Nigerian Teenager Destarr Packs Move Faster Into Two and a Half Minutes with Two Producers
From Phone App to Two Producers, a Nigerian Rapper and Singer Picks up the Pace
Port Harcourt has a long line in Nigerian pop, from Duncan Mighty to Burna Boy. One of the newest names to come up through the city is Destarr, whose single Move Faster came out on 17 July 2026. The teenage rapper and singer made it in two and a half minutes, with two producers and a label behind it.
Destarr’s single sits in the playlist below, and his full run of coverage is gathered on the Destarr artist profile. Move Faster came to this desk through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news desks. Put it on, then carry on reading.
Start with the place. Destarr grew up in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, with family roots in Edo State. The city is the capital of Rivers State, a port and oil centre in the Niger Delta. It is known as the Garden City, but its music has always travelled further than its size would suggest.
Duncan Mighty shows how closely an artist can tie himself to it. His song Port Harcourt Son brought him international fame, and fans still call him Port Harcourt’s First Son. Burna Boy, born in the city in 1991, took that reach further still. His album Twice as Tall won the Grammy for Best Global Music Album in 2021.
The Scene Around Destarr, From Phone Studios With Friends to the Road to Move Faster
That is the scale at the top of the city’s scene. Destarr’s own start was much smaller, and much more recent. By the artist’s own account, he was making up songs and freestyles as a small child. Later came tracks written with classmates and performances at church and at school.
Then the tools came from friends. A friend, lilT-x, introduced him to Voloco, a phone app that records and treats a voice. The two then moved on to BandLab and built up a store of tracks between them. His first release, Busy at 4AM, came out of that work, and lilT-x later remixed it.
So the scene that shaped this record is not a studio district. It is a group of young artists teaching each other on phones and free software. It is a common way into music for young artists now.
The releases followed at a steady pace. This Life arrived in August 2025. The artist describes it as an account of how life felt for him as a young musician. WHO I AM came out on Christmas Eve 2025. Then in March 2026 came Gimme! Amapiano! (Remastered), a Nigerian take on the South African amapiano sound. AfroMusic.News covered it in October.
From the AfroMusic.News curator team: “The city keeps producing names the world learns later. Move Faster is Destarr’s case for being one of them, made in two and a half minutes with two producers behind it.”
What the City Put Into Destarr’s Move Faster, Two and a Half Minutes With Two Producers
Then came Move Faster, a record made with a fuller team. Destarr, credited as Dominic Eromosele Emmanuel, wrote it, and F-Gee and Young Drilla produced it. The single came out through Paramedia Nation and Azuri on 17 July 2026, and it is also on Apple Music.
It runs to 2 minutes and 29 seconds. That is short, so the length suits how songs travel now, through repeat plays and short video clips. The title promises speed, and the length keeps that promise.
So what the city put into it is the habit of working with other people. The phone sessions with lilT-x have become a release with two producers and a label. It is a confident, compact single from the same city as the bigger names, on a much smaller stage for now.
Two weeks later, on 2 August 2026, Destarr put out a live version of This Life through Paramedia Nation. The single is aimed at listeners across Africa, Latin America, North America and Europe. That reach is possible, because the city’s best-known artists have already shown it.
So the line from Duncan Mighty to Burna Boy now has a newer, smaller entry. Move Faster will not carry Destarr to a Grammy by itself. Still, it shows a teenager who began on a phone app now making records with producers and a label behind him.
Hear the live This Life on Spotify. Follow Destarr on Spotify, Apple Music, Audiomack, SoundCloud, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and X.
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