Reuben Abati Vs Banky W: A Must Read!

 
eldee, if i catch u ehn, ill whoze u

how far?

@Proudlynaija
You just pointed out another aspect of this whole issue
These two guys made so many solid points, it'll be shameful if they don't get printed in the dailies.
But as usual, young Nigerians are never listened to


Uncle, I dey ooh
How's the wife and grandchildren

I am very proud of you guys to have taken the time to respond to Abati article, but you shouldn't have resorted to calling him (Abati) names. He is a journalist of repute and might have made mistakes, it should have been strictly a literal exchange of facts like he did.

@Banky W's post
Wow!

I am very sure Abalti would be licking his wound by now. Abalti may choose to write an editorial on any topic, but then it has to be one that he has complete knowledge of. As far as  I am concerned, he has misfired here. He should be advised to focus his creative writing talents on topics that will earn him more respects in his field. Chi kena!!!!!

Dr. Reuben,
MI says
"if you are still sitting down you are on the long thin
We are the most incredible generation out of naija;

Eldee says
I got some stunna shades on
prada on my back
Louis on my feet
Gucci on my wrist

Im a Big Boy
they hate on me cos Im a Big Boy

Tori mo joko sinu Bentley
Porshce ati hummer
Lau lau spending
Pounds ati dollar

Im a Big Boy
they keep on hating on a Big Boy


Ajasa & 9ice say “
Ohun to ba wun anybody lo le fenu won so
……. E fi won sile, e je ko ma so lo
Orin yin ni o, e ma kolo
Bunibuni e buni, kaka ko sunmi nise lo ti ma dunsi


Dbanj also replies you that
Some people no wan make we grow
……….Olohun ma je o

Dr. though  you tried to make some sense but you got it all wrong with your style & point.
I like Banky post, direct confrontational without being disrespectful
Eldee post is disrespectful but like someone said, “if you cast aspersion on something I take my time to build, I will hit you back with the last blood in my vein.
Things had been bad since Abati’s generation and nothing has been done till date to reverse it for good.
Last note, some of our artists/musicians should take the +ve side of Abati’s write-up and take clue from Asa, 9ice, and others who still sing meaningfully.

Men thumb up to Eldee and Banky W, am so impressed not all naija artiste is like 2-Face who cant speak simple and correct english.
Ruben Abati should learn to ocncentrate his writings on serious national issues next time and leave our generation ALONE.

its a shame,
a journalist of his prowess should know the tricks of his trade
a man of his calliber should know not to drop cheap insults with unfounded sources
good job to banky n eldee

Article reproduced here.
This hip hop just won't stop
By Benson Idonije

THE hip-hop culture has become so profound and trendy, it appears to have taken over the contemporary music scene completely. At least it dominated the 2007 music scene in Nigeria, and there is nothing to indicate that this dominance will not prevail in 2008 and beyond. There is a justifiable reason for the music to flourish in America but it is difficult to adduce any tenable reason for its continued boom here and other African countries other than the desire for western acculturation and shameless imitation.

By nature and cultural essence, African musicians should be associated with 'black music'. This is the acquisition that currently opens doors for Manu Digango of Cameroon, Hugh Masekela of South Africa, Yossou N'dour of Senegal, Salif Keita of Mali and others on the international scene. These musicians started by exploring the possibilities of their immediate environment, the cultural value of that own music. They then took it to the next level by fusing it with foreign elements - to break through the global mainstream.

What is wrong with hip-hop as it is - is that instead of creating its first musical layer as a homegrown product which can then be fused with western elements, it is lifting the entire music in its original state from America. Even though African languages are utilised to articulate melodic lines, the struture of the music is essentially foreign and imitative. It does not matter if vocal delivery is in Pidgin English, Igbo, Yoruba, Swahili or Twi, the body of the music is western. It is not African and does not translate to the 'black music' that we are talking about.

