JJC
August 2004 - The music scene in Nigeria
Hi people! Join me for a trip through the latest urban sounds of Nigeria . Here's what I'll be covering.
- Visiting Lagos
- Lagos Club Scene
- The Nigerian record industry
- Hot new acts from Nigeria
- JJC's Recommended CDs
Visiting Lagos
It feels good to go home. I had the opportunity to go home to Nigeria in June/July 2004 and was there for two weeks, which was spent mainly in Nigeria’s former capital Lagos with a few days in Abuja (capital since 1991). As you know, together with the 419 Squad, a lot of my own music is about Nigeria, so it was great to actually take the music home.
I myself grew up in Kano, in the North, and this was actually only my second time in Lagos. Lagos is an experience - the heat, the power cuts (remember Tony Allen’s “NEPA – Never Expect Power Always”?), the petrol fumes, the police, the roads, the food (Amàlà, Eba, pepper soup, pounded yam – delicious), the great beer, the street vendors flogging everything from rat poison to frozen yoghurt to pirated CDs, the okadas (motorcycle taxis), the bribes, the traffic go-slows, and of course the wonderful people.
Lagos Club Scene
We did three performances during our trip, including one at Femi Kuti’s New Africa Shrine in Ikeya, Lagos. This isn’t Fela Kuti’s original Shrine but a remake by his son Femi. It’s a fantastic venue and we hope to go back soon.
Another great venue in Lagos is Motherlan’, a popular club in an outdoor amphitheatre run by Afro-beat musician Lágbájá who plays there on the last Friday of month. Luckily we were in town the last Friday of the month and got to see the man with the mask on stage. Singer/ songwriter/ sax player Lágbájá wears a mask whenever he performs. This is to empathize with the faceless masses and remind Yoruba fans of their roots (his songs are predominately sung in Yoruba) – Lágbájá is the “Voice of the Voiceless”. It was a great show and what a fantastic venue, too. Lágbájá is coming to the UK this month for a few dates – make sure you check him out.
The Nigerian record industry
The main purpose of our trip was promotion. We did lots and lots of TV, radio and press interviews. In a way the music industry in Nigeria is huge. There are a lot of artists, and a large number of TV and radio stations, magazines and newspapers which cover music. The public’s demand for music is massive. Nevertheless, the last international record company closed their Nigerian office in 1989. The industry is in deep trouble. It is not unusual for artists to have to resort to bribing media people to get heard and seen. Also as an artist you do not receive royalties when your record gets played on the radio.
And then there’s the issue of piracy. Bootlegging of CDs, and the ubiquitous music VCDs, is big business. Most of the CDs sold are bootlegs. For legal versions of CDs to compete with the cheap bootlegs they have to go down in price to that of the bootleg versions. This means that a CD, whether bootleg or legal, is usually sold at 250 Naira – which equals just £1. You can image how tiny the margin for the artist is. Artists can only hope to make money from sponsorship deals (for instance with the large Nigerian breweries or the mobile phone companies) or from shows which on the whole are well-paid.
Hot new acts from Nigeria
As for the music itself, there’s a lot of great stuff. While the problem of artists just copying beats, which was raised in Ruggedman’s track ‘Ehen’, is still happening, you do get lots of original stuff, too. One of the hottest new acts is R’n’B three piece Styl-Plus who hail from Abuja. ‘Olufunmi’ has been one of the biggest tracks in Nigeria in the last half year or so, and radio are still playing it non-stop. The vocal delivery is just fantastic – and women are going crazy for the three Styl-Plus guys.
Another big name is 2Face. He is a member of Plantashun Boiz, a very successful hip-hop act whose three members are currently pursuing solo careers. 2Face’s most popular tracks at the moment are ‘Nfana Ibaga (No Problem)’ and the brilliant Reggae-influenced slow jam ‘African Queen’.
Even more Reggae - influenced are Mountain Black & Mad Melons whose track ‘Danfo Driver’ is a big, big tune in Lagos. The duo are actually former danfo drivers (a ‘danfo’ for those who don’t know are the yellow mini buses in Lagos – check out an article on Lagos buses on the BBC News Website .
I took my laptop to Nigeria and turned our hotel room into a mini studio. Many of Nigeria’s young stars came to our room-come-studio to chill and record, such as Sasha (female rapper with Trybe Records, the label behind Nigeria’s now defunct Trybesmen hip-hop trio), the Rooftop MCs (one of Nigeria’s Christian hip-hop acts) and Ruggedman.
Part of our travelling party to Nigeria were two new recruits to my Backbone Music production company: singer, songwriter, harmonica player D’banj and singer, songwriter, Queen Onokala (aka Kween). Both are native Nigerians who have been living in the UK for a couple of years now. They had both started their musical career in Nigeria. Queen had a hit single which featured fuji star Pasuma (also known as the ‘African P. Diddy’), while D’banj had recorded tracks with Ruggedman. D’banj and Queen both performed with JJC & 419 Squad at WOMAD 2004 Rivermead Reading which was another great event. I’m sure you’ll be seeing more of both of them soon. In fact, you can catch JJC & 419 Squad together with D’banj and Queen at various festivals in the next few months.
Finally, congratulations to Ty being nominated for the Mercury Music Prize. We’re keeping our fingers crossed.
Until next time.
JJC
JJC's Recommended CDs
Mountain Black & Mad Melons – Danfo Driver
2Face – African Queen
Check out my recommended CDs this month in the CD Reviews section or go to Music Search to look at our archive of recommended CDs.