I can’t believe I have just gone through seven years in three pages (I feel like a speed train) but before I conclude let me talk about the classics in my collection. Very few people know the brother Silver Saddih but I think of all the albums I have bought, his album “the Bard” was the best RnB album done by any Nigerian. That album released in 2006 went almost unnoticed, infact, it was not until 2008 that a friend of mine got to hear of him. Songs like “One, Magic Spell, I want you and Rawa” were all beautiful songs from that album. There was no one who heard his song that didn’t give him props (even though they didn’t know who he was) so, for those of you that knew or bought the album back then, you’re the lucky few. Paul Play’s “Angel of my Life” album was another classic. I know how many people who didn’t believe it was a Nigerian that sang songs like “Angel of my life, Forever and You and me” the ladies fell in love with that album and even I that wasn’t a Paul Play fan bought it.
Lagbaja was totally unexpected. The masked one came from no where and stole the show. You didn’t need to understand Yoruba to listen to him, he was totally different. Which song should I even talk about, is it “Gragra” abi na “No thing for you” or “Konko below” Ha! I just said it “konko below”. That song gave all “Omoge campuses” the licence to wine their waist, omo, the ladies really grooved to that song and we couldn’t complain. (Thanks, baba mukomuko).
What is the Koko? I’ll tell you. When Dapo came back from the UK and dropped that song “Tongolo” need I tell you what happened? The “No long thing” album by the Koko master D’banj was it, you couldn’t touch it, and it was on a long thing. D’banj gave us something that no one had brought to the Naija music scene- Swag. It was more than the songs, it was more than all the slang expressions that came with it, it was even more than the personae, he brought sexy back. His very first album was a classic, which one was your favourite? was it “Soco” or “Mogbolowonwo” or “All the way” that album had it all. He “Don Jazzed” us all.
Nuff said, maybe some day twenty years from now, these old time classics would fetch me a fortune like they do abroad or maybe the would be collections to brag about to my grand kids the way you hear your folks talk about them Fela’s and Ebenezer Obey’s of this world. I can’t explain it, there’s something about having the albums as they come and not buying it years after or just ripping it. To me they are like wine the older the better. I watch people scream and talk about Naija music today with so mush interest and I just smile, to me they’re like “kids” and when some try to pick an argument with me over the industry (an industry I watched grow, that I contributed my own share of one hundred and fifty naira diligently for God knows how long) I just shake my head (“no be una fault” I feel like saying). Haven’t I earned the right like Eldee da Don and Tuface to say “I’ve been doing this way before it became cool, before them Banky W’s, Terry G’s and Wizkid’s?”
Allow me to borrow a few lines from Eldee’s intro in his first solo album “Return of the king”
“I’ve been doing it before trybesmen recorded a hit before everybody thought they could spit. I’ve been doing it when it was all about the love before radio created the buzz. I’ve been doing it before the days of democracy before all this keeping it real hypocrisy. I’ve been doing it from campus to campus, state to state so all y’all can relate. I’ve been doing it before your folks thought rap was cool when the only way out was school. I’ve been doing it before y’all started going abroad before Tuface got the awards. I’ve been doing it when the labels wouldn’t give us a chance before Psquare knew how to dance. I’ve been doing it when all we had was cassettes before GSM handsets. I’ve been doing it long enough to say I’m the king.... I’m still doing it...”
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