Since its founding in 2017, Homecoming has blossomed into one of today’s most powerful youth cultural platforms, bridging creative communities in Africa and the rest of the world. If you’re a keen i-D reader, you’re almost certainly familiar with the yearly festival that it throws in Lagos, responsible for staging the debut Nigerian performances of a panoply of artists including Skepta and J Hus, alongside the country’s megastars like Wizkid and Tiwa Savage. Beyond the acclaimed festival, the platform, spearheaded by Grace Ladoja — and supported by Irish whisky brand Jameson from the get-go — has broadened its remit to include limited edition merch collabs with fashion powerhouses, talent incubation programmes, and creative grant schemes – all in the service of connecting and nurturing like-minded creatives across international borders.
For #ALLCONNECT, a global concert tour hosted in collaboration with Jameson, and featuring a creative collaboration with Dutch streetwear brand Patta, the scope of Homecoming and Jameson’s mission was proudly attested to. Including stops in three cities – Atlanta, London and Lagos —cities that “are all hubs of creative culture whether it be African, or cultures from their own spaces,” Teezee, one of Homecoming’s creative partners, says – each event presented an opportunity to forge new connections between artists and tastemakers in each city, and to broaden and strengthen international cultural networks.

Each event played host to a specifically curated line-up, bringing together artists that embodied the best of each city’s local creative scenes and talents from the two other towns, with the iconic Patta Soundsystem serving as a musical throughline for all three parties.
Starting out in London on August 29th, the first of the three events saw hometown heroes Julie Adenuga and Izzy Bossy take to the decks, with Teezee and DJ Obi representing the Lagos scene. At the next stop in Atlanta – staged on September 3rd at Wxllxm, the venue run by legendary record producer Mike WILL Made-It – Love Renaissance (LVRN) – a black-founded record label established in 2012 by Tunde Balogun, Justice Baiden, Carlon Ramong, Junia Abaidoo and Sean Famoso McNichol – headlined. And for the tour’s final stop in Lagos a week later, the sell-out concert played host to Pa Salieu’s Nigerian debut, with proceeds from ticket sales directed towards the construction of a new skatepark and cultural exchange project by WAFFLESNCREAM, Nigeria’s first skateboarding company.

“It was so exciting to see such a vibrant creative community on the #ALLCONNECT tour in Lagos; directors, photographers, artists,” the rising British-Gambian rapper says, noting the profound impact the experience had on him. “I’ve had a great insight into the opportunities now available to the younger generation and it’s great to see the connections being made between Africa, the UK and the US. It’s all added to my motivation to keep shining a light on the creative community back home in The Gambia.”
Testimonies like these confirm Homecoming and Jameson’s vital status, and the long-lasting, long-yielding cultural benefits that are born of initiatives like #ALLCONNECT. “We’ve always had a strong global community and presence online, but a lot of the most extraordinary things happen when you actually travel and connect,” Grace says. “It was reinforcing to see how strong community and culture builds when you allow people to come together. The main thing we’ve always wanted is for people to learn from each other, for people in the diaspora to learn from people that live in the continent and vice versa. With Jameson’s support, it was great to see that happen in real life.”






