By Oris Aigbokhaevbolo
Listening to Nigerian music these days; something hits you or rather the lack of something hits you. Where are the regular guys? The broke blokes? If we are to believe the news, Nigerians are getting poorer, a significant percentage of the youth are unemployed. But somehow this malignancy has escaped today’s musicians.
It wasn’t always like this. We had Fela in the 70s, who, while not quite as indigent as his audience, was conscious enough to speak of their plight in his music.
By the 90s, Fela’s political activism had given way to social consciousness as young men from the ghetto (especially Ajegunle) entered and dominated music. Daddy Showkey, Daddy Fresh, Baba Fryo sang of their dilemma and thus reflected the condition of average Nigerian.
By the 2000s, these musicians were eased out mainly due to low sales and the ‘new boys’ quickly took over. These new boys brought superiority into the budding industry-these artists were smarter and generally more educated than the previous crop and became richer.
They say, nothing succeeds like success and so in no time Nigerians in faraway lands with musical talent and ambition drifted back and the new order developed deep roots.
Unfortunately, this superiority carried over to the music and soon they assumed they were better than the majority of Nigerians. They had more money, more education and more talent.
Naturally, vanity became a theme. A song is incomplete if the artist doesn’t chant their name, back when Daddy Showkey sang, ‘welcome Daddy Showkey, Welcome’ it was an introduction and an assertion of a self that had been hidden under a layer of poverty and obscurity. These days it is a boast.
Music from the 90s excluded the rich who didn’t see the need for such assertion when a fat wallet was sufficient, besides wealthy families considered music as infra dig for their off springs.
They believed the music industry was for touts and ‘ne’er do wells’. Not anymore; in contemporary Nigerian music a display of wealth is de rigueur.
Even previously regular guys like Timaya now have to brag about their possessions. Recently, Soundcity’s Top 10 had only one ‘regular’ guy, Oritse Femi. And even he had flashy clothes in contrast with the setting of the video.
The message is, I am from here but I am not like them. Enraptured by the spectacle, viewers lap it up ignoring the message same way listeners dance to the beat ignoring the lyrics.
The present structure opened the gates for a young man with musical ambitions to thrive, having been taken under the wings of one of the more successful musicians of the period.
This is a young man who could never have survived the terrain of the 90s, but these days, things have been made easy for Wizkid to claim a significant portion of the pop music market.
His debut album, ‘Superstar‘, begins with a song which thrusts forwards the vanity that has birthed his music, ‘Say My Name’. ‘Everywhere I go…everybody say my name, Wizzy!’ His life has changed he says. He might as well say he is no more one of the regular guys.
By the second track, ‘No Lele‘, he tries to reel in his celebrity as he attempts to identify with the average Joe when he says, ‘them no know how this young boy from the ghetto make am’.
Someone from Ajegunle is probably asking, which ghetto? A pertinent question when in the next track, ‘Scatter the Floor‘, he says to a lady: ‘let’s negotiate…don’t hesitate let’s go to my estate.’
How many people from the ghetto have or live in estates? How many can muster the cash-enhanced charm in the man’s voice?
The themes don’t change, the early tracks expound on the focus of the album which really are the concerns of a rich teenager: girls, clubbing, wooing women and spending money on women.
To his credit, he sings with an easy flow on beats produced mainly by the previously underused Samklef. The conventional pop album is more concerned with wants rather than needs, sex rather than love, dancing instead of thought, melody above sense and Superstar doesn’t rise above these concerns and not unintentionally as it is easy to see that it is a package for clubs and for arenas. In short, Superstar is a compilation of singles.
But the inclusion of the somewhat sober ‘Oluwa Lo Ni‘ shows unease with the track list so that the song is the weakness in an album that really should embrace its mindlessness and preoccupation with fun.
Placing it in the middle of the album is a drawback, for as 2face has already shown, for pop albums in this clime, the unnecessary but self-obligatory near Gospel song should come at the end of the album- an LP equivalent of Nollywood’s ‘To God be the Glory‘.
There are other weaknesses, most noticeably song writing. The artist is evidently more comfortable freestyling than taking time to pen lyrics. He’d rather sing sugary nothings than craft a memorable line.
The album probably has just one memorable line and he repeats it on two different tracks: ‘my money and their money no be mate’.
