Tuface was born Innocent Idibia, and his musical education was influenced by his father’s record collection, which included albums by such Nigerian heroes as Fela Kuti, the funk-obsessed firebrand, and Bongos Ikwue, a singer-songwriter who specialized in an easeful sort of dance music. Like many pioneers, Idibia is less a virtuoso than a brilliant synthesist, with a knack for drawing together far-flung influences to create songs that seem plainspoken and homegrown. In 2004, recording under the name 2Face Idibia, he released a single called “Nfana Ibaga,” which pointed toward the future of Nigerian pop. Idibia’s song was talky but tuneful, drawing from hip-hop and dancehall reggae, and it built to an infectious, polyglot chorus:

Nfana ibaga

Never give another man yawa o

So the reason why I say “nfana ibaga”

Is that I got my conscience on my side.

The titular phrase is an expression from the Efik language that means, essentially, “no problem.” Yawa is a Nigerian Pidgin term for “problem.” The song became not just a local hit but a global export; Beenie Man, the Jamaican star, appeared on the remix, trying and failing to upstage his host.