(MUST READ) Our Female Artistes Are Sleeping While The Males Are Stinking!
‘Eeeyyysss, hold it!
Before some o’ y’all begin to talk your dirty trash back at me, lemme be clear that not all the photos represented have a thing to do with this piece. I just loved particular copies too much that I couldn’t but stitch them up in a grid. Then again, they must have slept or stank at some point before the second coming of the messiah. So really, mas que nada!
Before some o’ y’all begin to talk your dirty trash back at me, lemme be clear that not all the photos represented have a thing to do with this piece. I just loved particular copies too much that I couldn’t but stitch them up in a grid. Then again, they must have slept or stank at some point before the second coming of the messiah. So really, mas que nada!
I
watched the African remake version of “We Are The World” and everytime I
saw a Nigerian, with Tiwa Savage, Praiz and Yemi Alade being the
exceptions… oh Emma Nyra too, I had to ask myself ‘but why?’
But why, Sean Tizzle why?
But why, Banky W… and why the bazinga, Kcee why?
Even to the assemblage of what I’ve chosen to term the M.U.M.U pack – not excluding D’Prince, Patoranking, Mosa, Iceberg, Di’Ja and Reekado of course (by the way congrats on your convocation!) I asked why, why, why? While these one were probably too excited to have featured in one of the world’s most classic tunes, the other Africans usurped the privilege and showed off their impressive music skill. It pained me so badly that out of the mighty army of Nigerians that stormed the recording, we had to be properly schooled by the South Africans who clearly possess better vocal skill and musical appreciation than we do.
But why, Sean Tizzle why?
But why, Banky W… and why the bazinga, Kcee why?
Even to the assemblage of what I’ve chosen to term the M.U.M.U pack – not excluding D’Prince, Patoranking, Mosa, Iceberg, Di’Ja and Reekado of course (by the way congrats on your convocation!) I asked why, why, why? While these one were probably too excited to have featured in one of the world’s most classic tunes, the other Africans usurped the privilege and showed off their impressive music skill. It pained me so badly that out of the mighty army of Nigerians that stormed the recording, we had to be properly schooled by the South Africans who clearly possess better vocal skill and musical appreciation than we do.
Our
faith and strength now lies in the ingenuity of the producer to mask
our vocals with computer-aided assists and studio edits. These guys
can’t sound nearly as nice and melodious as they do in their studio
records and they find it difficult replicating the stunts they managed
to pull off in it. As if it isn’t shameful enough that we pride
ourselves on empty nothings, we brag loud about things that might only
happen should we wake up one beautiful morning to purple skies. Has
anyone wondered why our international features are restricted to rappers
alone? Do we think we can stand compete with well-bred, seasoned
vocalists? That’s even reaching for the stars. Let me come down to our
level. Can our vocalists stand a healthy compete with themselves not to
now talk of the Grammy winning kind? Is it by singing applaudiseand
sampulu that we think we’re going to nail a spot on the Grammy’s list?
Each and every one of us shares blame in this menace that has become our
industry – from the dictating folk at the top, to the players and right
down to the fans. Let’s face it, our industry may have grown in terms
of technology and software, but it’s people haven’t evolved. We’ve only
succeeded in shifting base from one level of low to a new level in low.
It’s
become common place for our artistes to claim certain levels of
versatility because they thought well to revamp a stale craft. Take
Banky W for example, since he started this his I’m not even a
rappersomething, he has eroded the true essence of his powerful tenor
and scampers now for the lower octaves like Mariah Carey (the great)
sometime did. At least he can actually sing unlike Sean Tizzle who I’d
always been scared to hear what his raw vocals would sound like when
D’Tunes isn’t saving it’s ugliness with all the power in auto-tune. So
you can imagine my villainous excitement when I learned that he too can
croak like a dirty frog after I saw him in that video. Very scathing
stuff. Worse off, these are the things that our generation up-comers
center their beliefs on. That if it isn’t done this way or like this,
then one wouldn’t make it. I wouldn’t hesitate to point accusing fingers
at talent scouting platforms; those who have swallowed their vision for
birthing new actual stars and short-changed that for admission of a
bunch of wannabes and conformists. Talent hunts should be on a mission
to seek out the misfits, the rebels, the radicals who are then groomed
vigorously through a becoming process but instead, they’re after pretty
faces, guys with nicely curled or frisked hair and girls that look good
even in cheap makeup.
Can
we be liberal enough to draw the line between hate and honesty? If we
can, then we’d have begun the first step to solving one of our people’s
greatest problems – that is heralding and patronizing mediocrity! So
when I say Kcee needs to pump all that money into a men’s bespoke
tailoring label instead of music, nobody would say I’m hating. And when I
address issues like Burna Boy, Lil Kesh, Iyanya, D’Banj, Ice Prince and
Wande Coal, people would reason first rather than cast pebble stones
that date far back as my ancestral heritage and all the way back to my
generation unborn. We need to open the eyes of our minds and see that
we’re a people full of nothing but stinking shxt. The men who talk a big
game have been neck deep in this dung for long and the women have been
sleeping on top of it. We’ve slumbered too long and it’s time to wake
up. Emma Nyra needs to wake up and move past Ubi Franklin in his role
play of ‘the victim’ because those millions still won’t bear him (or
her) the desired fruits. Same thing for Eva, it mortifies me that I
haven’t got her totally figured out but she needs to stop sleeping and
get her shxt in check. Times are changing fast. We have the likes of
Yemi Alade already taking lead while some Simi chic is lowkey scheming
for a takeover. It’s in the same vein that the Mya K’s, the Kolly Dee’s
and Barry Mayne’s have strongly opposed to back benching or playing
second fiddle because they came to an early realization that they are to
make the industry, not the other way round.
Nigeria
is supposedly the bedrock of promotional music in Africa, so how is it
that we’re the ones doing the major undertaking when it comes to actual
music affairs? Is chuking me bad bad, iNo teh yhu lie! Youshudda seen
that video, how those other guys (I mean the South Africans) washed our
hands clean and wiped them dry the way and manner they displayed their
talents. This our commercial style of music does nothing to advancing
the creativity of our music intellect – either by prowess or skill. It’s
like getting trapped in a prolonged holocaust and for us, success is
measured by who attains a newer feat in defining the peak of mediocrity.
The pioneers of this new music movement sought to dodge a curve ball
but ended up taking a wrong turn and have remained on a steady miss
thence on. The nature of our die hard spirit and hustler ambition has
managed to put the name of a few on the map but let us not forget that
the world is like a jukebox, the music never stops. Although it may seem
everyone is singing along, the hard questions being what exactly is
playing and who is singing to what?
Written by Jim Donnett
Culled From Tooxclusive
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