Kaduna rapper DJ AB released “Shiga (Ya bi jiki)” on Friday, 3 April 2026, and five months on the track is still one of the most widely played Arewa records of the year.
The song arrived as the lead single from his EP “Big Energy,” which has since been released in full. He set the project up beforehand with a loose freestyle, “HBP Freestyle,” posted to announce that new music was coming.
DJ AB has been one of Northern Nigeria’s most recognisable hip-hop voices for close to a decade, with a catalogue that runs from “Soyayya” in 2017 through “Kumatu” and “Ke da Ni” in 2019, “Supa” in 2021, the “Your Fav” project in 2023 and singles including “Dan Tata” and “Basuso” in 2025.
By his own account, “Shiga” was never planned as a single. He recorded it as a raw freestyle and dropped it casually on his Instagram story, and the reaction was immediate enough that listeners kept pushing him to turn it into a finished record.
Production comes from Rokitbeatzx, who builds the track around a hard, percussive loop that leaves room for DJ AB’s Hausa-language delivery to carry the momentum. It runs just over two minutes, closer to a sustained burst than a conventional verse-and-hook single.
The title translates roughly as “Enter,” and the writing leans on repetition and cadence rather than a heavy narrative, which is a large part of why the hook travelled so quickly on social media.
An official music video was shot and released alongside the song, and the record has since settled onto Spotify’s Top Hausa 100 playlist, where it sits alongside other Arewa acts we have covered including Auta Mg Boii and Mosbeekhan.
“Shiga (Ya bi jiki)” continues a run that has kept DJ AB near the centre of the Northern Nigerian rap conversation, and it remains the clearest entry point into the “Big Energy” project.
Shiga (Ya bi jiki) by DJ AB is available on all streaming platforms.
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