The Nigerian music industry has grown a lot and very rapidly in the past few years, but as we have gained more recognition both in Africa and across the globe, I have yet to see a similar improvement in the actual quality of the songs produced.

I am not going to point any fingers because this is a problem affecting virtually the whole Nigerian music industry. I am sure I’m not the only one to hear a Nigerian song on the radio and be appalled by the poor quality of the lyrics, it’s not that I’m expecting to hear complex wordplay, metaphors or double/triple entendres in every song, I just expect an artiste to combine words together to make simple sentences that actually make sense. You hardly hear a Nigerian song that doesn’t sound like a freestyle or like the artist used more than a couple minutes to write it.

Kanye West once claimed that he wrote his verse on the song ‘Run this town’ for THREE months. Expectedly as a result, it was one of the best verses Kanye ever penned. Many foreign rappers claim to freestyle most of their verses, but if you listen closely to the lyrics you would find that claim hard to believe. How could Jay Z have freestyled “22 two’s” a song where in the first verse he used the word “two” (and its homonyms ‘to’ and ‘too’) 22 times or how could Nas have freestyled ‘Rewind’, a song where he told a story in reverse. Great songs such as the ones above are born from passion and a desire to be the best; the artists push the limit of creativity because of a genuine love of their art.

Over here in Nigeria, it seems like every musician writes songs just to make the next ‘Jam’ or ‘club banger’. It is hard to see any artiste with any passion, emotion, or even a drive to genuinely improve his/herskills. Artistes seem to have given lyrics little importance in a song, it seems all our musicians care about when writing songs is for it to have a catchy beat, and then they try to create a new slang or trend in the song and that is all.

Another thing that disappoints me in our music is the (lack of) subject matter. It is almost torture to listen to most albums from beginning to end because it’s just so repetitive. Almost every song is a ‘party song’, or someone bragging about money or something similar. What surprises me about this is that with all the suffering and struggle in Nigeria our artistes almost completely ignore it in their music.

But it’s not all bad and I can’t write an article like this without at least giving credit where it’s due. One of the greatest and most recognized Nigerian musicians ever Fela always made songs with meaning and used his music to make an impact in the society. God rest his soul but everyone especially those who understand Yoruba will appreciate that Da’Grin released an album that was complete. It had enough party songs, the amount of bragging expected from a rapper, but it also had some songs which spoke about his struggle and by extension the struggle of an average Nigerian. Also a lot of respect to M.I for his debut ‘Talk about it’ and 9ice for ‘Tradition’, both albums had the right balance of different subject matters. We need more albums like these and fewer albums filled with party songs and bragging.

Some people will say if you talk about more serious issues and put a focus on the quality of your lyrics in Nigeria, you won’t be commercial enough and your music won’t sell. But these albums above which are some of the most popular albums ever in Nigeria and some others like them show that if you find the right balance between different subject matter it will be appreciated by Nigerians and your album will sell.

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