The sudden exit of Afrobeat star Ilerioluwa Aloba a.k.a. Mohbad or Imole may have come as a rude shock to millions of his loving fans but definitely not to the artiste and the discerning minds that pay close attention to the lyrics of his music.
Mohbad was actually expecting his death even amidst his growing career and popularity. In many instances, Mohbad’s lyrics captured his struggle both on the home front and his career.
On the home front, Mohbad was a victim of broken home. Like Teni, who witnessed the murder of her father by assassins at a very tender age, Mohbad struggled with the broken marriage of Joseph Aloba and his wife, who for many years have held the bitterness of separation against each other, oblivious of Mohbad who had become the chief victim of a broken marriage.
Mohbad in his melodious lyrics of “Sorry” captured his frustration as a youth lacking the proper love of father and mother.
Dis kind life tire me
Daddy no get salary
10 years I no see mommy
Stepmother no care
Landlord dey worry
My brothers are hungry
Daddy gather money make I go poly
I go poly but I no go class
Chorus:
Daddy I am sorry
I don dey do yahoo
I don dey take banku
Omo pastor ti wonu aye
Mummy just dey pray
Daddy just dey pray for me
Make e better for me
Me I no go school
Only thing I be do
Musiki I choose
Dis life like e tire me
E su biri biri e bo mi o
Iwaju loloko mi wa mi lo
Eyin loloko mi wa mi lo
Mi o mo yee oooooo
This is where I have a grouse with the pronouncement of Burna Boy that most Afrobeat songs are meaningless.
Read Also: Mohbad: It’s evil to ask grieving widow to submit son for DNA test – Mary Njoku
In the light of our modern day society, the opening and closing of the lyrics of Mohbad’s song, “Sorry” captured his confusion and frustration with the pronouncement “dis kind life tire me” meaning “aye yi su mi” in Yoruba. Dis kind life tire me in other words is a direct transliteration of “aye yii su mi ” in Yoruba language.
After narrating his painful experience and struggles at the home front with both his father, mother and stepmother, and when he was sent to school, Mohbad concluded the song with a cry of both confusion and call for help in
E su biri biri e bo mi o
Iwaju loloko mi wa mi lo
Eyin loloko mi wa mi lo
Mi o mo yee oooooo
Which means everyone, come to my help. I am confused. I don’t know whether I am moving forward or backwards.
Another song of him that captured the depth of his fears was “Walking dead”.
By its title alone, Mohbad mixed no word about what he meant.
It’s one life and I live it well
Cause man no want to live with regret
Jah is my confidence
Every man is a walking dead
Love me while I am still here
Cause heaven is our residence
Jah is my confidence
Every man is walking dead
Brother when I am here no more
People will love me more
Talk about the things I have done
Discuss my right and wrong
While I am lying dead on floor
When I can’t talk no more
If I go live forever, sebi Oluwa lo mo
Ero ki Mama mi ye ma tete wale oh
(Fellows tell my mummy, I will come home quickly)
Ayo Tete wale eh ah (Ayo come home quickly)
Cries, cries and mournings.
What is more painful here is that Mohbad spoke clearly about his death with so much helplessness and even cried at the end of the track.
However in another track titled “Tiff”, Mohbad clearly pointed out where his death was coming from by narrating his experience with the Marlian music.
Won ti sojoro (en en en en enta)
(Background) everyday for the thief one day for the owner.
Won ti sojoro (Imole)
Se bajose Marlians ni
Won wa fe ma corner mi (won paro)
Won fe ma bother mi
But Oluwa cover mi
Won pe daddy mi
Won threaten mommy mi
They wan take the peace in me
Won fe mo Olorun mi
Ara ra ra ra ra rararah
Won ti sojoro
Won ti sojoro I no gree
Every day for the thief, one day for the owner
Paso wonder fuck their gunners
Emi Messi, I no be loser
Won Fe ki Ronaldo gba corner
Barcelona for the corner
Hmmm won Fe ki n wo sapa
I don stop to smoke ganja
Mo dupe f’oluwa Hallelujah
Zzz ko ja
Black ko bad
Dollar, mo rise
Why is Naira going down
Ko si much, but mo guide
Mi o fresh but mo fine
Won riran, mo sight
In the darkness I am the light oh
With street slangs enriched with Yoruba wisdom, Mohbad was able to show how his imole (light) was able to walk out of the darkness he walked into while pursuing his music career and the ensuing revolt and threat from those who saw him as a threat.
