THE METAMORPHOSIS OF NIGERIAN HIP-HOP: FOCUS ON L.A.G. STYLE BY TRYBES MEN.
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Hip-hop music in Nigeria can be said to have found its own authentic voice in the 90s. It became really marketable when the ‘Jaga-jaga’ crooner Eedris Abdulkareem put the genre on the map with some pulsating and intriguing lyrics that really captured the Nigerian audience and held them spell bound for a certain period in the history of the development of the genre. Eedris seemed to be the face and voice of the genre for the longest time until certain critics started to speak on the lack of lyrical creativity on the part of Eedris; obviously he took the Nigerian hip-hop audience for granted thinking he could get away with the laziness of lacking creativity. Another Emcee that represented hip-hop in the 90s was Blackface although he did not have a successful career he did lend his voice to the development of the genre. There were other artistes who lent their voices to development of the art form but no one did it like the group Trybes Men with their album called L.A.G. style which dropped in 1999. The reviews they got were awesome because they were lyrically skilled and they did put Nigerian hip-hop on the map. The members of the group were elDee The Don, olaDele, T.K.O, Freestyle and Kaboom. It was Trybes men that first created that feeling of true school hip-hop in Nigeria and they were the first to put a Nigerian female rapper on the map referring to Sasha P. Sasha P had that bounce that reminded you of Eve had she had lyrical power too. There is no doubt that one of the factors that really propelled this group was their lyrical power that was a mixture of the Yoruba vernacular, Proper English and Pidgin English.
The album L.A.G. style was representative of the prevailing culture at the time which was hip-hop, if you attended a party and you did not rock a timberland boot or some oversized clothing item you were not considered to understand the fashion of the times. The album had ten tracks of witticism, rhyme, rhythm and lyrical bravado. You can see the friendly competition in the way each one took turns to woo the crowd. It is excitingly important to realize that although other female rappers have started to emerge over the years, Sasha P was the one that represented that revolutionary female voice that would change the way hip-hop would be viewed by a whole generation of Nigerian artistes. Although in recent times the Nigerian music scene is lacking that female hip-hop ambassador and everyone seems to look at hip-hop as a masculine field forgetting the fact that it is an art form and a form of expression. Hip-hop is an extremely young sport and it has both its positives and negatives so anyone who wants to delve into this art genre must clearly define what and why he or she wants to embrace this art form. Other artistes worth mentioning are Ruggedman, M.I, Iceprince Zamani, Vector d viper, Mode Nine and a host of others. These artistes have uniquely impacted the hip-hop industry in different ways and blessed it with their talent.
It is particularly important to mention the fact that although the art of dissing is gradually finding its way into the Nigerian hip-hop genre, this was not the case at the inception. The initial ideologists of the art form paid particular emphasis to your uniqueness, style and delivery and it was only natural that you had to have your own voice and sounding like another artiste was frowned at. What we have today is the fact that hip-hop music in Nigeria has been heavily commercialized and the fine art of being an Emcee for the love of the game is losing value. Emcees would dilute their lyrics with words that can make it sell-able so that the fans can love them, a love that only lasts until another Emcee can come up with another crazy term to woo the conscience of the fans. This issue has led to the loss of artistes making timeless songs that can last for years and truly represented hip-hop and not Afro-pop.
There is no doubt that new artistes have come on the scene and lent their voice authoritatively to the development of the art form but there is still a lot of work left to be done if hip-hop is to have any relevance to the next generation. The lack of lyrical creativity is killing the music industry and the educational value of hip-hop is losing its essence to the afro-pop genre which can be traced to the value that the djs place on the hip-hop artiste. The battle is almost lost as we have fifty Afro-pop artistes fully represented to one lyrically sound rap/hip-hop artiste struggling to find his/her voice. Record labels are not helping matters too as they would rather sign on an Afro-pop artiste to a rap artiste. A personal experience I had was at an audition I went to where I had to compete with a lot of Afro-pop artistes, when the organizers saw that I had won the event they cancelled the outcome and requested for an audition at another day. I was devastated because I already knew what was coming so I decided to boycott the next audition because obviously they wanted an Afro-pop artiste to win and they did not expect a rapper to come out on top. There is a dire need for hip-hop practitioners to change the fact that djs and certain record companies are demonising hip-hop and referring to it as non-commercial. It is really important to recreate the mindset of the fans and it is a job that rests fully on the artistes, record companies and music marketers.
By Papioni Recuds
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