The Nigerian Music Industry: Producing 'Good Music' and 'Crap Music'? Whose fault? (part2)

"Nigerian music industry, Live fast die young, good looking corpse"


Here's the second and last part to the write up that was posted last week HERE

........Unfortunately, we saw Mr. Incredible changing style in his second album. M.I had turned so commercial in the second album. 
Permit me to say, he had to 'dumb' down his lines because of demands from consumers. I have many friends who didn't appreciate M.I till he dropped his second album. Of course, a lot of hip hop lovers complained about it but the fact remains that M.I got more successful financially after he switched his style.

If you cast your mind back a bit, you would remember that asides 'Safe', the song that brought M.I into limelight was 'Crowd Mentality'. In this song, he encouraged Nigerians to rise above the crowd mentality of doing what everyone else does.
Fast forward 5years though, we see things have changed with him. So would I be correct if I say Mr Incredible has been caught up in the crowd mentality? What an irony. Well, what can i say? Man gas chaw.


Another rapper in this category is Olamide. Baddo, as far as I'm concerned became one of Naija's tightest lyricists after he dropped his album, RAPSODI. Of course, Rapsodi was loved by many hip hop fans(and others), a lot even began to compare him with the late Da Grin.  It is however very sad to know that the first album(raposodi) wasn't generally successful commercially.
Well, I wouldn't blame Badolee who had to switch his style to being more commercial with 'First of All', 'Jale' and several other commercial songs that followed. The YBNL album brought the Bariga boy to the level of the likes of wizkid, Davido, Burna Boy. That however doesn't change the fact that the first album is of more musical value than the second.


Also, it isn't even up to a month ago that the legendary Nigerian rapper, Mode 9 bitterly complained on radio in Abuja about how Nigerians do not embrace good music particularly hip hop. He complained bitterly about how he invests so much in his music, but people still do not listen to it. Mode 9 is one of Naija's greatest artists(many say he is the best Nigerian rapper ever), but it's rather unfortunate that our rap legend unlike the others who sing 'DUST' is not 'Balling'. Why? Because he has refused to go commercial. We also have dope rappers and artists emerging everyday. Rappers like Boogey, Rukus (Trybe), Ozone (Aristocrat) and several others who are GOOD, but the issue is, will these new artists end up like their predecessors who because of market demand were forced to change style?
Artists like BEZ, DJinne, Praiz and the likes, make quality music but the question is, 'are Nigerians ready to patronize these 'business men' who have quality and long lasting 'services' to offer or they want the 'sweet' but 'short life' services that will only last for the moment?
In the words of Boogy, 'yall got double standards mehn... Its crazy'. Its really crazy because even these really good artists have to beg before getting air play. IT IS SAD.

However, looking at the issue from another perspective , I wouldn't deny the fact that just as we have many great artists in the country, we equally have the wack artists. Whether you agree or not, many so called artists in the country are not only lazy but also wack. Many have no talent at all, but because they see the Davidos and Wizkids 'balling', they want to 'ball'. These people need to understand that not everybody is made for music. If all youths start to sing, who would listen to the music then? :s.
The worst is when these guys with terrible voice go for the auto-tuning. *shoot me*. At the end of the day, the so-called artist who has no lyrics and can neither sing nor rap starts to terrorize the listeners with 'DUST' and to make matters even worse, he probably has a lot of money to fund his music, so the entire community is forced to listen to the music that tortures.
And the moment you tell them the truth, you become a 'hater' as we live in a generation where all critics are 'haters'. I believe, even if you love music and you have no talent for it, it is only proper to respect the game enough by staying out of it because that is not your calling.
I used to rap. Matter of fact, I wrote my first rap in 2005 back in high school while I was in a group with two of my classmates. However,I was on and off the music thing for years till I later decided to quit totally 'cos I wasn't too dedicated (I wasn't putting enough time and seriousness into it) to the art and because I respected the game too much to be making half baked ish. Well, I still gat love for music so I decided to go into artist management, promotion, Public relations amongst other things. Directly or indirectly, I am still in the scene. When my artists/friends record, they send me their songs to listen to so they can hear my opinion(s).What I'm saying in essence is, the fact that you love music doesn't mean you have to make it. If you have a lot of money, rather than wasting it on a career which is not likely to succeed, you could channel your cash into other aspects of music that would even get you a better outcome.

With all that has been said, the Nigerian music industry has grown over the years commercially and it is still growing but music makers and fans have to ask themselves, do we want to continue to live with songs with no musical value? I mean songs that can not stand the test of time. Do we music makers want to continue to rely on the beats and continue to make 'Dusty' music?Do we producers want to continue to lie to the artists that they are really dope when their song is actually really wack?Do we managers want to continue to promote terrible music all because the artist has money to pay?Music is intellectual property and it has been said that 'the greatest heritage of a nation remains the creativity of its citizens'. Are we going to continue to promote terrible music forgetting that it is more than just for people to dance, rather, it is our great heritage?. Think about it....... Thank you


Artists, Fans, Producers, song lovers, everybody, drop your comments below and let's know what you think about this issue..