Poor music lyrics: a short critique

Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song, usually consisting of choruses and verses(wikipedia).

There is this general perception that musicians these days do not give much attention to the lyrical contents of their songs resulting in poor song lyrics. Most people do not listen to wordings of songs either, they only dance along to the beats, if the beat is catchy and rhythmic we say the song is good. A couple of people were discussing this issue in an online forum and most of them were of the view that music lyrics nowadays has deteriorated to the extent that good and meaningful lyrics are hard to come by. Someone even said that if you want to listen to a song with 100% meaningful lyrics you should listen to only gospel songs.

Musicians sing what people want to listen to, there are no two ways about it. If people don’t like their songs they won”t listen to them or buy their albums and we all know millions of copies of music albums are sold yearly. A general trend that has been noticed in contemporary songs is the flaunting of wealth, sex, drugs and alcohol. Western hiphop and rap artists are the major culprits when it comes to lewd lyrics, artists like lil wayne, eminem, rihanna, drake, 2chainz, nicki minaj, kanye west, rick ross, juicy j, lil kim etc hold sway.


Nigerian musicians copy these foreign artists (naija no dey carry last) and sometimes outdo them in the process. A typical naija music video must have scenes of semi nude girls dancing while well dressed guys sing (by the way why is wande coal trying so hard to potray nudity in his latest videos?)….well, they say sex sells in the “21stst century. You hear lyrics like “my money and your money no be mate”, “from lagos to london she shake her bum bum”, “make i knack you akpako” etc (i am not knocking anybody”s hustle o). Not all Nigerian musicians are in that category, there are some of them who actually take time to work on the content of their lyrics. We have Asa, Darey art alade, Tuface (yes he is now matured), Timi dakolo, Mode 9 etc in this category. I must give props to all Nigerian musicians, most of them started from zero level, today they are at the top.

I so much love (no homo) and respect for the late Michael Jackson. He was a consummate artist and this reflected in all his songs. From “billie jean”, “smooth criminal”, “man in the mirror” to “heal the world” etc his lyrics were always apt and on point no matter the genre of music he was singing.

Music lyrics have a way of sinking deep into our minds and altering our thoughts. Each song carries a message that the singer is trying to pass on. I guess you have watched a certain video where chris brown”s song “fallen angel” was critically analyzed and he was accused of being a member of the illuminati sect and passing across satanic messages in his songs. This allegation may be true or it may be a deliberate falsehood agenda against brown (chris brown is an awesome r&b singer) but the point here is that lyrics convey one message or the other. Are you feeling sad or depressed, slot in a "feel good"dance hall song or a good gospel music disc into your music player and notice how your mood changes.
 
Our music artists need to raise up the standard of their lyrics, a good quality song should come with good lyrics, fans should demand this. We need to have a balance so that when a Timaya chants

“fun mi doggy/fun mi doggy…baby girl do the dutty/make me want to ejaculating”

a Tuface will be on the other side chanting
            
"young man, be careful and think it twice/before you choose to use your device/
so you don’t have raindrops falling from your eyes when you see a blessing in disguise".

The Nscdc website interview

There has been a buzz this week on the internet over the interview of the Lagos  state commandant of Nigerian security and civil defence corps (nscdc) on “sunrise daily” a channels television breakfast show. The interview was on Job racketeering in government ministries, departments and agencies. The buzz has to do with the video clip of  a part of the show where  the commandant was asked to mention the official website of  his organisation. The video was posted on Youtube and has since gone viral. The video is both hilarious and shocking. I got the video from a friend who sent me a download link on blackberry messenger. If you have not watched it, look for a means and watch it, i tell you the video is extremely hilarious! If not for the background and setting of the video you will think you are watching an Ay live comedy clip.

Here is the transcript of the video

Male interviewer: What is the website of the nscdc?

Nscdc official: the website of nscdc? yes..no…i cannot categorically tell you one now because the one…..

Male interviewer(cuts in): you have multiple websites?

Nscdc official: the one we are going to make use of,  i am not the one that is going to …

Male interviewer: you see the question is “what is your website?”

Nscdc official(cuts in): wait…waiti…the one we are going to make use of is going to be made known by my oga at the top(points index finger upwards)  yes, i can”t announce one now and my oga says its another one that we are going to use

Female interviewer(cuts in): so the nscdc has multiple websites?

Nscdc official: the something is…we cannot have multiple websites but the one that my oga will want….

Male & female interviewer(cuts in together): no, no it is not the one for employment. What is your website now? The one you use normally, the official website. If you want to know more about the nscdc what website do you go to?

Nscdc official: ok..if you want to know more about nscdc as at now?

Female interviewer: exactly

Nscdc official: ok…www.nscdc. Yes…so (clears throat….short pause) that”s all

Female interviewer: www.nscdc?

Nscdc official: yes www.nscdc

Male interviewer(exclaims): that”s it?

Clip ends....

Pure comedy! Obviously the commandant does not know the official website of the nscdc and he thinks the term “my oga” is a good substitute for “my boss” in an official setting, this smacks of gross incompetence. I believe this video has once again brought to our consciousness the kind of officials that we have manning sensitive positions in this country while qualified youths walk the streets wallowing in unemployment. The officer belongs to the generation of government officials that need to be eased out of the system. Unfortunately these are the people that are holding on to the reins of power in this country and won”t be leaving anytime soon.

By the way, if you were the official what would you have said/done in such a situation to save face?.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog. There is this saying by an anonymous writer that the best way to get something done is to begin. One of my goals of 2013 is to start writing again and so i have decided to take the bull by the horn and stop procrastinating. Reading opens up your imagination and when your mind opens up you will need a medium to put down what you have seen, this is just an online medium. I will be writing on everyday issues and topics, news, entertainment etc . You are welcome on board this blog, let”s take a journey into the world of imagination and reality.