Realness: A rapper’s perspective

A full grasp of an understanding of the word ‘real’ has proved evasive to man in every

sphere of life across the centuries. This is not because the definition of the word is itself

ambiguous as the Longman dictionary clearly defines it as “Not imagined...actually

existing...not pretended...” Sincerely, definitions hardly get any simpler or clear-cut.

Economist have obviously also had run-ins among themselves over the realness of the thing

they love the most...money. No wonder they have clearly defined the real value of money as

what it can buy. While in secondary school, we jokingly described the real owners of our

properties as the people who stole them ended up using it. It should therefore come as no

surprise that players in the music industry (rap to be precise) have decided it is their turn to

thrash out who was real or not with yardsticks they hope are clear enough...or are they?

Rap maestros like Talib Kweli in U.S.A have criticized other rappers who only talk

about drugs, sex and violence in their lyrics all in a bid to sell out. Likewise in Nigeria, Mode

9 has heavily criticized his fellow colleagues who only go all out to make party tracks and rap

in Pidgin English (among other ‘sins’) in a bid to make money off their records. These

‘sinners’ according to Mode 9 and Talib are not ‘real to the game’. Their arguments raise up

questions like dust, two of which are outlined below;

1. Is music (rap in particular) an art which has stringent laws guiding its production?

2. Or is it simply a mode of

entertainment, from which its

makers make money, and

hence not requiring any

real talent?

The following paragraphs

give my opinion of what

an appropriate answer to the

questions posed above

should look like.

Music is indeed a

genre of art, and anybody

with an I.Q higher than

30(below which a person

is assumed to be mentally

retarded) should have

figured that out. After all,

musicians are often referred

to as artists. However, art is a highly subjective field with no clear cut rules. This is the

major distinguishing factor between science and art. When science says the

acceleration due to the gravity of the Earth is approximately 9.8m/s, there is no

dissent because that is a natural fact. But if I was to say that outside the boundaries

of time and space, Soyinka is a better writer than Shakespeare or Dickens, I’m sure

some people may beg to differ even though others might ask how anybody could ever

think otherwise. If this is this case, considering the realization that music is art, isn’t

it silly for one rapper to say another rapper is not ‘doing it right?’ as there are no

textbooks that define the characteristics of the idle rap song, does it not appear that

everyone is free to express himself in rap the way he deems fit? Nevertheless, before

anyone begins to casts ballot on whether I’m a Mode 9 or Ruggedman fan, maybe we

should go on to the end of this piece.

The 2

so you can pay your bills. Nelly (of St Lunatics) answered this question years ago on

an interview on MTV. He said that as far as he was concerned, he was simply making

music people could enjoy and was not a bit interested in the ‘real thing’. Must I

mention the millions of dollars he has made out of music in the course of this his

quest? After all, even those who claim to be ‘keeping it real’ might not admit it but

this slogan of theirs might as well be their own unique selling point. I say this

because I have friends who listen to only rappers like Lupe Fiasco because they

argue that he’s one of the few ‘doing it right’. Has this not become a marketing

strategy for him? Some people say that these so called underground rappers have

failed to accept the reality that rap has evolved (like everything else) from what it

used to be to the flossing and bling-bling rap that has made dudes like Jay-z one of

the richest men alive, and left guys like Nas (No offence intended) scuttling to Jigga

for a record deal.

This however does not give jobless people the right to redefine rap music as a

marriage of beats and nonsensical lyrics sung by ex-convicts because talents are

required to make a sensible or at least enjoyable rap song. Even as a medical

student, the first time I heard the word ‘halitosis’ was when OD (a rapper) said in one

of his lines that “...you can’t talk to me, u’ve got halitosis” Halitosis, by the way is a

medical condition that makes its sufferers constantly have mouth odour. As a matter

of fact, one of the commonest feature of the first rappers were the wits they employed

in their use of puns (or punch lines) and construction of rhymes (I hope wack M.C’s

are beginning to consider ‘juju’ or ‘Fuji’ music)

Ruggedman once remarked in his lines that if you say by speaking in his

mother tongue or pidgin English he was not ‘being real’, then as a Nigerian, what

more could he do to be real? Ironically, when Wyclef came to Nigeria, he advised

Nigerian rappers to rap in their mother tongues if they wanted to stand out among

the millions of English rappers already abroad. Therefore, when next you go to Alaba

market to pick up an album, carefully ask yourself these questions: Do you want to

listen to intelligent lyrics or do you want to simply bop your head to the beat and

party because it appears that at the end of the day, the entire idea of what’s real or

not lies in between our ears...in our headsnd question asks whether music is simply a means of entertaining people

19-02-08 1.20 pm