by Dayo Olugbemi

Of recent, awa artists in naija  are fast becoming characterised by bleached skin, tattoos and meaningless music. But I’ll pick one from the lot; bleached skin. And I’ll try not to pick any others. Its almost like the criteria for being recognised as a superstar in Nigeria is the light skin.

Please don’t insult awa artists o. I too must apologize. They didn’t bleach, they only toned. Its not exactly the same as bleaching, you know. Bleaching will leave you with a Fanta for face Coke for yansh appearance but Toning would leave you with Fanta for everywhere appearance that blends perfectly with dark shades (no matter the time of the day). Toning, I believe, is also referred to as ‘Body Washing’.

I’m sure I have seen the ad in one magazine like that. It only removes the not really important Melanin from your skin. What’s abit of missing melanin compared to plenty money and swag? Besides, you won’t even be in the sun all day, you will be cruising in your air conditioned ride and will be in the sun for a few seconds before you enter an air-conditioned building or jet. So no problem with Cancer, right?

So first, an artist must make a hit track (Which can be better described as off-track, but I digress), then they acquire an expensive automobile and/or house for the public’s attention, then they disappear for a while and reappear looking like they were involved in a gas leak incident from a refrigerator. A carefully arranged gas leak incident from a refrigerator, that is. You can’t really blame Etcetera, he is upset. Its enough to make one upset. Look at Olamide in Eni duro. Look at him now. Same for Flavour, Dbanj, Phyno, Wiz kid, etc. The list is long. Wande Cole has probably thought of it but he’d have had to change his name to Wande Whyte. There’s a saying that good food and A/C can make somebody’s skin fresh and light. I don’t know if this saying still make the rounds. But maybe this is the saying that awa artists want us to attribute to their newly acquired skin colour.

Now, Tattoos (and i really tried to restrain myself). Why did the  chicken cross the road? Cos it wanted to be a superstar and get a tire-track tattoo.

I did small amebo the other day and checked out Oritse Femi’s latest acquisitions. But the fellow didn’t look like Oritse Femi. This guy was lighter, of course, but there was the tattoo everywhere. Why have these guys turned their bodies to somebody’s canvas? Wait, are they related? Is the lighter skin to better show the tattoos? A super star’s budget would probably look like this:
House             200 million
Cars               100 million
Skin                5 million
Sunglasses     1 million
Tattoo             1 million

Those are the essentials.

So, upcoming artists take note, as soon as that off track of yours gets every tongue wagging and every blog … blogging, make a budget with skin colour as number three.

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Dayo Olugbemi a Nigerian writes for YNaija from Monrovia, Liberia

Op-Ed Editor