Skales was on a Hip TV interview recently and he was asked about his girlfriend. Somebody smarter might have said a safe thing like, ‘I no longer like to talk about my private life in public’, or ‘I’m just enjoying life as a young man.’ But no. The thing that occurred to Skales to say is that, ‘Life is there for us to enjoy, women are there for us to enjoy, so let’s enjoy ourselves…’
By the time the news becomes more widely spread, Skales would have the full brunt of women who suffer this kind of objectification daily. All over the world, women strive to achieve their goals and many spend every day of their lives fighting to be respected for earning whatever successes they have. To dismiss them as playthings for a Nigerian artiste is disrespectful to say the least.
While everyone is allowed to have a dumb moment occasionally, Skales has no justification to make this type of dumb statement and it’s not just because of his looks. Let’s be fair, he’s no Harry Styles. We’re not as vain as he is, so we’ll not discuss his handsomeness (or lack thereof).
Anyone who would describe women as things for him to be enjoyed needs to have a level of success that would lead him to believe his own hype. Skales as a musician has not done anything remarkable in a long, long time. As a matter of fact, as the year runs to an end, the most noteworthy thing to have happened to him in 2016 is the drama among his record label, Baseline Music, himself and his erstwhile manager, Osagie Osarenkhoe; they were detained for many hours by the police at the behest of Baseline management. He has since moved to Paul Okoye‘s Upfront and Personal.
However, as it was since he enjoyed a brief spell of popularity following the release of ‘Shake Body’ in 2014, he has gone back to toiling for attention. He never got out from under Wizkid‘s shadow when the two of them were signed to EME. As a Baseline signee, he has not come close to recouping the alleged N200m the label has invested in him. It is said that he has a N50b get-out clause in his contract.
Let’s even talk about the music, which is why anybody would want to interview Skales. This year, he has released five tracks of his and featured on several others, but none has been able to move the needle further than the regular bimonthly social media buzz: he releases a song with so-and-so, they make a video, and poof… it’s gone with the wind. Yung D and Da L.E.S couldn’t help him in ‘Gum Body’, neither could the return to former boss Banky W in ‘Nobody’s Business’. Recruiting Davido and Timaya for ‘Ajaga’ didn’t count for much either.
In the interview, he was supposed to be promoting the latest joint ‘Temper’, but it hasn’t gotten much rotation on either radio or TV, and it hasn’t broken into the club circuit. So, like the Yoruba people will say, ‘kini iwuri e?’ (what is the source of his pride?)
In 2016, he has fallen so far down the ladder that one cannot even mention his name in the same breath with Wizkid (with whom Banky W once referred to him as the future of Nigerian music). Skales cannot compete with Davido. He does not have the structure to move units like the Mavin kids. He does not have the current mass appeal of Tekno. So apart from his loud mouth, what else does he have?
He needs to have another 2014-like period and deliver another hit. Right now nobody is enjoying Skales‘ music. Whenever his endorsement deal with MTN expires and they pull the plug, he’ll discover that his career was filled with ‘almost-theres’ and ‘near misses’. For someone in dire need of a massive wave, the last thing he wants to do is to be in the news for the wrong reasons. Having been mocked and made fun of several times in the past, he ought to know better.