This will surely be my most criticised article. My line of thought will certainly shock so many, I understand it'll sound a bit controversial and unpopular, but then its my thought. The fact that I'm not all too interested in rap music that much would even make it hard for me to couple up a very good write up. But hey, its music and one needs to be versatile to be able to succeed in this field. Ok, let's shoot! You ain't dreaming! I said Dagrin is a product of luck in the caption. Yes! I did.
Reason why?
Let's do it. Ok let me start by saying Olanipekun Oladapo Olaitan was my hood kid(meiran/ile-iwe) and I really knew how things were until he got to the big stage, that preceded his death. Yes, he did have a dream and it fell into place before his death. To be frank, I've asked myself times and over again if he was really the legend we portray him.
We've heard people eulogize him, analyzing him, his career growth and how he suddenly showed up on stage to take the juice. He didn't actually burst on to our screen though, Dagrin had been on the street of the industry long before the album that blew him out the blocks got released. He had an album and few videos before then, his "Still on the matter" album had more sales in death than when he was alive. Ask around.
Ok! Not to sound too dismissive, I'll still say, for me, Dagrin wasn't that much a talent in comparison to how we went wild on him while he lived. I just have this feeling that his success could be attributed to Sossick, Gino and the MO'BB Crew he rolled with while making that album, would he have evolved and upgraded his delivery to survive another album that would have been a hit after the C.E.O album? Could his creativity have gotten better after it? Am I allowed to say Olamide would have been a better prospect for Yoruba rapper looking at everything in retrospect? His ability to evolve and change with time I respect. Hold on! Before you log off, let me take you through my few points.
Do you know Ajasa?
What do you think about his career? Ok,
that's some digression. Ok listen to Eni Duro by Olamide, that's from his past, listen to Ghost by Mode Phyno ft Olamide, that's the present, can you see the growth, evolution and obvious upgrade in class? Listen to Dagrin's Molenu and then "Emi noni"
line he did in Rugged Man's song. I never said he won't have gotten better, but he didn't even with the many cameos he did, he was repeating lines and yes, that's not creativity for me.
Nigga Raw, is a living example of what I'm trying to say, we all loved him and his igbo lines; But, at some point he started sounding lame because the creativity and thrust needed of a modern artiste is an obvious lacking quality. No attempt whatsoever to upgrade, he felt we would still fall over ourselves for the same "obodo" lines we embraced a while ago. Let's now compare Nigga Raw to Phyno, He started with Igbo lines but he has upgraded so well now that he infused igbo and good english on the "Ghost Mode" joint, which -by most standards- he murdered.
My argument-cum-observation goes thus:
"would Dagrin have been a one album wonder or infuse creativity by giving us others if death didn't snatch him from us? His death was extremely painful -God rest his soul- but let's try to reason with my line, would he? There have been rappers that have dropped hit before him and suddenly went into thin air; could be that they didn't evolve with time and infuse creativity to keep them competitive and consistent. If they had died after dropping those hits, we would have called them legends too huh? Overdose, Freestyle, Kel, RoofTop MCs, Cathair and all these guys where dope when they started, what could have happened to them? Even the one that claims to be the rap legend, we can't even place him on a list of top 50 rappers in Naija anymore.
Mind if I ask: "Is Ruggedman a legend"?
RAP music can be accepted by Nigerian fans, but our rappers need to upgrade in creativity, dopeness and lyrics. Rap is rap for me. The part where someone said that there is commercial rap joints and real rap joints don't make sense to me. No matter the beat, the
style of the production of the song, a good rapper will deliver if he has something to say. Vector killed "Tilla Man's" joint, and its a commercial song.
There are things a Rapper should consider before jumping on "I'm a rapper" bandwagon, some that - me as a person- we look for are:
1. Creativity (Message / Story telling / Content)
2. Flow and Lyrical depth / prowess.
3. Word usage and a good command of his language (Metaphors, Simile, Punchlines / Witty wordplay & Rhymes)
4. Versatility (How well can you flow with beats and change styles?)
5. Niche (Where do you actually stand? define
urself,i love aa cocky rapper)
6. Purpose (The point)
7. Energy (You've got to be able to move people and connect)
8. Concept.
9. Style. (This should be unique)
10. Charisma is also an important aspect.
You've got to have more than Five of these to
actually bully your way into the pantheon of the greats.
As a rapper; you need to have a keen ear for beats and know exactly what you're going to dazzle into the beat to make you and the producer dope. If all you depend on is the beat though, be rest assured that you'll have just two good tracks and countless wack joints all over the place.
Much respect to Mode 9, he's obviously the best out of Africa, for me. I can't see Nigerians overtly accepting him more than they've done already because of the yankee bits. If only he would resurrect some of the "Cry" & "Nigerian Girls" style back again. Infusing some traditional angles into his style and I'm sure he'll be on track again – with us.
Just an advice, but still he's one of my dopest.
Big Shout out to rappers doing Dope music in
Nigeria. Comment with there names under this article, let's support them all.
Thanks for the audience readers.
The name will never change, I am always Akinyele SolChild, you can find me @_IAmSolChild on Twitter
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