NOW PLAYING: "OYEA RAPPERS" (REMIX) BY MODENINE FEATURING REMINISCE

I saw the end of the musical video on TV late last month for the first time. It sounded nice and I wasn't surprised when I noticed that the song was a MODENINE piece. I had always maintained that he is Nigeria's only true rap artiste, if you think about RAP in the real sense of it, you know, how Tupac and Biggie did it back in the day.

Anyway, back to my tale, then yesterday while having my bath, the song came up again on the radio station I was listening to, that was when I knew I must add it to my collections. Unfortunately, because of the poor data network in my bathroom, I had to keep reminding myself of what I needed to do so I could do it once I finished having my bath.

I couldn't also shazam the song because of the poor network so I didn't know the title, but I simply googled Modenine and it appeared that the Nigerian social media world had been abuzz many weeks before about Modenine's latest offering, so I simply trusted my hunches that it must be the OYEA RAPPERS bandied about majorly online, where he featured (or as most of the columnists said, sampled) REMINISCE's voice, that I was looking for.

I hadn't only been impressed with Reminisce in LOCAL RAPPERS where he featured OLAMIDE and PHYNO, but I blogged about it in - noesis: NIGERIA'S LOCAL RAPPERS http://madukovich.blogspot.com.ng/2015/10/nigerias-local-rappers.html?m=1  (though I was disappointed with his collabo with Davido in "DADDY"), so when his name appeared here again, I followed my hunch and downloaded it, and that was how the whole of yesterday I shut out the world while "Oyea Rappers" alone blasted in my ears, 'pon da replay.

Initially, I thought that it was a response to LOCAL RAPPERS, but seeing that Reminisce was featured in it, I figured otherwise, till it began to appear like "Oyea Rappers" had been done before the former, then I perished the thought, even though I had read several commentaries suggesting that even the former was done in response to the latter, I decided not to be bothered about it. Even if they were indeed rap joints borne out of rivalries and envy, the fruit it yielded only ended up advancing the cause of rap music in Nigeria.

I have always seen Mode9 as/like one of those guys I knew in secondary school who were members of the debating society in the junior school days, but joined so called "bad" gangs in the senior secondary  years, veering into rap. I say this because of the kind of words he uses in his raps, words the normal Nigerian rap artiste wouldn't use, not because they aren't educated enough, but because the normal Nigerian, regardless of academic levels attained, have a limited English language vocabulary (even compared to our Ghanaian counterparts), hence why I feel they tend to easily hide under curse and swear words when they rap, but I later put that to the fact that Modenine is British born (and bred for a while I suppose), though of Osun State parentage in Nigeria.

This offering, a remix I now gather, is quite phenomenal. I have always felt that the mix of reggae and rap will definitely have an edge that sets it apart, when a rapper decides to exploits the benefits in reggae beats to vomit lyrics, and there are very few mixes like that which I have not fallen in love with. When Tupac's "MY BLOCK" was given Damien Marley's "WELCOME TO JAMROCK" beats, I stopped listening to the original, just like how Guerrilla Blacks "COMPTON" featuring Bennie Man is the only rap song of his I know, something that till this day I consider as his "lightning strike"/eureka moment in music, that may see him having difficulties (apparently so) in years to come to replicate the dope beats and rap (which was more of "spelling" exercise) he dropped there, amongst many others that time and memory would hardly permit me to begin to itemize right now.

Interestingly, it was a slightly modified version of the "COMPTON" beats, that Modenine latched upon to do the beats for his "Oyea Rappers", only that unlike the former he introduced his with the original from the Jamaican song, like Reminisce did in Local Rappers when he sampled a Brenda Fassie (late South African musician) song as intro (possibly lifting what he learnt from his short foray into the world of Modenine), and Jay Z in the Lucifer Remix (featuring Kardinal Offishall) did with a reggae beat and making the original (Dennis Brown's "Wolves And Leopards") his outtro, reinforcing my views that a good rapper can never go wrong with a reggae beat in the background. Even Nas can attest to this after journeying with Damien Marley in DISTANT RELATIVES, where I hate to think that Nas' career would've absolutely hit the rocks had he not explored and exploited that window for all it was worth, at the time he did.

