Hip Hop: The Nigerian Definition

I am an avid follower of music; music generally, Nigerian music in particular.

The reason I turn to music is that it provides a way of escape for me. Escape from the everyday madness that is Lagos – the traffic, the heat, the lightlessness, the rat race, office pressure, and the general swinging moods of the city arcane to that of a pregnant woman.So I escape to music to get my sanity, to set my spirit free, to put my thoughts in order.

Music is the way I get my kick. That is why I agree with Shakespeare that “the man that has no music in himself nor is not moved by the concord of sweet sounds is fit for treason, stratagems and spoils”.

I listen to everything under the sun from Apala to Zouk and everything in between, except Heavy Metal, which I think is utter noise and too culturally non-conformist.

At the moment my focus has been on the Nigerian music scene, which has become very vibrant in the last ten years. The focus actually is on those that label themselves Hip Hop heads. The truth is that Hip Hop is running the street and nobody puts it more succinctly than the enfant terrible of the Nigerian music scene, Rugged Man, when he said in his too-hot-to-drop hit ‘Ruggedy Baba’, “back then the world only knew juju, fuji, (highlife) and afrobeat, but now I cleared the whole area and hip hop is rocking the streets”. True.

What gladdens my heart, though, is not the fact that hip hop has taken over the airwaves. It is the way Nigerian artistes have injected a refreshing local flavour to this musical culture that makes everybody want to listen. When Rugged Man dropped ‘Ehen’ and ‘Big Bros’, where he dissed fellow Nigerian artiste, Eedrees Abdukareem and his benefactor, Kenny Ogungbe, that put all other artistes in check or practically sent them back to the studio.

A strong advocate of using your mother tongue to transmit your message, Rugged Man showed the example by inviting the current rave of the Nigerian music scene, 9ice for a collabo (the slang for collaboration coined by practitioners in the industry) in the song “Ruggedy Baba”. That song brought 9ice to national consciousness. I remember calling Rugged Man to ask him where he fished him out from.All of a sudden, 9ice is on everybody’s lips, I mean the song “Gongo Aso”. Even my colleague from Sao Tome, Airamindra Torres, could not get enough of it in spite of the fact that she could not understand a word of what the light skin artiste was saying.

9ice’s appearance on the scene has brought a number of issues to the fore; first is the need to get Nigerian languages to the younger generation and I’m not talking about the everyday Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa and Urhobo that we speak. We need to hear more of our languages on the radio and television.

One veritable way to do this is what 9ice is doing with his brand of hip hop that is laced with strong Yoruba proverbs. Chinua Achebe had said in one of his books that “proverbs are the palmoil with which words are eaten”.Second is the need to do things in a new way. I will stick to music.

Time was when only what was allowed in the church was one-part singing, and then the revolution of SATB (Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass) came, giving room to more melodious harmonies of voices. One of classical music major revolution came from Ludwig Van Beethoven with his 9th symphony. Symphonies were not supposed to have voices, but Beethoven shocked the world when he introduced voices (solo and chorus) to the 9th symphony and called it “Ode to Joy”, actually a poem by Friedrich Schiller, in the last movement. It is the first example of a major composer using the human voice on the same level with instruments in a symphony, creating a work of a grand scope that set the tone for the Romantic symphonic form.

There are countless examples of musical trail blazers; Scot Joplin, who created Ragtime, the precursor of Jazz; Bob Marley, whose lyrics and bass line (instead of his mien, dreads and ganja) made Reggae a mainstream genre of music. In Nigeria we had the irripressible Fela, who took on the establishment with his poignant messages and delighted the hear with his elaborate instrumentation. There is also Lagbaja, who is probably the most eclectic artiste Nigeria has ever produced, with his very evasive style of fusing music types making it difficult to tell if he is a Fuji, Juju, Highlife or Afrobeat musician.

9ice has impressed us by delving deep into the heart of Yoruba language to pass a message with an unlikely vehicle – hip hop and it sounds good on the dance floor, too.

Success stories have always started with someone doing things differently. This is the spirit which has advanced mankind through out the age.

By the way, can anybody tell us in simple English the meaning of “Gongo Aso” or “gudugudu, akin kanju ara kan gudu, okurin ogun” ? I actually picked the latter from 9ice’s song titled “Street Credibility”.