Rap in Nigeria has definitely taking a good turn, you can not say that the scene is the same as it was about 10 years ago; we don’t even need to go that long, I can say that in the last 5 years, a lot of changes has taken place.
I can remember about 10 years ago, you could not have a rap song on radio without putting a little gimmick to it. That was when you had EDRIS ABDULKAREEM rocking the rap world with his group THE REMEDIES( consisting of two singers, and him), and he was giving NIGERIANS, the only form they would listen to for a couple of years, even though not everybody was feeling his style of mumbling words together(even if some of the words weren’t making sense), they had to make to with what was available.
Then about a year or so after his reign started, the TRYBES MEN (FREESYLE, L.D, and KABOOM), hit the scene with the international flavour of rap that a lot of people appreciated. This had a lot of people embracing them with warm arms. But the thing is that, although they were good, they still had to make party songs or include vernacular in their songs for radio acceptance, and mass appeal.
Then a couple of years went by, at around the early 2000’s, someone came in the game and made a change. The rapper, RUGGED MAN, hit the scene with a diss record hitting edris abdulkareem with verbal assaults. Taking shots at him for his wack style of rhyming/rapping, and all of a sudden, everybody realized that they had been listening to watered down verses all this long. And ruggedman took the crown of the king of rap in the country, and gave us his style, that people seem to like. He was a good rapper, and spat his rhymes in broken English. Now, he was good, but he still had to form a type of gimmick (spitting in broken English) for the masses to accept him wholeheartedly.
Around the same time, there were a lot of rappers from the north central part of the country doing the real hardcore rap. Rappers like “6 foot plus”, MODENINE, TERRY THE RAP MAN, O.D, PHEROCIOUS, just to mention a few. But all these rappers, that seem to be spitting the real rap were not getting enough airplay on radio, they kept doing there thing though. And with time, modenine became popular with his high use of intelligently woven rhymes mixed with metaphors and similes. His verses had some hard punch lines that always seem to get people’s attention. And, even though it was hardcore, his music still managed to get on radio and make him popular.
The years went by and there were not too many rappers on the scene, just a couple of old rappers trying to re-invent themselves. Ruggedman was still very prominent on the scene. Also, ELDEE and FREESTYLE of the” trybes men”did their thing, even though they had become rivals. All through this time, rap had still not gained the mass appeal it was meant to have. Other than rappers like RUFF, RUGGED AND RAW getting guest appearances on r&b songs, the rap game was still a no pay section of the music industry in the country. Except for a rapper like RUGGEDMAN who was making money from shows because of his controversial style at the time, no other rapper was really making money; I am talking about around 2003-2006.
Then around 2006/2007 a new wave of rappers hit the scene. Rappers that were delivering the undiluted foreign style of rap without having to add any form of vernacular to get acceptance; IKECHUKWU, NAETO C and M.I were the for-runners of this time. Ikechukwu and naeto c who were both on STORM RECORDS had lived must of their lives in the U.S, thus the explanation of the foreign accent and style in their rap.
Ikechukwu and naeto c hit up the scene, dropping singles after singles, plus catchy videos. After a while, more attention was given to the promotion of naeto c. With singles like “sitting on top”, “you know my P”, and “kini big deal”, naeto emerged as one of the biggest rap acts NIGERIA has ever produced. Although a lot questioned his lyrical prowess, but it was clear that this dude had the formula to make hits. His delivery for one was more of a spectacular than any other thing. I think the delivery covered up for any other faults he may have. Not saying he had noticeable flaws, and I am not going to say he was an impeccable lyricist either, but I guess rap is more than just lyrics.
Around the same time, M.I, who was more of a lyrical genius, had just hit up the scene. His first single, “crowd mentality”, was mad to address the way the music industry and every artist involved in it were not being creative and just following what the crowd liked. He challenged that odd, and still managed to make people dance to the song. When I heard the song, I knew that a rap messiah had been born. The song was very lyrical, yet very interesting to follow. The song rocked for a while, then it was like he disappeared to the lab to make more songs. And the following year he dropped his second single “blaze” which further solidified his ability to roc the mic. Then he dropped another single shortly after, “safe”, where he adopts American rapper, LIL WAYNE’S style, but what he did with it was phenomenal. He infused song titles, and common phrases that had been used in the most popular songs at the time into two highly lyrical verses, with his friend and co-artist, GINI, on the chorus. He got away with making a rap song so entertaining without loosing focus of the core roots of hip hop. It was a success and that made his debut album, “talk about it”,the most highly anticipated rap album ever to come out of Nigeria. Yes, quote me anywhere, he was that big.
I was listening to radio the other day, and was surprised when people were calling in to request for rap songs, what would not have been the case a couple of years ago. I think while they claim, in the U.S, that hip hop is dead, it is just getting better over here. I think hip hop just moved down to Nigeria. I think we gave hip hop “mouth to mouth”.
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