Our Kind Of People

Our Kind of People: What It Actually Is and How to Use It

Our Kind of People is a music streaming application operated by 9jamusic, the long-running Nigerian music brand. It launched around 2020 as a more focused, curator-heavy alternative to the big global platforms. The app is built around Nigerian and broader African music — Afrobeats, afropop, amapiano, rap, highlife, gospel, and whatever else falls under that umbrella. It is not a separate company or a side project with no connection to anything else. It is 9jamusic's answer to the fact that most major streaming platforms treat African music as an afterthought in their recommendation algorithms. I have used the app since early 2021, mostly for work-related reasons — scouting new artists, checking release schedules, keeping up with what is actually moving in Nigeria before it shows up properly on Spotify or Apple Music. Here is how it works, what it is good for, and where it falls apart.

Getting Our Kind Of People on Your Phone

The app is available on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. You search for "Our Kind of People" or sometimes just "OKP." It is free to download and free to use at the basic level. There is a premium tier that removes ads and offers higher audio quality, but the free version is fully functional. I register with my phone number, which ties it to the 9jamusic account system. If you already have a 9jamusic account, you can log in directly instead of creating a new one, which saves time. One thing I ran into repeatedly when setting up new accounts for people: the app sometimes fails to verify SMS codes when you are on certain Nigerian mobile networks, particularly MTN and Airtel in congested areas. The workaround is straightforward — switch to Wi-Fi, make sure your clock is synced to network time (go to Settings > Date & Time and turn on automatic), then try again. If it still fails after three attempts, use the call-back verification option instead of SMS. That has worked for me every time.

How the App Actually Works

The interface is clean but intentionally sparse. You get a home feed with editorial playlists, new releases, and a few featured artists. The search function works adequately but is nowhere near as polished as Spotify's. You can create playlists, follow artists, and save tracks. The algorithmic recommendations are weaker than the big players — the app leans heavily on editorial curation rather than machine learning. That means you will see more human-selected playlists and fewer "fans of this artist also like..." suggestions. Audio quality on the free tier is around 128kbps, which is fine for casual listening on phone speakers or basic earbuds. The premium tier bumps it up to 256kbps or higher, depending on your device. If you are an engineer or someone who actually cares about production detail, the free tier will sound thin. I upgraded to premium mainly for the higher bitrate, and it made a noticeable difference on my studio monitors. The app also includes video content and some editorial articles written by the 9jamusic team. This is where the platform distinguishes itself most clearly from generic streaming services. You are getting a music platform with a media arm attached, which means the context around releases — interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, artist features — is baked in rather than sent elsewhere.

What It Does Well

Discovery within the African music space is genuinely better than on global platforms if you are trying to find the next person before they blow up. The editorial team at 9jamusic has been tracking Nigerian and African music for over a decade, so their curators know the scene in a way that a California-based algorithm cannot replicate. I found several artists through OKP who later appeared on major editorial playlists on Spotify and Apple Music. The latency between OKP pickup and global platform pickup is usually two to four weeks for mid-tier artists, sometimes longer for truly underground acts. The local payment integration is also worth noting. You can pay with Nigerian bank transfers, USSD, and mobile money in a way that international platforms simply do not support. For users in Nigeria and several other African markets, this is not a convenience feature — it is the only reason the app works for them at all.

Where It Falls Short

The library is incomplete. You will find most major Nigerian artists and a solid selection of afropop, amapiano, and hip-hop catalog, but the deeper cuts — older highlife records, regional dialect music, niche gospel catalogs — are often missing. International artists outside the African diaspora are sparse. If you are trying to use this as your primary music player alongside a global catalog, you will be frustrated quickly. The app crashes occasionally on older Android devices, particularly phones running Android 9 or below. I have seen this with Samsung Galaxy J series and older Tecno models. The fix is usually clearing the cache and reinstalling, but it is annoying enough that you start avoiding those devices entirely. iOS versions tend to be more stable but not immune — I have had the app freeze during playback on iPhone 11 running iOS 15. Another practical limitation: the app does not support offline downloads on the free tier. You need premium for that. This is standard across most streaming platforms, but it matters more here because data costs in many of the target markets are high. If you are commuting or traveling and want to save data, you are paying for the upgrade or accepting real-time streaming.

A Practical Workflow

Here is how I actually use the app day to day. I open it every morning and scroll the home feed for new releases. I maintain a personal playlist where I save anything that catches my ear before it gets to a wider audience. When I find something I want to keep track of, I also note the artist and track in a separate spreadsheet so I can cross-reference release dates, streaming performance, and social media traction later. The app does not export this data, so doing it manually is necessary if you want a record. For artists and labels trying to promote releases through the platform, the best approach is to engage with the editorial team through official channels before drop day. If your music qualifies for placement, having a relationship with the curators matters more than any self-promotion you can do inside the app. I have seen several cases where tracks with smaller budgets but stronger relationships got editorial playlist placement over tracks with larger marketing spends. This is not unique to OKP — it is how editorial curation works everywhere — but it is more visible here because the team is smaller and more accessible. The app is a functional tool for anyone seriously engaged with African music. It will not replace Spotify or Apple Music for general listening, and the technical issues on older devices are real. But for discovery, context, and access to a catalog that these global platforms do not always represent well, it fills a gap that otherwise does not have a good solution. I keep it installed alongside my other streaming apps and check it regularly because the information it surfaces tends to be ahead of what appears elsewhere.