I am just glad to know that Modenine is back, and not just back like many of his contemporaries attempted to without regaining their former position in the industry, but that he's back like there was never a hiatus in the first place. Gladly, though he claims that his latest album is more commercial (and I felt a tinge of it in "Oyea Rappers") it didn't lose the quality of hardcore rap associated with him over the years, and for that I am so very grateful.

'kovich 

PHOTO CREDIT:
- http://www.spellsmusic.net

NIGERIA'S LOCAL RAPPERS

 

There's a lot Reminisce's "LOCAL RAPPERS" track featuring Olamide and Phyno tells about the evolution of the Nigerian music industry, as well as the enterprise of the Nigerian young person and youth in the face of the everyday challenges (some of the most trying the world over) s/he faces.

It was norm in the early days, even to these times, when it isn't out of place for young people going into the music or entertainment industry mimicking western culture. That actually gained ground with Nigerian singers doing all their best to outdo singers in their chosen genre from the west. Unfortunately, the reggae artistes, no matter how much they tried, couldn't sound better than the worst rudeboy doing reggae in Jamaica. The same could be said of the Hip-Hop, Rap, Rhythm & Blues crooners who could only do their best but were nowhere to be found on the scale legends of those genres easily maintained for the time their careers were at the peak.

It is testament to the sagacity and resilience of these young people, many of whom have been failed by contemporary Nigerian society where the welfare of youths remain the last, if not least on the agenda at every level of government and out of it generally. It took lots of belief in themselves for those who attempted in the early days to Nigerianize, or localize (as with Ghana-Hip Life, Kenya and the rest) foreign genres with loads of African content, even when at the time, it wasn't the most popular or profitable thing to do. You would notice that even with Musical Talent Hunt Shows, after the ones in the academy might have been shown the proper ropes, defending those with and by doing foreign music on show nights, even the winner or some of the bests on the show, once out of the academies/show in general go back to the streets to do their song street-style, i.e. Hip-Hop and Rap heavily laced with "Naija" nuances. One lesson from what these ones have done is to take something western and localize it, which we will do well to adopt in other sectors of the Nigerian socio-econo-political space, amongst others.

Though many of the forerunners have long seized to make tracks, some (like Da Grin) even dead, their dream and their labour is finally beginning to yield fruit, with Hip-Hop and Rap heavily laced with everything Nigerian is making waves not just within Nigeria, but outside of it, with international awards rolling in on all sides to complete the cycle, such that it must create fear in non-Nigerian artistes if they find they are nominated alongside Nigerian artiste(s) for any music award, in their home country or elsewhere (that's not Nigeria).

It is interesting to note that this stride by Nigeria's youths in the music industry isn't restricted only to music, as many have found their hands in many startups, especially taking advantage of the ease of communication enabled by social media platforms to market their ideas, services and products amongst others. This generation of young Nigerians largely ignore the government and society that ignored them in the first place, making the best of the situation they have found themselves in, indeed making lemonade of lemons thrown to them by life.

To say that I enjoy every bit of LOCAL RAPPERS, each time I listen to it 'pon dah REPLAY is a gross understatement, as much as I find very creative and prolific many of the songs put out by Nigerian and Ghanaian artistes who have fused very well Africanness into Hip-Hop and Rap. I wouldn't say that I am as impressed with Reminisce as I am with Olamide and Phyno in the track, even though he claimed no one rapped better than him this year, when he was totally outdone and outclassed by those he featured on his own track.

In all, the song not only sounded great, it is inspirational especially to youths with the message to encourage belief in oneself, though the song could do with less explicitness, something some of today's artistes will do well to take a cue from Tuface who has achieved fame and all (and at forty still going strong) doing purely Nigerian music without as much as leaning to the vulgar.

'kovich


PICTURE CREDIT: 
- http://tooxclusive.com