For all the spewing of mindless nothings, the melody thins out halfway into the album, the latter half not living up to the promise of the earlier tracks and then has to depend on the suspicious placing of the very popular ‘Holla At Your Boy‘ toward the end.
This marks out the album as one of two halves and robs it of cohesion. A quality another debut has in abundance.
Bez’s ‘Super Sun‘ is one cohesive, well-coiffed musical package with nary a strand sticking out. From talking galactic-sized ambition on the eponymous track, to wooing new women or wanting old ones, to urging listeners to put their heart in their endeavours, to dismissing love as overrated, he delivers an outstanding if unusual palette of songs.
To be sure, Bez too has women on his mind but music on Super Sun covers a different spectrum from Superstar- if true love is alive, breathing and can be found in pop music, Bez produces the oxygen and if it is flailing in despair soon to drown, his music is the closest to the CPR it will get.
Just listen as he paints an innocently romantic picture on Say: ‘Jellybean, let’s be like we were 17, having dreams like sandcastles in Brazil…’ An expensive dream to be sure, but it is the sincerity that counts nothing crass and cheap like ‘let’s negotiate…don’t hesitate let’s go to my estate.’
Even when on ‘Stop Pretending’ he mentions the names of several ladies, it is easy to believe that he can love them all fully and equally which is rare amidst all the bum shaking and winding that goes on in contemporary music.
Ordinarily, music on Super Sun should be alienating as the sound is entirely different from what obtains in the country but there are cues in his music that rein the subtle excesses in. For example, when he mentions the popular free night call package from Mtn, Extra cool, he succeeds in capturing more about Nigerian youthful love than a thousand slangs from a thousand songs from other artistes.
Bez overindulges often: a needless change in melody in the delightfully dismissive ‘Over you’, some lines feel forced- the psychology, biology, chemistry line in ‘Stop Pretending’, even the album title for instance- but the music carries the songs home.
The man plays the guitar and plays with a band so his music would be perfect for live performances- a fact that doesn’t go unnoticed by the producer as a couple of songs receive a live performance incarnation on the album though the applause does seem contrived.
The producer is Cobhams who has taken the vision he had on Asa’s debut, honed it and has made it manifest in broad yet subtle strokes here.
Several things seem to be happening on the album as a whole and on individual tracks, most of these things taking place beneath the surface: from the violins and electric bell sounds of the opening track to the lush strings of ‘Stop Pretending’, to the abrupt percussion on …‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’, to the quasi-whistling on ‘Super Sun’ to the slight country sound on ‘Technically’.
This is Cobhams harnessing what he had dispelled in previous works. From the general to the particular, he has taken the subtle composition from Asa’s debut, the pop sensitivity from Darey’s ‘Undareyted’ and the whistling from ‘Girl on a Plane’, a great but criminally overlooked song from Faze’s ‘Independent’ album.
Added to these is the mastery of the mix on the remix to the title track featuring remarkable verses from three rappers eLDee (especially keen to remind the public that before his present phase of assisted singing he was a rapper of immense talent), Chocolate City’s Ice Prince (who delivers as usual) and surprise addition Eva (who reduces her Nicki Minaj influence to drop what is sure to be her best lines so far.)
Still, Bez is not the 90’s musician of the naughtiest, he can’t be. His audience has been cut out for him already.
At least he doesn’t pretend like he is (the last song on the album dismisses the common childhood rhymes of the average Nigerian as stupid even as he renders the nursery rhymes of richer kids more reverentially. A less elitist artist would recognise that while those songs are not packed with meaning, they are still far from stupid).
His album jacket suggests he had elite education, his voice doesn’t have the accent or grit of the longsuffering Nigerian and his music is too smooth to be visceral but his themes are personal and by speaking for one man.
One man in love, one man in the throes of lust for a stranger, one man contemplating the ways of the world he succeeds in speaking for all of us even if it’s in a language most Nigerians won’t understand for as Clint Eastwood has said, ‘Emotions don’t need translation’.
Pity then, that most won’t get to listen to his music- they would be too busy dancing to other artistes’ display of cash and carnal conquests.
Bez would definitely not sell out and his songs would not receive massive airplay. He can blame his genre or the audience, but in a clime where those with the credentials for singing conscious music are distracted by the concept of ‘swagger’ and fail to craft socially relevant songs, he can console himself that he has done good.
