Soliloquy – Lessons from yesterday’s stars

By Ayeni Adekunle

So much has been said about The Headies, the awards for urban music and hip-hop culture, which held its 7th edition in Lagos on Saturday, October 20.

For at least three years, I’ve chosen to sit in the audience, preferring to watch the show and hopefully form an objective assessment, after years of focusing on the back end and relying on friends and colleagues to tell me how the show came out.

If you’re familiar with events, you’ll know there’s a world of difference between what happens backstage, and what the audience sees. Words cannot describe the kind of chaos, drama and madness that go on behind the scenes. The bigger the event, the bigger the backstage madness – especially in a place like Nigeria where facilities are restricting, human resources are scarce, budgets are lean and standards are often compromised.

Therefore, unlike many of those who have worked on The Headies committee, I’ve been lucky to see both sides: the magic and the madness. But this year, as I sat on the table, chatting with Dele Momodu, Dayo Adeneye, Mayor Akinpelu, Abisoye Fagade, Chidi Okeke and Howie T, what was on my mind was far from the night’s show.

My eyes were fixed on the stage, taking in the obvious major technical investments this year, taking in the chemistry (and biology) between hosts M.I and Omawumi, the thrill of Burna Boy’s epic fall, Linda Ejiofor’s shocking gaffe, and, sadly, the avoidable glitches that seemed determined to ruin what should have been a spectacular show.

But my mind was somewhere else; 24 hours behind.

The more I heard Davido and Wizkid and Psquare, the more my mind traveled farther back. Far back into those years when today’s big stars were still in diapers and the crowd pleasers were Onyeka Onwenu, Mike Okri, Sonny Okosuns, Daddy Showkey, Daddy Fresh, Oritz Wiliki, Shina Peters and others. Sitting a few tables away from me were some of these people, who, a day before, had been honoured during the first-ever Headies veterans’ night.

The Headies veterans’ night deserves every praise, especially because some of us have been advocating a platform that provides today’s musicians an opportunity to engage and interact with those before them. We must find a way to plot our tomorrow, using a combination of yesterday’s wisdom and today’s raw material.  We desperately need platforms like the veterans’ night to make this happen. And you will appreciate the value even more, if you witnessed Darey’s duet with Shina Peters, or 2face Idibia jamming with Mike Okri. It’s a relationship, a romance, even, that we must encourage. And now that the conversation has started, those involved must make sure it doesn’t stop with that one-day event.

What touched me, beyond the need for this inter-generational exchange, was the joy with which the now mostly retired and retiring musicians took the Veterans’ night initiative. Pleased beyond limits, they came together to attend and perform at the event, and those of them available attended the main awards the next day.

One of them, Stella Monye (of ‘Oko mi ye’ fame) spoke my mind when she said, while presenting an award on stage, that it’d have been nice to have some of the veterans perform at the awards. Oritz Wiliki, just like Stella, shone on stage, as they enjoyed another five minutes of fame. Most people in the hall probably didn’t have a clue who they were. Those who do remember their names or songs might scarcely recall how major they were in their heyday – the days of Majek Fashek, Salawa Abeni, Alex O, Kris Okotie, Ras Kimono, Daniel Wilson, Blackky, Adewale Ayuba and more.

We’ve forgotten about most of these guys while we rock and roll to D’banj, Davido, Psquare, Wizkid, Olamide, Naeto C, M.I and Duncan Mighty. If you happen to find any literature on them in any of our libraries, it’ll be authored by foreigners and – expectedly – filled with innocent but unpardonable errors. Our schools are not teaching our kids this history, neither are our radio and TV stations reminding us of these times past.

Their record labels, the last hope of preserving their legacies, are dying by the day, making sure that very soon, the world will be left with little or nothing about that every important phase of our industry. And because the pre/post independence and eighties/nineties stars came before the Internet became free-for-all, you’ll find very few materials online.

Long before Don Jazzy and Cobhams, there was the almighty Nelson Brown. Where’s he today? Does anyone know? Where’s all of Victor Olaiya’s music? Where’s the bible of his life and times? What of Victor Uwaifo? Ebenezer Obey? Kollington Ayinla? Oliver De Coque? What do today’s kids know of Blackky’s exploits while in UNILAG? Who’s telling the story of Shina Peter’s unprecedented national success and how everything came crumbling down? What happened to and with all those that relocated – Kimono, Okri, Alex O, Ambrose Campbell, Victor Essiet, etc?

With the wild success Majek enjoyed, who would have expected that a time would come when obscurity would become his portion? A Majek without hits? Think about it!

I stand to be corrected – but in my opinion, we are yet to replicate the kind of success the likes of Majek and Shina achieved. Shina’s music broke tribal, gender and religious barriers. Many have tried, but not even the closest candidate, 2face Idibia, has surpassed people like Shina, Majek and KSA in terms of national popularity, album sales, general fame and recognition.

Yet, apart from KSA, who has kept his career glowing, still lording over the party circuit nearly five decades after, it’s hard to find any of the ‘veterans’ still commanding audience patronage. Their influence has waned; their incomes seriously diminished. Some, like Majek, have a lot of imbalance to battle with. But the biggest battle, the biggest shock for anyone who has tasted the drug of fame, is to become anonymous again, become irrelevant, unwanted, unappreciated, in the same society, by the same people who once loved and worshipped them.

As Monye, Wiliki, Okri and others looked back into the past that night, relishing their heydays and hoping for a part 2, I just prayed today’s big names, the leaders of the new school will look ahead into the future and see themselves in these people who have come before them.

Who will be the crowd pleasers 10 or 20 years from now? Who will the fans care about? And what will become of the Wizkids, Davidos, D’Banjs, Psquares, and 2faces?

I hope when that time comes, they won’t get a tap from behind from a precarious bridge, saying ‘Hi, I’m that bridge you said you’d cross when you get there…’

God help us all.