A UK-based Nigerian artiste, Edmund Spice, on Friday urged contemporary musicians to experiment more with different sounds to avoid monotony.
Spice told the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos that some Nigerian music sounds were becoming monotonous, as they sounded like earlier ones.
“Some of our artistes prefer to toe the lines of other people’s work rather than being original, which is why majority of our musicians sound the same.
“They copy another’s success rather than create theirs. In our time it was different; if you are listening to “Ras Kimono“ it is him.
“If it is ‘Alex O’ it is him, Alex Zitto, Onyeka Onwenu, Sunny Okosun, they all sound different; if you are listening to Edmund Spice, you are listening to him.
“But now if you listen to 10 different songs, the artistes and the beats will sound the same; they need to go back to the drawing board and experiment on different sounds and lyrical content,’’ he said.
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Spice said that such a thing happened before when there was a gap, around 2006, and Innocent Idibia quickly grabbed the opportunity to come out with something new.
He said that “African Queen’’ was a new song that heralded what is happening now.
“African Queen was good and different; If you listen to David Adeleke aka ‘Davido’ with ‘Skelewu’, it was different; his ’30 billion in your account’ was different.
“So, the present musicians need to be different or they become stagnant.
“If they continue with follow follow thing as Nigerians would say, then they would go into oblivion,’’ the artiste said.
According to him, originality is why stars like Davido and 2baba will continue to make it and some other artistes copying them will not.
“This is because when they want to come out, they will come out with a different thing and move on, then everyone would want to make their style; it does not work like that,” he said.
Spice said that things would change if everyone did his or her stuff and became original.
He said that the lyrical content was not much of a problem, as it was good for the new generation.
“Don’t forget that during our own time, our fathers were listening to ‘Bobby Bare’, so it is a generational thing. They have created their own style.
“The only problem is the rhythm, not the lyrics. Somebody has to create something new and this is the time.
“The vacuum is there right now, it is choking, so somebody has to come out with a new thing,’’ he said.
Spice said that he had not quit music and that was why he came back to Nigeria to collaborate with other musicians on new songs.
The international artiste studied at St. John Bosco College, Ubiaja, Esan, South-East Local government Area, Edo State.
Some of his songs are “Baby Can I Hold you Tonite“; “More than Anything“; “Iyeny“; and “Woman“, among others.
