RAPsurrection

If in this day and age, there’s still an individual who’s alive and well and does not know exactly what Hip-hop is, he or she is just not interested.

There’s something to be said for a culture that has become a multi-billion dollar franchise, gave an oppressed people a voice the whole world could no longer afford to ignore – and reinvented EVERYTHING.

That’s right. H-I-P-H-O-P.

To quickly clear some misconception, Hip-hop is NOT a genre of music. It’s a culture, a lifestyle. It’s a dressing, an attitude, an understanding. It transcends ‘what you do’ and focuses on ‘how you do it’. For better understanding – examples are necessary.

Look at D’Banj and Tuface.

Neither of them do Hip-hop music (which, by the way is primarily rap music); but one of them is Hip-hop in his mind state, the way he dresses and his general attitude. The other is a pop act (which is short for ‘popular culture). If you can’t tell who is what, read further down.

For the sake of those in complete ignorance, the ‘hip’ stands for ‘cool, trendy, on point, current, in-the-know, knowledge’ and the ‘hop’ stands for a ‘movement’. So if you add these things together, you have ‘a trendy current in-the-know movement’. It has five basic elements; Rapping or emceeing, DJ-ing or turntablism, Breaking or bboying, Graffitti art or visualizing & Beatboxing.

Hip-hop; the culture, was born out of oppression – a need to express the frustration and pain of Black American inner-city youths. Hip-hop music; rap was originally more or less protest music – with KRS One, Public Enemy, Tupac, Nas and so on fighting on social ills from behind the mic and enlightening a listening public while they were at it. While 1996 brought in the ‘Puff Daddy/Shiny suit/Versace’ era, it is still one of Hip-hop’s finest moments and is still considered Hip-hop’s Golden Age (1989 - 1999).

Because of the kind of topics that were usually discussed on records back then, it was a given that to be a rapper, you had to have above-average intellect, because not only did whatever topics you discussed on your records have to be relevant (either expanding on a known truth or exposing a new one), the way you handled said topic also counted. You couldn’t be called an emcee if you hadn’t mastered all forms of delivery and subject matter.

The ‘Shiny Suit’ or ‘Bling’ era changed all that.

In Nigeria, there was also a swiftly rising love of the art, with MC Smoke rhyming about a man who became abusive of his wife because he was poor on ‘Poverty’ (probably the first Nigerian Hip-hop record yours truly ever heard). There was also Junior (rest in peace) and Pretty who kept it simple but fresh and humorous, rhyming about Lagos girls (Monica), Pastor’s daughter (Bolanle) and well, oppression. And even though they handled their topics with healthy doses of humor, there was an underlying theme; a spirit if you will…

Freedom.

And then we had the SWAT Root, the Def-o-Clan, the Remedies, The Trybesmen, The Kalifate, Modenine who singlehandedly represented an entire generation of rappers and; according to Terry Tha Rapman ‘was in Lagos birthing a thousand emcees’. It was something to see back in the day at a show or after the show, emcees would gather in a circle and just do what they knew how to. You would have girls nodding as energetically as the guys – and it was never about the beat. It was the rhymes. Nothing else.

So what’s wrong with rap these days?

Nothing is really wrong with it; at least not in that sense of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’. But there’s something missing. It’s as though the biggest reason for getting on a record now is money – to make money. And while this is a good enough reason if you’re the creator, it’s a pretty lame one if you’re a consumer. The fact of it is, no matter how good it sounds, if it makes absolutely no sense it’s a failed project. It won’t last. 

Don’t get it twisted – it’s not always supposed to be ‘revolution’ or ‘fight the power’ – even rap knows how to have fun! The biggest issue is there are issues around, issues threatening the freedom and oneness of the people – AND NO ONE IS TALKING ABOUT THEM.

Who speaks for the man in the street who hardly gets any consideration? Who speaks for the poor and oppressed? Who speaks for the bomb blast victims – people who were just minding their businesses trying to get from one day to the next? Who cares?

What happened to all the lyricism? What happened to that ‘free spiritedness’ – that need to always say what is felt without fear or reserve? What happened to balance? Nobody’s saying ‘don’t have fun’ – but should music be all fun and games ALL the time? Having fun and partying while people are dying, while lives are being destroyed, while things are going from bad to worse is not the best yet. Why do you think Fela’s music remains eternal?

Balance is so necessary; balance is what keeps everything in check and smooth. Balance is what keeps the world moving…without order there can’t be chaos and vice versa. Can we just have some balance in our music? Can we just have fresh lyricists who don’t need a beat and half-naked girls to entertain and enthrall a crowd?

Can we just have rap music back?!

Thank you.

Seun Odukoya is the winner of the 2011 Chistell International Short Story competition. He fell in love with words early, thanks to parents who fed him novels and poetry books, which led to his discovery of the use of writing to best express himself.

He is currently working on a full-length romance novel alongside other short stories. He released his first book, a short story collection titled For Days and A Night (ebook) in December 2012. In 2011, he wrote the pilot for a TV series titled ‘Learning Curves’. In 2012 he wrote the story and co-wrote the screenplay for the movie of same series. In 2013, he wrote and co-produced a short film ‘Idle Chatter’.

Some of his greatest writing influences are Stephen King and Louis L’amour amongst a host of others. When he is not writing, he enjoys reading, watching movies and listening to music.

You can catch up with Seun and his writings at www.seunodukoya.wordpress.com; you can also follow him on twitter @seunodukoya.