 |
| Fela |
Some were simply unimpressed; they felt Falz had borrowed too much from Fela’s artistry and “hypocrisy” that they felt he had lost originality. A small percentage of this class also placed the onus of solutions provision on Falz, despite the project simply being a music album and not a master's thesis.
While for me, the criticisms from these supposed ‘music heads’ seemed confused comments, stemming from a need to pointlessly stand out from the crowd that celebrated this masterful art, it was also instructive that these critics hounded M.I. Abaga’s album, “Yxng Dxnzl: A Study on Self-Worth,” for having what they now criticize “Moral Instruction” for – they seem confused and on an aimless crusade to be seen an harsh arbiters of excellence.
The problem, however, didn’t stop there. It continued when these supposed critics offered what seemed like a monopoly on how the legacy of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti could or could not go. Asides the fact that their criticism on how Falz channeled Fela did not really have a creative direction, they seemed to channel some innate hate for Falz into whatever called a review of his music or his artistry.
All day long, these same critics cry for music with substance. Now they have music with substance. Yet, all they want to do is pan and hound whatever should be critically acclaimed, not just by the dire standards of Nigerian music, but for whatever good music is meant to represent by contemporary standards. At this time, the accusations on Falz’s supposed misogyny are simply misguided.
What exactly do these critics want? What exactly is bad about mirroring Fela in these contemporary times?
Great artists leave blueprints on the sands of time for others to follow. Whatever your woke reservations are towards Fela, you will only deny his greatness at your own peril. Fela is Nigeria’s greatest ever music maker by any or a cumulative of whatever metrics you want to go by.
Fela is not just a music maker either, the other is the very explicit Yoruba speaking musician-activist, Ologundudu, but Fela is the most potent socio-political colossus in Nigerian music history.
Whatever reservations you have towards Fela that makes you call him ‘hypocrite,’ or ‘self-righteous,’ because of imperfections in his personal life, despite being a strong political critic doesn’t negate or water down those political critiques are pointless.
I’m sure some of these music critics were against Nigerian politicians who tried to use Tuface’s personal life issues to discredit him in the face of that planned protest a few years ago. Is that not hypocrisy?
Why then could you make exceptions there and not keep the same energy for Fela. Asides these complexities, on a scale of importance, whatever personal life battles Fela created or confronted in his personal life, they are very minute in the face of socio-political issues he confronted and gained global support for.
How then can you without proof just paste Falz with the ‘pretentious’ poster of lazy journalism? You can do better.
Asides that, with the knowledge of Fela, and his legacy, whichever artist threads the socio-political commentary path will definitely be linked to Fela. We live in a world where people pointlessly called Wizkid ‘the new Fela’ because his single, Ojuelegba became a subject of global attention.
Or are these critics simply saying that people should not make music about socio-political issues to avoid being linked to Fela? Like it or not, the problems and people Fela sang about still confront us today and yet, we sleep and allow ourselves to be muted.
We have internalized these problems and do not realize Nigeria continues to battle the same cancer since independence and worse, since the madness of FESTAC ’77.
“Moral Instruction” exemplifies how to sample Fela. People have made music like Michael Jackson; Prince; and other musicians through history. Does that means they want to be like James Brown?
James Brown is the most sampled soul singer in the history of Hip-Hop. Does that mean rappers want to make soul music? Yes, Falz might have conceived “Moral Instruction” with Fela in mind, but is there really a problem with keeping the legacy of Nigeria’s greatest artist ever alive especially when we still battle the same problems and people he sang about?
Music critics have a responsibility to report the music as it is. Wanting the avant-garde privilege of standing alone or using personal issues for vendetta against the music for cheap mudslinging should be out of the question.
At this time, it seems the bulk of criticism against “Moral Instruction” is misguided and without thought, like most criticism related to Fela – which is a topic for another day. There is pattern - it seems woke music critics just want to pan anything related to Fela.
For now, we need to do better than we currently are. Asides that, we need to walk better lines and deliver better work.
In This Story: #Fela # music #Falz
Sharing is caring. Share this story
No comments:
Post a Comment