”When the essence of something isn’t known, abuse is inevitable”

Hip hop is the widely acclaimed as the most popular genre of music, consequently making it the most powerful type of music, in fact it has transcended beyond music, and has evolved into a movement, a way of life.
The Independent describes hip hop origin this way
”It was DJ Kool Herc who kick started the movement – historically perceived as an expression of urban youth – and before too long had spread across the entire borough where it soon became a celebration as well as a powerful tool used during protests.”

And slowly over the decades, it has been used as fuel to drive movements against all form of oppression, mostly against police like NWA, Icecube, 2Pac in the 90s and more recently Kendrick Lamar, J Cole and the new generation,speaking out against the black hate crimes by US police.
Even down to our very own Nigeria, king of afrobeat Fela Anikulapo’s music fueled a lot of movement against oppression and sparked up a generation, but unfortunately Hip Hop has slowly lost that voice lately in Nigeria.

Hip hop has been watered down to party tracks, which isn’t necessarily bad as I would rather take my mask off and jam to future at a party rather than other genres of music, but the Nigerian hip hop scene has been bastardized by these party tracks, socially aware songs have rapidly lost relevance and rappers don’t even talk about issues affecting the society when there is so much to talk about

Over the week, There has been a campaign in social media against the rogue ,unconstitutional and inhumane treatment of youths by a sector of Nigerian Police called SARS (Special Anti Robbery Squad) but ironically, as frequent as armed robberies are in Nigeria, SARS uses most of its time to harass young citizens, accusing them of being criminals (yahoo boys) and intimidating them with threats just to blackmail them to extract money.
A lot of people have spoken for #EndSARS and there has been thousands of messages and tweets to support the campaign, but unfortunately the people we look up to to raise the loudest noise about this: Nigerian rappers are nowhere to be found.
The voice of the masses have been reduced to tweets, drake’s line in the song back to back : ”trigger fingers turned to Twitter fingers” comes to mind when I remember this disappointment.

Nigeria has a healthy crop of hip hop artistes that have benefited from the large market of youths about 79 million ,few of which are acclaimed worldwide and are household names around Africa, but when the biggest movement against oppression was kick started by their fans, they are nowhere to be found.

The only person that has dropped a song -Gunshots by Vector turned out to be a snooze fest as the song failed to strike any chord, it almost felt like he was scared of spitting bars.
Where I got skeptical was when I saw samklef as the producer, the production and the lyrical delivery combined is softer than a 90 year old woman’s breasts, nigga be taking shots like he scared of the ricochet.

I think it’s incredibly ironic when these cats praise Kendrick Lamar for dropping To love-vendor A Butterfly, critically acclaimed as one of the best album of all time, an album that talked about various issues affecting Blacks most notably, the oppression by police officers and a similar problem is happening in your backyard and all you can do is tweet a hashtag,
Fela would be looking down from beyond in shame right now, looking in disbelief that he inspired such a generation to make songs.

Honestly tho, I wouldn’t even say I blame the rappers, most of you don’t even face the harassment we do from SARS, but even if you won’t do it for yourself, do it for your fans that buy your songs, that come to your shows!, that vote for your awards.
With great power comes great responsibility.

A lot of nigerian artistes ride on the fela bandwagon, to seem cool and gain relevance, recently wizkid won a MOBO award for the best international act and it was a shame to see the Fela comparisons resurfacing,
Sometime in 2016, Dremo dropped a hot song Fela, stating boldly that he’s Fela reincarnated in hip hop but where is his voice now?

I have one question for you artistes?

If Fela was alive right now,
What would Fela do

There is no freedom of speech in this country. You want to be an FFK or FRZ you need to have their kind of background.

Nigeria music saw what happened to Eedris Abdulkareem, most people call him different names now, but he was the last person that made a solid conscious, political or situation song when he made Jaga Jaga in 2004, that was like the end to his career. OBJ made sure of that.

I know our artiste can do better but to talk against the government in this country, you must have a very comfortable place to hide like Nnamdi Kanu when kasala burst. How popular person wan hide?

Fela went through a lot but he was a powerful man and age/school mate with all these politicians, dremo and wizkid are grandchildren to them.

Day2logic:

Nigeria music saw what happened to Eedris Abdulkareem, most people call him different names now, but he was the last person that made a solid conscious, political or situation song when he made Jaga Jaga in 2004, that was like the end to his career. OBJ made sure of that.

Well said. Eedris shone light on a lot of issues with his music. He talked about the lecturers and their "straff or fail" attitude. He was about the boldest we have had since Femi sang Sorry Sorry. But then, he was made a scape goat. He never performed at the top again.

Nigeria has not gotten to that level in democracy where citizens can easily voice their displeasure on government policies and performances. We have had subtle jabs from the likes of Oritsefemi, African China, Lagbaja and some other artiste though.

We need someone like Tubaba, who has gotten to that level of relevance to drop a conscience/consciousness song on our politicians. It will seal his legendary status.

verygudbadguy:

Well said. Eedris shone light on a lot of issues with his music. He talked about the lecturers and their "straff or fail" attitude. He was about the boldest we have had since Femi sang Sorry Sorry. But then, he was made a scape goat. He never performed at the top again.

Nigeria has not gotten to that level in democracy where citizens can easily voice their displeasure on government policies and performances. We have had subtle jabs from the likes of Oritsefemi, African China, Lagbaja and some other artiste though.

