Nasty C, the popular South African rapper, dropped a freestyle on Sway In The Morning and everyone lost their chill. Again, the never-ending debate between South African and Nigerian hip-hop kicked off as it always does whenever a South African rapper does something noteworthy.
When Cassper Nyovest sold out shows, Twitter asked “why can’t Nigerian rappers do same?” When AKA’s Levels album went gold, Nigerian rappers again got the stick. So Nasty C’s dope freestyle on one of the biggest hip-hop platforms in America was bound to spark off the debate.
The sentiment this time was: ‘we don’t have a Nigerian rapper that can do this.’
Actually, we do. You just haven’t been paying attention.
Like with the SA hiphop scene, there’s a new school of Nigerian rappers. Without the backing of a label, talents like Boogey, Paybac, Blaqbonez, Peter Clarke, Eclipse, Fecko, Lord Vino, Mojeed among others have put out dope music. But you haven’t been paying attention.
On one hand, it’s easy to blame these rappers for not promoting their work enough, but it’s hard to break into an industry dominated by pop music, especially without deep pockets. For a rapper like Boogey who is finishing up on his 6th.project, it has been a frustrating journey. Boogey has had to deal with criticism from people who claim he sounds “too foreign” and should “dumb it down a little.”
Just as important, in Nigeria’s music industry we lack properly structured labels which allow for different genres of music to thrive and for artistes to make money off their kind of music. The result: everyone sounds the same doing Jollof music. Rappers are like lepers to label owners who are mostly set up to recoup their investment with little patience for artiste development and so focus on the short-term. We constantly compare Nigerian rappers with South Africans but ignore that unlike South Africans, our rappers don’t have the platform to express themselves. When they put out great projects, it hardly gets on radio and hardly goes mainstream. Truth is, our industry leaves little room for rappers to ‘blow’ because the emphasis on pop music. Your favourite mainstream rapper probably sings more than he raps.
There’s simply not enough support. Brands rarely associate with rappers because they’re not deemed viable enough. The number of hiphop inclined shows on TV and radio is limited and a there’s a dearth of rap themed events to expose the upcoming talents. Without these platforms, Nigerian rappers have limited opportunities to showcase their skills to a larger audience and mostly resort to putting out their music for free with the hope of a breakthrough via a record deal. Yet, they get blamed for not doing enough. On one hand, we tell rappers to adapt to the audience but on the other, when a South African rapper drops a dope freestyle, we love it and ask why our guys don’t do that. They do, you just haven’t been paying attention.
Then there’s the question about indigenous rap. Brilliant as it is, there’s got to be room for rappers who drop bars in English. One style shouldn’t be inferior to the other. The South Africans, who we’re so quick to drool about, have this variety. Cassper Nyovest mixes up his rap with Kwaito- his local language- and has two platinum albums. AKA, who mainly raps in English, has a gold certified album. Both rappers have their fans. Both sell out events and even as much as they compete with each other, their variety allows the industry grow.
The suggestion that Nigerian rappers must rap in local languages is moot. Rap is rap, in whatever language. The point is to tell stories with rhythm and poetry, in whatever language. It’s been done before by guys like Modenine and Terry. It’s still being done by guys like Boogey and Paybac. You just haven’t been paying attention.
And here’s the funny thing: we accuse Nigerian rappers of trying to be too clever and not being ‘street’, but we cheered Nasty C’s freestyle which had no word of Afrikaans and sounded like he grew up in Detroit, not Durban. Which Nigerian rapper can drop a freestyle as dope as Nasty C’s? Quite a few, actually. You just haven’t been paying attention.