It came as a fad but slowly, hip-hop rooted itself into the consciousness of the Nigerian music space, showing little signs of fading away, writes Jjroe Agbro
IT was a forum to discuss the history of popular music in Nigeria. Organised by Music in Africa as part of events to commemorate the social media week in February, a former record label owner, a DJ, a music journalist with about 50 years’ experience including radio jockeying and artiste management and a digital music manager, were seated, to discuss 90 years of popular Nigerian music.
Hardly had the sessions at the Goethe Institut, Lagos started before it reared its head. In fact, the first speaker, revered music journalist, Benson Idonije, in his opening sentences, set the tone for a session that rarely veered far from what has become a global music genre hip-hop.
“The hip-hop culture is the most popular music genre in Nigeria today, almost putting all the others to the background” Idonije began, as he spoke on Nigerian popular music from the 1930s through the 1960s. According to him, hip-hop borrowed from earlier genres such as highlife and especially Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s Afrobeats’ which he dubbed as “the gateway to contemporary hip hop” make up what is played on Nigerian airwaves.
A global product
THAT music is universal is not new. However, that hip-hop, an American musical invention, has encroached the Nigerian musical space within the last three decades, is a realisation that has generated mixed reactions. But hate it or love it, hip-hop is indeed taking over.
“It is a global phenomenon,” said Idonije, who is also grandfather to music sensation Burna Boy, elite of Nigeria’s hip-hop generation.
Obi Asika, whose Storm Records discovered Junior and Pretty, arguably one of the early pioneers of Nigerian hip-hop music, in 1991, was also a speaker at the Music in Africa event. To the music buff, hip-hop is somewhat an alternative lifestyle.
“Hip-hop is all about disruption,” said Asika, who is presently Senior Special Assistant to the president on Social Media. “If we want something, we don’t wait for you to give it to us. We take it.” And this disruption has resulted in positive yields for Nigerian hip-hop artistes, both far and wide.
“I was in taxi coming from the airport in Nairobi and song after song, it was Flavour that was being played by the taxi driver,” said Asika, recalling a visit to Kenya.
“I got to my hotel room and there was a political rally in a remote area in Kenya. I increased the volume and guess what? It was music Flavour’s music being played at the political rally.”
However, Flavour is not the only Nigerian artiste enjoying such fame. Be it PSquare, DBanj, or Wizkid, Davido, Yemi Alade, or Tiwa Savage, many places, especially across Africa; have come to accept Nigerian hip-hop. Aside the authentic music stars; there is also a plethora of up and coming artistes, eager for their share of the global klieg lights. And the direction many of them are heading is towards hip-hop. The reason for such influx is understandable.
With fair record sales, sponsored shows, and endorsements by corporate bodies, Nigerian hip hop artistes found fame and fortune on gargantuan scales. And stars like Tuface, P-Square, Wiz-Kid, Chidinmma, Olamide and Flavour became popular in many African countries as well in the Asia and the Western countries. Undoubtedly, music as Nigeria’s export is predominantly hip-hop music.
Humble beginnings
IN Nigeria, hip-hop as a music form generated from its precursor, pop music, with the likes of Chris Okotie and Dizzy K Falola blazing the scene in the 1980s. By the 1990s, the pop music started becoming infused with rap and groups like Emphasis and Junior and Pretty began to add local flavour to the brand of music being referred to as hip-hop. With tracks like Bolanle and Monica, Junior and Pretty became a smashing hit on the Nigerian hip-hop scene. This move by the musicians, aimed at connecting with majority of Nigerians, by employing the use of local languages as well as pidgin English in their music.
“We never thought it would be this large,” said Pretty Okafor, who is presently the president of Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria (PMAN). “It is overwhelming to know that a couple of years ago, we had just few followers. And to think that that same brand of music has blown out of proportion.”
“About 75% of Nigerian music is being played abroad,” said Okafor. “While there are no statistics to prove, hip-hop likely accounts for a large chunk (of the music). Here in Nigeria, we play 100% of our music. We don’t even know when these other boys release their music in America. It is this brand of music (hip-hop) that pushed our music industry to be number four in the world. After US, India, China, it is Nigeria.”
According to Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade, Manager, Public Affairs, Google Nigeria, the group were pioneers of Afro hip hop movement in the country.
“Writing our musical history without these guys will be a crime,” he said.
But while Junior and Pretty blazed a trail, their music is somewhat forgotten in the annals of Nigerian hip-hop history. Attention is focused on the present success.
