Wednesday, August 27, 2014

M.I: RETURN OF THE KING

“Call me king James/ The Lebron of verses/ Me versus you is worthless/I am he whom all rappers worship.... “

I remember back then when we were always nodding our heads to American hip hop never believing we would see something worth listening to out of Nigeria in terms of rap, not that Nigeria has not had its own share of rap/hip hop acts. Between the 80’s and 90’s, we’ve had acts such as Sound on Sound, Emphasis, Junior & Pretty, Weird MC, Baba Dee, Zakki, Cashman Davies, Seyi Shodimu and a host of others.

The late 90’s saw the emergence of Trybesmen, Ruff, Rugged & Raw, Maintain, Blackface (Plantashun Boiz), Eedris Abdulkareem (Remedies), Big Lo, Terry Da Rapman, Mode Nine, Lord of Ajasa and so on. These guys were the people who laid the foundation of what we know as hip hop in Nigeria today. The turning point for Nigerian hip hop was brought about in 2002 when Ruggedman came out with a diss track “Ehen Pt1” where he called out a couple of rappers and termed them “wack”. The song was widely accepted by the public because prior to then, songs by these acts were lacking greatly in aspect of “lyrical content”. This singular action birthed the much needed reform in the industry with young cats such as M.I, Naeto C, Da Grin, Ikechukwu, Jesse Jagz, Godwon, Yung6ix, Vector thaviper, Eva Alordiah, Sasha, Sinzu, Ill Bliss etc churning out dope songs.




This was the period when I saw it fit to nod my head to Nigerian hip hop with the emergence of the short black one Jude M.I Abaga also know as Mr. Incredible. His debut album “M.I: Talk About It” set the standard for others to emulate when making rap music. The moment I heard his songs, I was hooked to his style, use of metaphorical expressions, punchlines and word play.

Since then he has released 2 mixtapes (Illegal music 1&2) and a 2nd album, M.I 2. Since after the release of his 2nd album, M.I has been quiet for some time appearing in featured songs and dropping a couple of singles while at the same time running Loopy Music and handling affairs as Choc City VP.

The Chairman, after a long hiatus from the main scene marked his return to the African Hip Hop arena in a major way last week with the release of his single “King James”. The most outstanding feature of the release was that it was premiered simultaneously by 70 radio stations in Nigeria and South Africa, something no artist in Africa has ever done.

Now I can comfortably plug my earpiece into my ear and nod my head to serious Hip hop because the King is back and he is no other person but “King M.I Abaga” himself.

"Please take note that these are the unrepentant opinion of the author unless otherwise stated and borrowed opinions and ideas will be duly credited to the opinionist or ideologist. Share YOUR comments and opinions below."

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