still sell to the same 200million Nigerians.

There isn’t any in our rap industry, although the new generation are doing well in supporting each other, but that is lacking at the A-list class.
Also, rappers don’t need to concern themselves with “who murdered who” on the track, that’s for the enjoyment of the fans.

Fans saying A killed B on B’s track doesn’t mean they still won’t bop B’a works when they drop, they’re just doing what fans in every facet of life do; compare, contrast, make a list.
Every rapper should support the ART of other rappers. Promote each other.

Don’t just retweet, engage it. Post about it, even if it’s just once. Say something about it, acknowledge it.
A win by 1 is a win for all in the industry. No one can monopolise the market.
I have at least 30 rappers’ works on my library. We all can’t listen to 1 person forever

...so why can’t rappers do their best to promote fellow rappers’ work on their pages?

Conclusion.

With all the above (and some more), I believe the hip-hop market will grow in Nigeria the same way Afrobeats market has grown over the years.