LONG READ: The rise & fall of Eedris Abdulkareem, Kennis Music and how Nigerians learn to stop taking sh_t

It is time

In some cases, instead of an outside event, traceable to a particular moment, it just happens that the welcome wears out organically and nothing short of a miracle can restore relevancy. Ruggedman still releases new music but the industry has long since left him behind and he’s become somewhat of a relic, swept aside to that career hellfire which he was once lauded for sending others before him.

In a sharp intervention on the artistry and relevancy of Modenine for thenet.ng, critic Oris Aigbokhaevbolo put it best when he observed ‘’Rugged met Modenine on the scene. The scene has gone past Rugged. Not many people will pen articles to praise or pan the man. Why? Because Bros Rugged no longer matters.’’

It isn’t that Ruggedman stopped making quality music, his music is as good or as bad as anything he put out in 2004, it is just that the culture has moved on beyond his brand of pettiness and open anger and without that initial shock value to jolt us out of our acceptance of mediocrity, there isn’t much use for him. He has served his purpose.

Ruggedman was once in the news for his beef with 9ice, another used-to-matter singer whose decline began about a year after he attained his peak with 2008’s Gongo Aso. Although it can be argued that the quality of 9ice’s output dipped with each successful release since.

We can do better

Similar to the Eedris example is the curious case of Chocolate City Music. At its peak, the label paraded 3 of Nigeria’s biggest rappers (M.I, Ice Prince, Jesse Jagz) and Brymo, a vocalist that was born to sing the blues. Their albums were well received, singles were guaranteed hits and they began to believe their own hype, laying claim to having the best talent deal in the business. As if physical spaces and some semblance of a structure were all it required to run a profitable business.

Then shit hit the fan. Jesse Jagz and Brymo walked out of their contracts in quick, stormy succession, the later involving a cloud of bile and bitterness that remains till this day.

But something happened after these guys left. They became their best selves artistically. Jagz’s two independent records under his Jagz Nation imprint are the best things he’s ever done. Brymo became a different artiste once free of the shackles of studio limitations and has put out 3 successive excellent records that prove that he genuinely has no peer. The whole myth of the record label as imperative to an artiste’s success was debunked by these guys.

In this case, the artistes gave their audience faith in their talent and showed that they can really do better on their own. Prof that all the restructuring in the world can’t save a troubled model.

The hustle is real

The hustling spirit is at the heart of what makes Nigerians the way that they are. Because of the lack of safety net that basic services like power and decent housing provides, everything is a struggle and even the basic of tasks becomes twice as hard to complete. It becomes increasingly difficult to focus on playing the long game, the commitment to delay gratification and focus on consistency and tenacity as the bridges to lasting success. The long game is what distinguishes the Don Jazzys from the numerous players that have come and gone before and after him. It is what ensures that Genevieve Nnaji remains comfy in the A-list while her contemporaries have long been forgotten.

That singular focus on excellence while pursuing a career course has been rendered almost extinct in today’s times where everyone wants to have a side hustle to boast of multiple income streams. It is this focus on vision that makes people adapt with the times, bend when they need to and scale up when appropriate. Because for them it isn’t just about the work, it is something to live for.

It isn’t always so clear-cut but people who consider their careers as merely a means to survive and not necessarily a ticket to potential greatness or source of impact, rarely recognize the signs that almost always present themselves whenever it is time to make that next huge step. They become comfortable in their redundancies and before long become swept aside by the guys who mean business. No matter how vital their products used to be, something more innovative comes along and they find themselves outplayed effortlessly. It is for this reason that Apple, the world’s most valuable company stays at the edge, launching upgrades of their iPhones every other year. And why Instagram Stories was created to take the battle to Snapchat.

Next level

But this malleability can also backfire as it did with D’banj who had a nice hot deal as national sweetheart when he was tempted by the thrill of joining Kanye West’s G.O.O.D label. Mo’Hits, then the biggest thing in music which D’banj co-managed with Don Jazzy became a casualty of this ambition and while Don Jazzy opted to stay back and remain a local champion, D’banj took the next flight out of Lagos and jetted away into relative obscurity in God’s own country.

Now his supporters can reel out a long list of all the ways his visibility has improved since he made the switch but it is also no secret that back home, D’banj is a spent force who struggles to connect with each dismal single he releases. Bluff called.  

Enough already

In the 2006 movie The Queen, a dramatization of the events that followed the tragic death of princess Diana, Oscar winner Helen Mirren who played Queen Elizabeth II can be seen in the film’s final scene advising a young and eager to impress Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) not to get too carried away with public adulation as there comes a time in every leader’s life when the people turn against them. Her Majesty would never use such language but she must have been talking about such a time when the people realize their leader is full of sh_t and they decide to stop swallowing every foolishness hook, line, and sinker.

Mr. Blair, riding high on the ratings boost from his role in uniting with the people in the aftermath of Princess Diana’s death could not foresee such a period but the veteran monarch who had seen off 9 Prime Ministers prior to Mr. Blair did have the last laugh when years later Blair was hustled out of office amidst condemnation for his role in the war in Iraq.

Every leader comes to this conclusion eventually. For Goodluck Jonathan, the disillusionment that had been building over the years, thanks to a protracted insurgency in the North East, came to a nadir when his administration failed to react timely and responsibly to the abduction of the Chibok school girls. He was promptly defeated at the polls.

Muhammadu Buhari was elected on a platform of change but if there is any change Nigerians have witnessed since his arrival, it’s been for the worse. His handling of the economy has helped tip it into a recession and his detached leadership style is better suited to a monarch confident of his place in the establishment than an elected official. Buhari came in blaming the past PDP administrations for everything that went wrong with Nigeria. For the first 3 months of his administration, this was somewhat fashionable, but that act began to get old fast as effects of the recession began to bite harder. Only no one told the president and his officials. Leaders take responsibility and fix things. This one is yet to get the memo. But the honeymoon has long been over.

For as long as pop culture continues to exert influence on the way we live, it may be impossible to determine why certain phenomena leave their mark and others don’t. But that in itself is the very nature of pop culture. Of the moment, fleeting, and eventually forgettable. To ask for more would be to reach for something entirely different, to encroach into classic territory.

And that is another cup of tea entirely.

One comment

  1. Such a detailed and well-written article. It’s a long but interesting read.

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