Last night, i stumbled upon these tweets btw 9ice and a fan on my timeline. Graphic details below;

Is there any anytin like twittershop?
But actually he has lost place because d 9ice we used 2 knw sings 4 all nigerians (e.g. Street credibilty), but nw he only sings 4 yoruba audience. WTF is Gbamu Gbamu?

He didn't admit anything. He only listened to a concerned fan and asked for an opinion.

I still think BGV was awesome.

Series22: Is there any anytin like twittershop?
But actually he has lost place because d 9ice we used 2 knw sings 4 all nigerians (e.g. Street credibilty), but nw he only sings 4 yoruba audience. WTF is Gbamu Gbamu?

You hit the nail on the head there. Any naija musician that goes too tribal with his lyrics does so at his own peril. To do that, your song has to be very unique with killer beats and an infectious hook (eg gongaso, ashawo rmx, pakurumo). You have to decide wether you want to " represent " your tribe(who will abandon when u fade anyway) or if u want to make music that all nigerians ( and other africans) will understand and enjoy.

I don't think Nigerians need to sing in a language common to all tribes. Osadebe and Fela are celebrated world wide, including in the US, and a lot of people don't understand what they sang. A lot of Flavour's songs are in deep Igbo but he's celebrated all over Africa. Ask an Angolan wetin Flavour dey sing. They'll tell you "I don't know but he's Mr. Sawa Sawa". When people hear good music, they'll listen to it irrespective of language barrier.

If I'm wrong, then tell me why "Gangnam Style" don take over the world lol. If a Korean song can cross nations, then there's no reason why Nigerian music can't cross tribes.

ogugua88: I don't think Nigerians need to sing in a language common to all tribes. Osadebe and Fela are celebrated world wide, including in the US, and a lot of people don't understand what they sang. A lot of Flavour's songs are in deep Igbo but he's celebrated all over Africa. Ask an Angolan wetin Flavour dey sing. They'll tell you "I don't know but he's Mr. Sawa Sawa". When people hear good music, they'll listen to it irrespective of language barrier.

If I'm wrong, then tell me why "Gangnam Style" don take over the world lol. If a Korean song can cross nations, then there's no reason why Nigerian music can't cross tribes.

You are missing the point here. Osadebe sang highlife music and fela did a genre of afrobeat that is totally different from the "afrobeat" of psquare and wizkid. Besides, fela didn't go too tribal with his lyric as most of his popular songs carried a lot of pigeon English in the lyric and narative (zombie, lady etc). Also a sizeable amount of fela's popularity was down to his activism, his lifestyle and the antics of his live shows.

If u want to be a traditional, Fuji, juju or highlife musician, then be so and sing in the language that goes best with it and you'll be respected for your uniqueness and originality(and would probably be given a title in your tribe and perform in loads of parties, and with the right people behind u, go international). On the other hand, if u want to be a "commercial afrobeat musician", then u have to appeal to the masses. What do dbanj, p square, wizkid, tuface all have in common? They keep it urban and don't go too tribal.

And please don't start me off on gangam style. You know its a one off just like macarena and Les ketchup before it. No wonder they paired him up with MC hammer to perform in a recent award show; and he didn't get the irony of it?!

basher:

You are missing the point here. Osadebe sang highlife music and fela did a genre of afrobeat that is totally different from the "afrobeat" of psquare and wizkid. Besides, fela didn't go too tribal with his lyric as most of his popular songs carried a lot of pigeon English in the lyric and narative (zombie, lady etc). Also a sizeable amount of fela's popularity was down to his activism, his lifestyle and the antics of his live shows.

If u want to be a traditional, Fuji, juju or highlife musician, then be so and sing in the language that goes best with it and you'll be respected for your uniqueness and originality(and would probably be given a title in your tribe and perform in loads of parties, and with the right people behind u, go international). On the other hand, if u want to be a "commercial afrobeat musician", then u have to appeal to the masses. What do dbanj, p square, wizkid, tuface all have in common? They keep it urban and don't go too tribal.

And please don't start me off on gangam style. You know its a one off just like macarena and Les ketchup before it. No wonder they paired him up with MC hammer to perform in a recent award show; and he didn't get the irony of it?!

your father must b a professional carpenter.. because u just hit d nail on d head.

Series22: your father must b a professional carpenter.. because u just hit d nail on d head.

Lol! Him hit the nail so tay him hammer him finger join.