We need someone like Tubaba, who has gotten to that level of relevance to drop a conscience/consciousness song on our politicians. It will seal his legendary status.

Tubaba has done a lot on his part to say the truth conscious music bore us in this country, there is a way an artiste will have to put it to make it acceptable. Listening to Good Kid, MAAD City, To Piimp A Butterly, All Amerikkan Badda$$ and many of Tupac, NWA projects, there is more to writing great songs than "Hook, verse1, hook, verse 2, outro and the end. But our music never reach there, we still need to talk about song writing. If we pick any song from these albums, I assure you the one with the least writers will have 3 to 4 writers, we need to get to that point too. Its a lot of work combine.

One thing I notice is those days when our music used to be good, its our fathers mates singing to them not to us, my dad controls the music we listen to in the house, but nowadays music is about kids singing to kids, isn't it funny how people expect a Wizkid or Davido to write music from a Sunny Ade or Fela's experience, thats impossible, we need to allow these kids grow up and have life experiences first.

THE HIP HOP ARTISTS IN NIGERIA ARE MORE CONCERNED ABOUT DROPPING SONGS THAT WILL PLEASE THE EARS OF THE NIGERIA MARKET, RAPPERS HAVE TURNED SINGERS(MI YOU RAPPERS SHOULD FIX UP YOUR LIFE, JUST CAME TO MIND). NO LYRICS, NOTHING TO GET YOU THINKING, THEY ARE NOT EVEN MEETING A NEED WITH WHATEVER THEY ARE SAYING. IN NIGERIA THE ONLY RAPPER WHOSE SHOW I CAN PAY TO ATTEND IS JESSE JAGZ, BEYOND BEATS NIGERIAN RAPPERS SHOULD GIVE US CONTENT.

Day2logic:
There is no freedom of speech in this country. You want to be an FFK or FRZ you need to have their kind of background.

Nigeria music saw what happened to Eedris Abdulkareem, most people call him different names now, but he was the last person that made a solid conscious, political or situation song when he made Jaga Jaga in 2004, that was like the end to his career. OBJ made sure of that.

I know our artiste can do better but to talk against the government in this country, you must have a very comfortable place to hide like Nnamdi Kanu when kasala burst. How popular person wan hide?

Fela went through a lot but he was a powerful man and age/school mate with all these politicians, dremo and wizkid are grandchildren to them.

It's people like you that give these cats an excuse, I mean, wizkid just won best international act at the mobo awards , he has both local and international acclaim,so why can't he use his voice to speak up.
Your excuse about career draining isn't even tenable, it's 2017..
The world is free now

bankydd:



It's people like you that give these cats an excuse, I mean, wizkid just won best international act at the mobo awards , he has both local and international acclaim,so why can't he use his voice to speak up.
Your excuse about career draining isn't even tenable, it's 2017..
The world is free now

I am not going to advocate for anybody its not worth it but let me ask you this.

How many Femi Kuti, Seun Kuti, Beautiful Nubia, Brymo and lets say Nneka album you get bros? If none you are just a hypocrite, if not all their albums you are still a hypocrite.

mercy0008:
THE HIP HOP ARTISTS IN NIGERIA ARE MORE CONCERNED ABOUT DROPPING SONGS THAT WILL PLEASE THE EARS OF THE NIGERIA MARKET, RAPPERS HAVE TURNED SINGERS(MI YOU RAPPERS SHOULD FIX UP YOUR LIFE, JUST CAME TO MIND). NO LYRICS, NOTHING TO GET YOU THINKING, THEY ARE NOT EVEN MEETING A NEED WITH WHATEVER THEY ARE SAYING. IN NIGERIA THE ONLY RAPPER WHOSE SHOW I CAN PAY TO ATTEND IS JESSE JAGZ, BEYOND BEATS NIGERIAN RAPPERS SHOULD GIVE US CONTENT.

I bet you have all Jesse Jagz albums

Day2logic:


I am not going to advocate for anybody its not worth it but let me ask you this.

How many Femi Kuti, Seun Kuti, Beautiful Nubia, Brymo and lets say Nneka album you get bros? If none you are just a hypocrite, if not all their albums you are still a hypocrite.

I have about 6 Fela albums,
One femi Kuti,
Listened to beautiful Nubia growing up, and I have 3 brymo albums,
If you need proof I'd send a screenshot


But I don't see the relevance of comparing albums, the point is, these artists have the power to push real movement,
With great power comes great responsibility

Do you know how many songs have spawned off the recent black hate crimes by cops in the US?

About 10 rappers came together to record, Don't Shoot, one of the most popular songs against the oppression

Or Snoop Dogg and Drake's no guns allowed.

Music is a weapon, its time our artistes load up their fun and speak up

bankydd:



I have about 6 Fela albums,
One femi Kuti,
Listened to beautiful Nubia growing up, and I have 3 brymo albums,
If you need proof I'd send a screenshot


But I don't see the relevance of comparing albums, the point is, these artists have the power to push real movement,
With great power comes great responsibility

Do you know how many songs have spawned off the recent black hate crimes by cops in the US?

About 10 rappers came together to record, Don't Shoot, one of the most popular songs against the oppression

Or Snoop Dogg and Drake's no guns allowed.

Music is a weapon, its time our artistes load up their fun and speak up

Now I know you know what you are saying. Dont worry bro. That change would come and I hope when true preacher comes, yall will listen to him.