Thus, the new era has raised two artistes who would never have made it in the rough music terrain of the 90s but while they both have super galactic aims, one succumbs to the new order and thrives on it, the other seeks to redefine it and possibly transcend it.
However, listeners would recognise that neither artiste really reflects their circumstance.
May the better artiste sell more units? Don’t count on it.
15 comments
…wo!!!! God go bless dis writer …
OMG! We hardly find honest reviews like this in the Nigerian music industry. What we get is flattery of the artiste on Twitter even though their song might be crap. Not listened to the full super sun album but I’m so going out to buy it now.
what a fact.. GOD bless dis writer. plz keep it up
Wow,sum1 finaly spoke d truth…wack wizkid….always repeatin d same lines…big ups 2 olamide
u are just saying ur own trash..wizkid has already made his money..nice cars including d one given to him at d headies wit d album..guy …talk of sometin else…mayb politicians who dont sweat to get their money..or have u not heard dat he said he wrote d album under a month…bco of the demand in d market after his singles…
Thanks for saying the truth. Most Nigerian music website will shy away from speaking the truth because they want to be “friends” with these artists or their labels.
Bez is not just a singer but he is a musician. I will pay to see Bez in a show because I will not be hearing DJ track 1 or 2. For example, during the Headies Award 2011 Dr. Sid had to stop his performance midway because he was not in sync with the DJ. That would not have happened if he was performing with a live band.
I hope Nigerians start appreciating music from acts like Bez, Timi Dakolo, Asa, Nneka and every other Nigerian doing conscious music.
Once again, thanks for this write up.
hmmm!!!scintilating write up,hope some of those fake artiste get 2 read diz…nd learn 4rm it.. wizkid is stil my favourite sha!
Leave dis guys alone joor. They are trying to make something out of nothing, we need to encourage them. Everybody is not Bez or Asa. Those who love Wizkid love him
Na d writer sabi, wizkid is d best
Firstly,kudos to this writer.You hit the nail on the head. These days when I listen to most nigerian musicians,the only thing I do is dance and at times shake my head in annoyance or pity.most of them have no message.you can hardly pick out one line that you will so trip for and write it in your book of quotes. Few new generation musicians reigning right now will still be here in 10years.I see most music now as party and street music.the first time I heard Bez sing,I was like wow,this is the next big thing,but to my surprise,the album sales was poor and there we have wizkid picking up the Mobo and EMA,damn what is this young man singing. But anyway,big ups to wizzy and bez.criticizing your music does not mean I don’t mean well for you wizzy,just praying with the success you have attained,you ‘preach’ to the massive followers you have not just about champagne ,women and ‘igbo’
Well.,talkin of maself.
I lyk wizzy.dis writa is sayin d truth but the generations of 2dae doesnt listen 2 d lyrics,dai re only interested in the beats.dnt blame them.
TO ME EVERYBODY CAN’T SING LIKE BEZ OR WIZKID U JUST GAT TO DO UR OWN MUSIC PROVIDED D RITE ENVIRONMENT…TODAY, NIJAR PEOPLE MOSTLY LISTEN TO DANCEABLE MUSIC TO TAKE OFF THE STRESS ENCOUNTER IN EVRYDAY NIGERIA..SO WIZKID WE SELL FAST COS NIGERIANS DONT NEED SAD SONGS….
Great article. Both artist are good in their own rights. The only difference is dat 10 yrs from now Bez’s will still be relevant. Bez kind of music is timeless. I just wished Etcetera was included in this comparison. Pls keep writting.
Whew. No review comes more sincere and on point as this. I once told a friend that music is powerful and can rule the youths’ mind and this is evident in the way wizkid has had nigerian youth forgetting the real throes of live believing themselves to be affluent as the singer suggests.
Even the marketers are not helping Nigerians appreciate good music cos dy wld only sell d banging shenanigans of mindless artistes.
I have unsuccessfully searched all over for bez album since release but within days of superstar release, it was allover. Can only rely on free downloads to enjoy one of the country’s best emerging talents.
We could also see this in the light of their ‘mentors’ influence in their careers. Banky w and Cohbams.
Superstar- an album set to become irrelevant even to its most ardent follower in the next couple of years.
Supersun- after decades would be like the ebenezer obey’s evergreen album I appreciate so much.
Simple definitions….