Singing vs Rapping: Equal But Separate (Part 2)

By Efe Omorogbe

I like to see M.I as the saviour of Nigerian rap music. Hey! Hold your fire people! No be MY column? No be state of MY mind? Ehn! Maintain now, make I explain.

Before he got everyone open with Crowd Mentality (2006) and tore the roof off with his smash debut, Mr. Incredible, there existed a disturbing divide within the rap music scene typified by the critical acclaim of the magnificent Modenine and the contrasting commercial success via mainstream acceptance of rampaging Ruggedman. Naija Rap looked like a tale of two cities – one inhabited by rappers like Modenine, Overdose, and Terry Tha Rapman, lyricists whose language of choice was mainly standard Hip-hop English and seemed to enjoy critical acclaim but limited commercial success, and the other, populated by talented rhyme slingers who were more favourably disposed to the deployment of pidgin English and local Nigerian languages on verses and hooks and seemed to enjoy wider mainstream acceptance and by extension, commercial success. Ruggedi Baba, 2 Shotz, Raw were some of the leading names on this side. Despite sporadic murmurings these two camps would have gotten along pretty well because they was a healthy dose of respect between these rappers of different persuasions. Besides, the likes of Trybesmen and later Freestyle and eLDee Da Don as solo acts, had laid down a seemingly solid foundation by presenting a blueprint for near seamless blending of both ‘extremes’  but two factors contributed to amp the tension.

The first was the rise of Ruggedman – on the back of the game-changing ‘Ehen Pt 1‘ smash.  He called the skills of Naija’s then biggest rap act, Eedris Abdulkareem to question and started a beef of mythical proportions. For some reason, that episode coincided with the beginning of the end of Eedris’ dominance and the general consensus was that Ruggedman had sparked people’s sensitivity to the ‘quality of lyrical skill over entertaining flow’ and Eedris was flow pro but not so poetic. Summary: Lyrical skill was pre-eminent.

Factor #2 was the Modenine/Ruggedman beef.  After years of snide comments and subliminal disses, Mode clearly emerged as Ruggedman’s arch nemesis. Just as it was with Eedris years earlier, Modenine called Ruggedman’s skills to question and it sparked the war that took the unhealthy colouration of one between a ‘money-making Baraje’ rapper and ‘respected wordsmith’ who has little financial reward to show for all his acclaim and awards. And then appeared the crowd of rappers that lined up behind then and gradually crystallized the myth that in Naija, one is either dropping watered-down joints and getting major paper or dropping dime and well… getting dimes.   Then a certain short black boy appeared, killed the noise and buried the myth – forever! Crowd Mentality was straight up standard Hip-hop English and serious-ass subject matter. And everybody listened. It was my wife Bukola, not anywhere near your regular Hip-hop head who drew my attention to the song. She called me up and asked me to tune to a certain radio station and listen to some really interesting song. Funny enough, it was she did exactly the same thing when Ehen Pt 1 hit the airways. Ominous? Dead on the money!

Each time I’ve watched M.I perform, Safe was always a firm fans’ favourite. Two intriguing things always happened. He hardly performs the Djinee-laced hook/solo/adlib and he never recites more than 40 percent of the lyrics. The fans do the rapping for him. Whether it be an elitist crowd in Lagos/Abuja or street peops in Ilorin, it makes no difference. The reaction was the same – one time, every time.

Lesson #1: On Safe, the rap verses are more popular than the melodious pidgin hook so you DO NOT terribly NEED a pidgin, Igbo or Yoruba hook to make Nigerians accept a solid rap song!

Lesson #2: Nigerians listens for lyricism and they take it pretty seriously!

Lesson #3: Naija fans will spit back rap lyrics they’re feeling be it in English, Ebonics, pidgin, Yoruba or whatever!

So now, there’s nowhere to hide. If the rap track is hot, the artiste on point and the promotion is solid like M.I, anybody can earn both commercial success and critical acclaim. Naija rap is free at last. Both are no longer mutually exclusive – as further re-iterated by Naeto C and Ice Prince. Just my opinion. And as ya’ll know, opinions are like assholes…