By Azeezat Babátúndé

The journey of a thousand miles starts with just a step. For Emmanuel Daraloye, it starts so early. It begins with a passion to document African history, music, and culture with a structure and force that has gone global. This is the ingenious tale of a dreamer who treads paths where others dread. His feat buttresses the words of a Nigerian chess player, that, “It is possible to do great things from a small place.”

Emmanuel Daraloye is a Nigerian music critic, music journalist and cultural archivist, who started his enviable career over a decade ago, even at his lowest moments. Between the years 2010 and 2020, he was reviewing songs on his Facebook account, leveraging technology as his vehicle to his audience, then. This step was though infrequent, not detailed and sauntering, but they contributed to the staggering feats he has achieved, today. Emmanuel took his career seriously, and became more professional in 2020. Between 2021 and 2025, Emmanuel Daraloye has already written review for more than fifteen media platforms across Africa: Premium Times, Tribune Newspaper, Guardian Newspaper, The Sun Newspaper, Vanguard Newspaper, Legit NG, Leadership Newspaper, Not Just ok  and more.

Prior to 2020, Emmanuel’s contribution to the music industry as an enthusiast is quite remarkable. There was a period he was managing an artiste, organizing shows, interviewing artists, and between 2017 to 2019, he was presenting an entertainment programme on Music and Culture radio owned by Africa’s Juju legend, King Sunny Ade.

As unease lies the head that wears the crown, unease lies the heart that owns the gift. Emmanuel is a bearer of a torch that lights the path. For him to achieve this feat with his diligence was only fitting. Consistency is a key in his journey which has propelled him. Writing one music review is tasking, and writing 1000 album reviews is assiduous and it takes essence, too.

He started with the drive to document African history and he knew the only way he could do that was through writing. Also, as a thoughtful existentialist, he knew he wouldn’t be a music critic forever, hence, he deemed it fit to etch his mark for the unborn to see, even when he is gone. At the peak of this period, Emmanuel listens to an album every day, and writes reviews every day in 2021 and 2022, although extending a bit to some quarters in 2023.

In all these years, Emmanuel has evolved as a music critic. Unlike other years, he takes his time to listen to music before any perusal starts. He deciphers the message of the artist, the lines, the nuances, and he does more research, too. Emmanuel now studies the state of mind of an artist and how it affects the output, which is important.

For over a decade, Emmanuel Daraloye has been a stern independent music critic. He doesn’t look at or consider the audience’s take. He criticizes as expected and he does give reviews about Nigerian music in such a way that leads the readers to more reading. Emmanuel Daraloye is an avid reader, hence his depth in culture and history.

Emmanuel Daraloye really enjoys the ways music criticism is taking shape in the current times. There are new-age music reviewers with innovations like reaction videos, among other new means of music reviews which sparks a new wave of patterns in music reviews. Emmanuel doesn’t have the dream of being a music critic for a long time. In the fast-approaching future, many other good plans lie ahead of the music critic, but they do not revolve around music criticism.