The Bitter Truth About Rap Music in Nigeria

According to Wikipedia, Rapping is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular, which is performed or chanted in a variety of ways, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment.
Once a major part of the music industry, Nigerian rappers championed the continent with lyrical contents produced in the country’s creative capital, Lagos and beyond. Today, rap music in Nigeria has been inferior and playing second fiddle to Afrobeats and local dance music. The fans whine about Nigerian rappers getting to be wack when we should be pointing fingers at the correct spots. We know most of our rappers now sound like queens primer puppets. But the truth is the fans demand wack music. MI Abaga once said "Nigerian rappers don’t write wack lyrics because they’re wack. They write it because it’s what the fans want" and that’s the truth.
Trash music sells now. It sells because the fans buy it and listen to it.

Nigerian rappers are trying to sell & move their market. They can’t do that if people don’t patronize them. It all comes down to lyrics. Wack lyrics are popular & easier to bend over party beats. Here comes the trade-off; to blow with nursery rhymes or to stay broke with quality?
The state of Nigerian hip-hop always becomes a trending topic whenever there’s a significant event linked with hip-hop outside the borders of the country. We act like we’re giving Nigerian hip-hop the same amount of energy as we give the countries we’re holding it against. Wizkid, Davido and Burna Boy are the sweethearts now and rappers are trying to emulate them in order to get played and paid. Olamide, Phyno, Skales, Ice Prince, Lil Kesh and most recently Zlatan Ibile have all switched because they ain’t getting the steady vitality they deserve.
Say what you want, but an artiste has to eat. Asking an artiste to stick to strictly rapping and not paying attention is the mother of all ironies. Many people would ask these rappers to do it for the culture, in a country where the economy is harder than a cricket ball.