He said although he was not rich, he was happy and contented with what he had.
One clear thing about Mohbad was that though he was coming from a broken home, he was a good boy with an appreciable level of home training who found himself in the midst of bad boys.
At a point of no return, Mohbad like the light (Imole) that he was, Imole was able to walk out of the darkness he found himself by dropping the smoking of ganja.
This perhaps was one of the reasons why he was hated so much.
Another fact about Mohbad was that he walked into these agents of darkness not willingly in the first instance but out of the pressure to earn a living. In his collabo with Bella Shmurda titled “BB2 Poverty” or Bye Bye to Poverty, Imole said unlike Shmurda who walked into the street because his parents were not at home, his own parents were at home but “I have to do what I have to do”.
I felt so many time now now
Mo de dide
O pe ko to ye mi pe ‘le aye yii no be play
A mo tesin ba da ni se la maa tun gun ni
I have been through hell oooooo
Been through hell oooooo
Shmurda (reply)
Brother don’t you ask me question
If I ever help you please don’t you mention
Dem be wan touch me high tension
The life we live inside dungeon
Daddy me ko si nile
Nobody to ask me what to do
I have to do what I have to doooooo
Mohbad replies
Mommy temi nbe nile
Emi ni mo sa nile
I have to do what I have to do
Now I turn music to my good yeee
(Both)
Bye bye to poverty yeee
Oriburuku pada leyin wa
Make Omo aye no block me oooooo
Peron wey I wan shock make he no go shock me
Apart from the run from poverty which drove Mohbad to the street and ultimately into the darkness that he found himself, his embrace of that darkness as the last option was evident in the track titled after his second stage name, Imole.
Oti to tutu fun awon to wa thirsty
Ounje to yapa fun awon to wa hungry
F’agbara Kun agbata f’awon to wa lazy
Shine your light on me so the world can see the glory
Ba mi wa pay day fun awon nigga mi to n hussle
F’ona han awon maami naa to de TI Sonu
Bless me more fi Ife mi sokan awon fans mi
Bami doju t’awon ti mo text to won o reply mi
Imole ni mi mo de de tan Kari aye
Sugbon mummy so pe ki n f’eso saye
Egbo ti n ba f’eso saye bawo ni se Fe ra’le
O ga oooooo, it’s higher than the mountain
O Jin, it’s deeper than the ocean
The industry is looking on me won o mo pe’mi ni’re kan
K’okunkun yin parada to ri pe imole ti n bo
Mo ti n bo, mo ti n bo, mi o ni pe de
Four years mo ti hussle pa mo ti pe nle
Mo ti korin to po sibe mi o de ni video
Osu meta ati abo ni mo fi sun ilele ni studio
Take away my pain give me fame
Take away my weakness give me strength
Take away my korope and give Benz
Oh Lord this stress is not for me
Chorus:
Ma je n Sonu sinu aye
Ma je n se akobata fegbe
Iya to je mummy mi, je daddy mi
Ko ni da to be he mi o 2ce
For you to be a man you have to wine with the devil
You have to dine, you have to be the real devil
Fuck with the devil, ground with the devil
To ba fe jeun pe l’esu o ni lati wa sibi to gun
Won ri mi ri mo n sare but won o mo nkan to n le mi
Omo olowo yin ti to so e o mo nkan to nje ebi
I would rather work 24/7 than to be a slave
If I no get money na me get the blame
Sometimes you just have to work a lot
The more you work, the more you burn
You know what I mean, Imole.
All these lyrics are the windows to the real Mohbad and his struggles with life and in many of them, Mohbad sang his own funeral songs and we all dance to it.
On his death bed Mohbad saw that he was surrounded by messengers of death but he eventually succumbed to them because the enemy inside was more dangerous than the one outside. Bi iku Ile o ba pa ni t’ode o le pa ni.
Like Reno Omokiri said on his Facebook account on Mohbad “it is better to be hated while you
are alive than to be loved when you are dead. Fake love kills faster than fake medicine. This young man’s sufferings were videoed. His ordeal was in the open amongst the circles he moved in.
His friends, who are now releasing videos, ought to have intervened. An intervention when MohBad was alive is better than an allegation now that he is dead. Friends who did not celebrate him on their profiles whilst he was alive have turned their profiles into shrines when he is dead.
Let’s give people we love a befitting life rather than a befitting memorial. If you like insult me. I don’t need your validation. God has blessed me with money and fulfilment. So I speak my mind, not what you want to hear.”