IN AND AROUND

LEAVE MR. INCREDIBLE

I first heard about the short black boy from “J- town” back in 2006/07. A friend of mine brought his song to me to ask my opinion “What do you think” he asked. My reply was “you’re sure his Nigerian?” Yes, as of back then M.I sounded that good, sounded different, sounded refreshing, a break from the norm. That particular friend of mine was trying to get Joey of “Stylplus” to get him (M.I) on their label. (Funny right? Where is Joey today? But we sure do know where M.I is.)

The year is 2010 and it wouldn’t be out of place to say that every “Adamu, Sola and Ebuka” knows the name M.I. “...bobo yi ‘Emu.I’ o n rap gun... anoti ni...” I heard a bus conductor tell his fellow conductors, these were guys that you’d think the only listened to Pasuma and KWAM 1. Right now I wouldn’t be surprised if I heard an “aboki” saying “Walai aboki M.I kewu sose’ fa” After he (M.I) released his debut album “Talk about it” and the resounding success that followed, it was only expected that every other artist would want a pinch of that success.

Today, there is nearly no artist that hasn’t or doesn’t want to feature him. It first started gradually with the song Lade by Djinee and everyone suddenly got the message- “the secret to a hit was to feature Mr. Incredible.” At first, it was cool to hear his voice on every song, to hear those lines, lines like “...I will never crash, I’m no Sosoleso...or... I fly so many times a year I should rent sky...” Hearing M.I drop bars on other rappers song only went on to show his superiority and it was okay.

But like everything no matter how good or sweet it is once it gets too much becomes an issue. I turn on my radio set these days and in nearly every thirty minutes there is that song by Who-the-fuck featuring M.I. It’s become irritating. For Gods sake, why did he go do a song with Kennis Siant Brown (what! I’m ma names too. Even Tuface could not help her out) so who is next? Eedris Abdulkarim? So, I wasn’t surprised when I started reading comments about how M.I didn’t really deliver on a certain track or the other. Some even went as far as calling him wacked or simply overrated. At some point his record label (chocolate city) had to stop him from features so that he could concentrate on his. (Sometimes I wonder if he still has any new stuff to say on his sequel album.)

M.I isn’t the only artist that has suffered this over patronisation; Tuface and Timaya are artist that have also been through the same ordeal. The big question is what did Wande Coal Psquare and D’banj do differently that you don’t hear them everywhere? I know that it isn’t a question of popularity.

Yes, we know he’s Mr. Incredible but even Superman and Incredible Hulk have their days too. So, I’m ma say this the best and simplest way ever and only once so listen hard:

“LEAVE MR. INCREDIBLE THE FUCK ALONE!’