6 Years After Eni Duro, Olamide and The Reward For Being Yourself.
Satisfaction is the fundamental purpose of music. If you haven’t satisfied your listener, there wasn’t enjoyment to begin with. Over the past 6 years, no Nigerian act has consistently delivered jarring goods as Olamide. The man has weathered the storm of local rapper tag to king as arguably the king of Nigerian music.
Music as a medium of expression prides itself on originality, moreso Rap Music where every rapper under the sky has a bar where he’s vaunting his genuineness. The sad truth is, the industry is a runway where phonies and make belief are the Masters of the catwalk even moreso in the Nigerian music industry. Now you can begin to fathom the “business” of originality in the Nigerian Rap game. It’s a crazefest of fakeness and a glaring lack of originality despite what these rappers are laying on wax.
When Olamide started on his journey he got a lot of attention with Eni Duro, the music video directed by DJ Tee is a discussion for another day. The song was an optimal representation of Hip-Hop with the looping chant of a chorus ringing through the monotonous instrumental as Olamide delivered a barrage of one liners puns, enough to make even Tolani crack a smile.
For as much as Eni Duro got people talking, I couldn’t help but shake the feeling that Olamide wasn’t a rapper’s rapper; he didn’t have the technical skills set or the intricate rhyme scheme. He however knew how to make folks listen with his “alright ……ok” stop and quench flow. After the Wizkid assisted Omo to Shan was released, I concluded that Olamide had enough talent to be the next big thing, but I wasn’t sure how the Nigerian industry was going to accept him.
Prior to writing this I still hadn't figured out but like Archimedes on that fateful day, I can let out a pulsating EUREKA today. We may trace Olamide’s blowing up to “First of all” or the sudden acceptance of Vernacular and Indigenous rap music but overall. Badoo, I believe reached dizzy heights by jettisoning the need to sound “tush”, tapping into his street core to carve out an alluring sound for the average Nigerian and create songs what would soundtrack the “Jaiye Jaiye” approach that Nigerians were beginning to operate with.
Olamide has discarded the need to conform, and while retaining the basic ethos of rap music has gone ahead to create songs that show his styles and ability. His technical approach has also grown and this is visibly clear on Local Rappers where he went toe to toe with Reminisce and Phyno — the former; one of the most technically gifted Nigerian rappers ever and the latter with a deft ability to find pockets in the instrumentals the listener didn’t even know existed.
Olamide doesn’t even try to rap in English anymore and that’s why he has afforded himself the room to improve on his strong side. 6 years after Eni Duro, multiple albums in and one infamous outburst, Olamide has shown us that to be an artist is really to paint what is inside of you.
For every weakness, there is a strength. Badoo is a king and he won’t stop Kinging. Forget about his biting of populist lingo and millennial trends, forget your inkling that he might have been reduced to a comma on a page had Dagrin still been alive, forget how he might never blow internationally like Wizkid and Davido because of limitation of his style and appreciate what he’s done. Olamide has become more than a rapper; he’s a Nigerian cultural pillar; a Contemporary music deity. He’s become more than just a rapper or singer; his record label has given us at least 3 culture pushers, with music we’re gonna savor for generations to come. This is why I might not argue whenever someone names Olamide the “Greatest Nigerian rapper ever”. He might just be.
Oya take it outside…
By Nico follow him @WordsbyAG on Twitter.
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