The aftermath of M.I.’s guest appearance on #LooseTalkPodcast hosted by Pulse’s editor-in-chief Osagie Alonge may so far be the greatest highlight of the rapper’s efforts to keep his legacy afloat.

In the last twenty-four months, M.I. has marched forward with a campaign aimed at recalling his glory due to the decay that has become of the rap game in the years following his “Crowd Mentality” breakout. The opening track off last years Illegal Music 3: The Finale, essentially earmarked the beginning of M.I’s remorse. In the same bitter old man manner, M.I. returns with “You Rappers Should Fix-Up Your Life”, a track presumed to be the lead single off M.I.’s forthcoming Yung Denzel project. While some actual musical value is retained with the introspection on Illegal Music 3, “YRSF” is a lone single that only manages to show M.I.’s ability to say the same thing in many cool ways and nothing more.

Look, for a guy like M.I. it is not hard to allude to past glory as a legacy of some sort. Whether it matters anymore is another conversation entirely. But the narrative that Nigerian hip-hop has gone to decay because a lot of rappers no longer rap is all wrong. First of all, anyone who is still ‘calling out’ rap-singers has not been listening to radio for the past three years or so. Genre lines are blurring, and what counts for delivery today is accounted for by sentimental elements resulting from fans actually connecting with the music. The sound, style and medium of delivery only matters to those stuck with the same old global sound playlists from 2006. Second of all, M.I. speaks as though he hasn’t been in the industry while the rot that overtook Nigerian rap happened. He was here, the entire time, and save for his Illegal Music mixtape series, he also took part in fueling an industry where corporate endorsements artificially inflate artist value because radio determines what’s hot and what’s not.

Isn’t there a bit of hypocrisy here? M.I. needs to drop this crybaby act. Especially coming from the same rapper who went toe-to-toe with journalistic media about the value of his contribution in the game. If the press isn’t worthy to call out rappers, what then qualifies M.I. who suddenly remembers a need to retain a legacy after years of profiting off easy-to-consume pop-rap albums?

Stream M.I’s You Rappers Should Fix Up Your Life via SoundCloud.