Nigerian rap culture is boring and weak
Nigerian rappers chase pop stars in the race for endorsements, and fat cheques neglecting the culture that encouraged them to be great.
What is rap music in Nigeria? Yes I know we have hit rap singles, and award winning rap albums in the country. What I really want to know is where is the rap culture? Surely rap should be more than releasing singles, shooting expensive videos, and dropping albums.
It seems that in the Nigerian context these are what rappers do, perfunctory items on their to-do-list to cross off so that they can get closer to that fat cheque. Browse through TV stations, and you are more than likely to catch more than a few Naija rap videos on rotation. That's all good, but what is the state of the rap culture (Hip-Hop culture) in the country? Probably at the same place it was a decade ago.
Sure, you can argue that this rapper has an endorsement, that rapper has the hottest album in the country, but whatever the achievements made by rappers within the last decade, they have been individualistic and not collectively.
It has gotten to the point where it must be said, Nigerian rap is boring and weak. It is not a movement, it is not a culture, it is not a collective ideological association of young people to challenge the status quo of the system.
Rap in Nigeria is too splintered, too small to have a true effect on pop culture, and challenge the establishment in the country. It is limp and fragile for it to be the voice of the disenfranchised Nigerian youth. Along the way rappers have found themselves in bed with the same system that has ripped this country of its greatness.
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