Hip hopping cultural barriers

                                                         Till the late 1990s, no other genre of music from Nigeria crossed cultural barriers into the international scene except those defined as world music category. Musicians that fit into this category include King Sunny Ade and Femi Kuti, who both earned Grammy Awards nominations for their efforts as Juju music and Afrobeat exponents, respectively.

It is even more surprising that King Sunny Ade’s Grammy Award nomination in 1998, which he earned for recording Odu, came his way at a period when his star was dimming and while there are scores youthful rave making acts on the Nigerian music scene.

Following what was termed Sunny Ade’s phenomenal nomination, industry watchers and analysts were generous with praise for his genius. They also did not fail to use the opportunity to exhort youthful upcoming artistes to embrace a paradigm shift from hip hop to indigenous genres such as Juju music, Highlife, Apala and Agidigbo, among others.
Femi Kuti’s nomination five years later in the same world beat category for his album, Fight to Win seem to further impress it on bookmakers that it is only artistes that remain true to indigenous traditions that can attain relevance and recognition on the international scene.   

Dateline 2003: Afro hip hop cannot fly
No less personality than Kayode Samuel, CEO of United Kingdom based Eko Star Records and Orits Wiliki, a former vice president of Performing Musicians Employers Association of Nigeria, expressed similar reservations about the prospects of the teeming Nigerian youths doing hip hop, during separate interviews in 2003.

Samuel’s fear was informed by what he described as his experience as an artiste and music promoter in the United Kingdom . Kayode Samuel who presently manages Afrobeat great, Tony Allen, believes that music connoisseurs in Europe and America find it easy to identify with African musicians doing original African music.

In his view, they care very little about copycats who rehash or repackage Western genres under the guise of doing idioms such Afro hip hop, in the name of doing music. Citing the phenomenal success recorded by artistes doing music original to Africa, such as Manu Dibango and Angelique Kidjo, as example, Samuel expressed no faith in the future of Afro hip hop.   

Though he resides in Nigeria , Orits Wiliki shared the same view point with the Eko Star Record boss. He pontificated that hip hop is not original to Nigeria and that Nigerians cannot outclass the Americans and Europeans, when it comes to delivering the genre. Homegrown acts doing hip hop can only be second bests, after the Americans and Europeans because of the limitation posed by their poor accents, according to Wiliki.

Orits Wiliki also noted that even on the home turf, our youths doing hip hop could not even outclass their foreign counterparts as far as record sales are concerned. He revealed that foreign hip hop albums continue to sell more than the works of our local artistes doing the same genre because foreign hip hop acts remain the first choice of hip hop fans in the country.
Blame it on the industry

Youthful acts doing hip hop in the country were however determined to have their way. Doggedly they continued to pursue a career in the hip hop genre, not believing that their American and European counterparts are better off. Local acts believe that they are victims of a harsh environment, where the entertainment industry is ebbing.

While some blame their inability to churn out hits on the dearth of record labels and prevalence of piracy in the country, others blame the electronic media for showcasing foreign artistes more. This may not be far from the truth, since foreign music dominated the airwaves both on television and radio across the country till the early 2000s.

It was not until music video programmes committed to showcasing homegrown talents, such as Music Africa were replicated by independent producers in the early 2000s, that a lot of local talents got heard. However, many of the music videos on air were of very low production quality, since it was solely financed by the artistes.

For instance, the rave making group Styl Plus adopted the Do-It-Yourself strategy to all facets of their career from recording to distributions, marketing and promotions. If they were lucky to make it big without a recording contract and great media support, many others have not been so lucky.

Enter MTV Base
Though homegrown talents doing hip hop on the local scene namely Tony Tetuila earned national and regional acclaim for hit songs such as My Car, hip hop in Nigeria received a major boost with the launch of 24-hour video music network, MTV Base.

Launched in February 2005, MTV Base is a pan-African music TV channel serving 48 countries in sub-Saharan Africa . It is also viewed in Europe . The launch of MTV Base made the difference in the career of talented youthful acts in the country, opening for them a new vista of opportunity.

Former Plantashun Boiz crooner, Tu Face Idibia is the foremost beneficiary of the leverage given our local talents by MTV Base. Today, he is one homegrown exponent of Afro hip hop that has successfully crossed cultural barriers into Western consciousness. An MTV Base ambassador on the continent, Tu Face is one of the most successful artistes the country has produced on the international scene, in the recent.

He has proved those who believe that Nigerian hip hop acts would not fare well on the international scene wrong. He has not only earned acclaim, Tu Face has picked up prestigious international musical awards such as two Channel O music Awards, Best African Act at the Music of Black Origin Awards, Best African act of MTV Europe Awards and the Revelation of he Year 2005 at the Kora Awards (beating world acclaimed Akon to the prize). Crowning it all was the choice of African Queen, his hit track as soundtrack of Phat Girlz, a Hollywood movie.