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| NOLLYWOODTIMES OPINION: We plead that this violence in Nigerian music be stopped, this is to our talented artists |
As fans, we can feel that creative competition all over the tracks on some our favourite artistes. When this happens, everyone benefits. Competition pushes the artiste to do more in the booth and the fans end up enjoying great music.
This doesn't happen all the time. Sometimes the competition and tension morph into violence. It spills beyond the music and lands on the streets causing chaos.
On Wizkid’s debut album, Superstar, track two was a song titled, ‘No Lele.’ While the percussion gymnastics which began the song stole our hearts before the song even started, his first words were, “Ojuelegba, Shitta, ask your sister, my music travel no visa…”
As the son of Alhaji Balogun, he grew up in the Ojuelegba-Surulere area of Lagos, in Surulere Local Government. That area is known for its low-income feature and inner-city aesthetics, not necessarily about poverty, but an ace dwelling place for the lower middle class Nigerian.
Shitta is one of the most popular places in Surulere and its environment. It’s affectionately called, ‘Small London’ by its dwellers. Hood loyalty is popular amongst artists across the world because where you grew up is definitely a part of your identity and fabric that make you up.
Earlier a man identified as Shoki Shitta caught the attentin of the infamous Instablog 9ja for saying that Shitta is now ruled by Nigerian pop star Davido and not Wizkid who is regarded as a son of the soil.
Days later a video of Shoki Shitta being physically assaulted by men alleged to be Wizkid loyalists made the rounds on social media.
The whole incident has spiralled into something uglier, with the police arresting the man alleged to have masterminded the beatdown.
Opinion
When a huge person comes off low-income hoods like that, where major world class success is a distant dream, the achievers of those major successes are treated like gods by the regular people. The loyalty, affection and esteem those dwellers have to their hood get transferred to the achievers of that level of success.
They become a focal point and loyalty binds all of them. In other situations, it’s also about what they can get from those few successes.
Even though he is out of the hood, Wizkid still idolizes and recognizes his roots on smash hits like the ode, ‘Ojuelegba’ and the Runtown feature, ‘Lagos To Kampala.’
Let's end the violence
The issue of hood loyalty might be normal, but an endorsement of anything as a norm does not equate rightness. If it’s wrong, it’s wrong. In this case, it’s wrong.
Some bloody rivalries in Hip-Hop from America to Latin America have started over less, even with the rappers ignorant of what their fans were doing to each other.
With the way Shoki Shitta matter is unfolding, the problem of simple ego trips could boil over into full-on beef.
The fact that we implicitly or explicitly endorse violence in music – in any anyway – is disturbing as a way to settle any kinds of disputes. Violence should seriously not be a way to settle dispute.
Violence serves no reasonable purpose either to address disrespect from fans, or to settle differences with other celebrities. Nigerian artists need to realize that in the grand scheme of things, they have the most to lose if the violence escalates.
Being happy at the violence unleashed on anybody – either a critic or a rival – shouldn’t be a part of Nigerian music.
The country is bad enough, the government significantly erodes freedom of speech. Yet, it’s funny how artists who criticize the government for this or that are the same people who endorse violence as the default response to criticism – it’s hypocrisy.
Even when you get disrespected, violence should not be your response. I hope not to loose lives for the sake of this two parties.
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