I was bored one Saturday rainy morning, as usually PHCN was up to it again “again” (like my ibo brother Dat nigga raw) and “ko si epo ni nu generator.” So I decided to go through my Nigerian audio “c.d” collection. On opening the bag (it’s been a while since I have looked at it) 2Shotz’s album “pirated copy” (his very first album) got my attention and I immediately went nostalgic. Songs like “carry am go” and “odeshi” came running through my mind like a force field. And that began my search for all my old time favourites.
The very first Naija album I bought was the Trybesmen’s “LGA” back in 98. I still remember the sweet lyrics of ‘Shake bodi” and “trybal marks” the chorus of “tribal marks” still remains fresh in my mind like it was yesterday: “Na who do dis rappin... tribesmen...Ogbon ge’ rappin... I hear am for party, I come catch the gbedu fever...how I for rock am...” After that particular album, it had to be the Plantashun Bioz Body and Soul album, ha! That album was the shit back then, (still is) I still remember how many love lines I stole from that album to use on girls and for those that worked... I am forever grateful to the group. For an SS2 student in 98, one hundred and fifty naira to spend on an album was no small money, my friends thought I was crazy “why waste your money on this garbage” they said and I didn’t blame them. Every boy my age was listening to Mase, Biggy, Puffy, Boyz2men,One twelve and the others but not me, I had to bring in the Naija thing. Eedris Abdulkareem of the Remedies was not making my work of defending Naija music any easy with his “migidishigidishigidi a” “Is that what you call rapping” they would ask. So, imagine my relief when Ruggedman came out with “Ehn part 1” “Peace or War” and “Oh oh” from his first album “Thy album come” it was a breath of fresh air.
Then the Plantashun Bioz broke up after the “Sold out” album and I thought it was over but then they served us three different albums instead of one “Face2Face” “Faze alone” and “Ghetto Child” (which still remains Blackface’s best solo album till date). All these albums I bought and even though the followership was still growing, it was getting better. Oh no, how could I have forgotten Paul Play, I also have his first album “Playground” and the album off the “mosorire” song. For the benefit of those that don’t know the meaning of the word “mosorire” it means I am fortunate. Now, you understand why that particular song ushered a lot of us into the year 2000, (or Y2K like we called it back then). Even though people criticized “Maintain” I still think they were the real originators of Hip-hop served in your local dialect, songs like “Alo alo o (story story o)” “Mi o ma le ti motor” and “Domitila” were my very first romance with the boys from Ibadan- Olu, Tolu and Big Bamo.
No comments:
Post a Comment