However, despite the success which Nigerian hip-hop artistes have attained over other artistes in other genres, hip-hop continues to take a bashing despite its popularity and glaring appeal. A recently published book, Hip Hop is for Children, by Onyeka Nwelue, lashes out at the genre with a title that aims to conscript hip-hop to puerile fantasies.
However, should that be a reason to conscript hip-hop to the backwaters?
Hip-hop was birthed in the 1970s by African Americans in New York. It derived influences from a range of American musical genres such as soul, blues, salsa, jazz, funk, rock and roll and rhythm and blues. However, the strict boundary between hip hop and other genres of music is thinning.
Disruptions and fusions
ACCORDING to Ade Bantu of the Bantu Crew, hip hop has come to stay. “Hip hop has been around for around 40 years,” said Ade Bantu, who plays Afro-music. “And it is a continuation of the Trans-Atlantic black experience. Hip hop is all about inventiveness to create music, sample music that you grew up on or anything that is available. It is all about re-inventing yourself constantly.”
Hip-hop in that aspect, is huge, and it has generated even ancillary sectors. For example, specialised magazines such as Hip-hop World founded by Ayo Animashaun have evolved from publishing foreign materials to publishing local materials largely because the local scene is now flooded with hip-hop acts.
Over the years, there’s been a fusion of hip-hop with different kinds of genres. Nowadays, collaborations among hip-hop artistes and artistes of other genres such as Fuji, Highlife, Afrobeat has ensured a distinct fusion of cultures.
“You cannot discard the fact that it (hip hop) is popular culture’” Bantu said. “I think it’s a very vibrant culture and a couple of people have taken it to another level because it is a fusion of all kinds of experiences and sounds. And I think that’s what makes it very vibrant because it is constantly re-inventing itself.”
However, Bantu thinks some Nigerian musicians are slow about re-inventing hip hop.
“A lot of young artistes are not proficient enough in terms of their culture to infuse it to create another kind of music,” he said. “There are few people that have done that like Olamide for example, and Phyno. But you could also infuse Yoruba or Igbo instrumentation into the music.”
Bantu places part of the problem on inability of artistes to be proficient in their musical cultures.
“I think we’re dealing with a generation of cultural illiterates,” he said. “And if you’re not proficient in your culture, it cannot reflect in what you’re doing musically. If you don’t know Haruna Ishola, Wasiu Ayinde, Victor Uwaifo, Oriental Brothers that you’re proficient in that musical language, then you can’t incorporate it into your music.”
This, he said, is unlike what happens in America. “A lot of these young rappers and producers, people like Kanye West are proficient in African American soul music and in funk culture. And then you have other people that grew up with jazz music and they would sample it because they understand it.”
In lieu of the cultural understanding, Ade Bantu feels many artistes are playing safe, negating the disruptive component of the hip-hop culture.
“You just have to go out as an explorer and try whatever strikes your fancy,” he said. “But all in all, I think hip-hop artistes in Nigeria could be a bit more daring. Hip hop culture is about defying the laws of tradition it is about reinventing yourself. And I think that is missing here.
“I will be expecting Olamide to be playing with a Sakara group by now. Or I would have expected him to be experimenting with Highlife or Phyno to be experimenting with Highlife. But that is not happening. So, it just gets all boring.”
Will it ever get boring? Just like the mythical Phoenix, industry watchers expect that hip-hop musicians will transform themselves again. This belief makes the PMAN President see hip-hop as being around for longer. “Hip-hop is not what you can scrap,” he said. “It earns about 80% income for the country right now. I remember when Afrobeat was a lifestyle, when Highlife was a lifestyle. Now, Afro Hip-hop is a lifestyle that has come to stay.”
Today’s hip-hop music scene is more frenetic, evolving at terrifying speeds such that many music stars in that genre fizzle out faster than others. However, if hip-hop is all about disruption, then more disruption should be expected, with the digital age where computers and the internet has created a level playing ground for artistes.
“There is no excuse again for not getting your music out there,” said Mark Redguard, entertainment lawyer and CEO of 960 Music Group. He advises artistes to maximise the enormous offers available on the internet. “Utilise your social media sites, music sharing sites and other online platform. They are free.”
Apart from the hustling of Alaba boys (pirates) to include their songs in bootlegs CD compilations, dropping of their songs to radio and television stations and club DJs, many Nigerian musicians are now utilising online tools to promote their brand. On nearly a daily basis, websites such facebook.com, google.com, jaguda.com notjustok.com, naijaloaded.com, reverbnation.com are utilised by artistes and artiste managers and promoters to push and share their music.
And with more people and organisations world embracing the computer and the internet for more engagement, there is perhaps one sure prognosis: hip-hop is going to be around for a little while longer.
