Who Will Rescue Terry G?

By Osagie Alonge

Here I am sitting on the couch watching TV, suddenly Terry G’s video ‘Free madness’ comes on. I can’t help but wonder, am I the only that thinks the artiste is at the edge of the cliff of normality about to jump into the valley of insanity? Certainly, I can’t be the only one.

I have never had a reason to question Gabriel Amanyi’s talent. From his days as a backup artiste for R&B singer Faze to when he signed the management deal with Bluemoon Entertainment and released his debut work, the 13-tracker ‘Free Me’ album that spurned the hit single ‘Luv u sexy’. If you ever listened to the album, you’ll agree me that Terry G is just not a fantastic singer but also a very talented producer.

But I guess his awesome talent couldn’t muster enough energy to force down the walls of the Nigerian music market which at that time was looking for a more up-beat kind of style. ‘Free Me’ barely hit the charts and didn’t receive any noticeable award. So Terry G went back to the drawing board, a hardworking producer, he carried out his experiments on songs produced for Nigerian artistes such as AY.com (Pass me ur luv), Illbliss (Aiye po gan), Jaywon (Gbon gbon gbon), Side One (One by one) to mention a few. These tunes bore a similar style – upbeat tempo, hard hitting drum loops and minimal lyrical content. One other similarity: they all became instant hits!

Having realised the working formula, he chunked out a few more and we (yes you, you and you) all danced to his tune. But it wasn’t stopping there; Terry G became so engrossed in making ‘people’s music’ that he lost focus of his initial style; he turned into a commercial monster. He produced some more, all sounding quite similar – same drum pattern, matching chords and customary hook.

We were almost getting tired of his theatrics when he put out ‘Free madness’, a song I am yet to fully comprehend. If ‘Free madness’ was to be described in one word, it would definitely mean ‘Lunacy’. The song had no rhythmic structure and the content, how do you critique a song where the singer speaks gibberish to fill up an entire verse? But guess what? We all embraced it, not openly of course. The same ones who called Terry G a mad man, danced with their tongues out to ‘free madness’ in their homes and clubs. ‘Free madness’ of course won the HipHopWorld Awards for ‘Best Street Hop’ in 2010. He then released his second up album titled ‘Ginjah Ur Swaggah’ and sales skyrocketed. Follow up singles ‘Sangalow’ and ‘Trowey’ were equally impressive and moved the album up the charts.

It wasn’t only his music and mannerism that changed, His appearance did too. Terry started growing dreads, sprayed his hair brown and gold, added a whole lot of tattoos and piercings and adopted the name ‘Mr. Ginjah’. Yes, he became a music monster. And it affected his lifestyle and association with his music colleagues; from AY.com to Mallam Spicy to Side One to Kelly Hansome and most recently Danny Young. If he wasn’t in the news for stabbing a disc jockey, he grabbed the covers for not fulfilling business deals.

He wasn’t stopping there, Terry assembled a crew of four upcoming acts – D Money (his younger brother), Prince Banton, Rakwell and I.Q and called them House of Ginjah. Along with Terry G, they released a lacklustre album ‘8th Mainland Bridge’ that refused to make commercial success. The crew was however dissolved when Terry G signed up with Now Muzik and had to undergo re-branding. He was said to have ‘changed’.

Speaking about Terry G and Now Muzik, the popular management outfit tried their possible best to rebrand him; the Benue-born singer was spotted on several occasions wearing suits, performing at high class events and tried as much as possible to stay out of trouble, but that wouldn’t work too. Soon, he was feuding with Now Muzik honchos and the relationship would collapse for sometime. Now back at Now Muzik, it’s still unclear what his future at the management label would look like.

Recently, the singer released ‘Apako master’, the first single off his forthcoming album ‘Terry Gzuz’ (I’m coming to that). He sings ‘I don mad eh, Oh Lord, I don mad eh……I need rehab to cure my sickness….’. Is Terry crying for help just like the way deceased singer Amy Winehouse did on ‘Rehab’? Once again we have turned deaf ears as we shake our behinds to his melodious chants. I can’t wait to see the ending of this…

And as for the album name ‘Terry Gzuz’ along with the cover art (pictured above) which is an image of Terry G carrying black wings at his back, do you think this new theme (which obviously looks blasphemous, especially coming from a man who is a Christian; who worked for years as a chorister) will sell?

Where’s all this leading to? While we keep watching, I think we need to give something back to Mr Amanyi: he’s blessed us with wild wild music and given us stuff to rock our world. If he’s lost his sanity in the process and is now losing himself. Is it not high time we gave something back to him, too? For example, say we ‘rescue’ him and head to Aro or Yaba left?

Think about it