Vision 4:44: Are we ever going to have an Intelligent Nigerian music industry?

by Alexander O. Onukwue

You could say Falz the Bahd Guy had foreknowledge of the contents of this Jay-Z album and you wouldn’t be so wrong.

When he criticised 9ice for hailing fraudsters on “Living Things”, Falz wanted to draw attention to the need for music to portray good stories and paint pictures of issues happening in the society. Not that 9ice had not been doing that in his previous songs, but Falz was passing a message to the Nigerian music industry in general.

As if to prove him right, Jay-Z, on the last day of June, dropped what will definitely be the biggest album of the music year 2017, and for some time to come.

It comes just two weeks before perhaps the biggest album from a Nigerian artiste is due to be released on the 14th of July. With tracks that feature collaborations with Drake and Chris Brown, Wizkid’s “Sounds from the Other Side” is expected to be a historical album for the Nigerian industry.

Music is arguably the most profitable market in Nigeria at the moment, and it is good that artistes from this part of the world are becoming able to hold their own and command royalties for their work. It is crucial that they do because musicians have the platform to tell stories about the state of the society and it would be a shame if their reward was all bone tuft and no hard earned money.

But, if we are going to be honest, the quality has not always been in harmony with what we need. There’s a lot to make us whine and drink, but not many rhymes that make us take some time off to think.

On the anniversary of the death of Bob Marley last May, Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili (socially aware of pop-culture, but very functional) had asked if young folks could draw up some names from our current crop of artistes who could drop a relatable number like ‘No Woman, No Cry’. Most respondents rallied around the same names, forming a list that was not longer than three or four.

Wizkid’s album will be good, but we know much of the content already and it is not going to have a Fela-esque effect on Nigeria. With ‘Holy Holy’, 2baba gave us a throwback to his days of politically challenging songs like ‘E be like say’. It must not be politics, it must not anti-establishment, but when will Nigerian music have that department that transcends booty calls to national clarion calls?

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