'Black music' is always in a flux. That is its nature. Always progressing, developing, fusing, reverting and ceaselessly borrowing even from itself while the traditional music of other cultures remains alien, popular music consumers have readily accepted calypsos played by Ghanaians, rumbas played by a Congolese band or reggae from South Africa. They appeal to consumers because their melodic and progressive structures emerged from African music and not the other way round.

The hip hop that is being bandied about today cannot endure because the music is not predicated on African melodic themes and rhythms. They can only be temporarily popular here with the youth who are yearning for foreign musical idioms. The music cannot sell in America, it cannot endure.

Music is a global phenomenon, and an expression of culture. It should be able to sell anywhere in the world. Any musician whose music is not appreciated beyond his immediate environment has not started at all.

The hip hop culture is not only profound in Nigeria, it is popular in almost all the Anglophone and Francophone countries of Africa. The difference is that in East African and Ghana for example, hip-hop is created along the melodic theme of these countries - an element which recommends it to the outside world. In East Africa, hip hop is derived from folk songs that are buried in the people's culture. In Ghana, almost all the groups create hip-hop along highlife melodic sequences, most of which are rooted in Ghanaian folksongs. They sound musical because in the first place, the progressions are African and original. They select highlife themes not of the church hymnal melodic pattern but derivatives from African music as exemplified by its call-and-response pattern. The only element that gives them away as imitators is the mode of dressing and the stage performance which imitate the Americans.

It is sad to say that no artiste made any meaningful impact in 2007. It was hoped that musicians like Sunny Neji and Paul Play Dairo would explore the possibilities of 'black music' judging by their antecedents. Neji previously did Oruka which was hailed as a genuine hit. But because of the tremendous popularity and perhaps the fame and success of hip hoppers, he veered into imitative foreign music in 2007 to establish a split image for himself. He tried to sell Abosede as an R & B material to his fans?

Paul Play Dairo kept articulating imitative versions of rhythm and blues throughout the year. He probably was encouraged by the reaction of the youth, but he really should be growing and should be listening to comments and criticism from genuine critics who understand the intricacies of the scene.

Nigeria and the various African countries are borrowing hiphop from America, in an obviously imitative form but little do they understand that for the Americans, it is a child of circumstance, a musical expression and culture which were forced on them by prevailing circumstances. Unmusical though the music is, American hiphoppers should be commanded for inventing it - from nothing.

Imagine a whole generation of young, aspiring musicians who used to take their inspiration from live soul and Jazz music. Even though they did not end up playing jazz, their proximity to jazz clubs influenced and exposed them to elevated music. It influenced even the direction of their popular music inclinations. The jazz clubs suddenly disappeared - from the Village Gate, Jazz Corner, Village Vanguard - whose proximity to the ghettos helped a lot to influence the people. The jazz clubs moved to the big cities.

In addition, the cost of instruments skyrocketed so much that only rich people could buy saxophones, trumpets, keyboards and all. The children from poor parents in the ghettos certainly could not afford them. This situation forced the children to design their own instruments from turntables, sound buzzes and all- as contrived instruments. And of course, being intelligent kids who could think - they designed poetic lines as their melodic themes - to suit the music. It used to be a violent musical culture, but all that is becoming a thing of the past. Sanity is gradually creeping into the music.

On the other hand, Nigerians and Africans are hooked on to hip hop because of a colonial mentality which tends to look up to the Western world for setting the pace. Besides, the media in these countries are not promoting the music of their fatherlands, thereby allowing the youth to look up to the well-promoted and documented west for their heroes.


AHH Rejoinder

Dear Madam/Sir,
I want to believe a media outfit of your standing will be in a position to employ profesional journalists who would do a thorough job of research before writing an article, and your editor would be so kind as to do her/his job and "edit" any piece of information that is not "True". For conscience is nutured by truth I beleieve. I hope the case is not otherwise, though I am tempted to believe it is true, when I read a publication in your paper on the 18th of January 2008 by Benson Idonijie, unaptly titled "This Hip Hop just won't stop".
The article, which was under the Friday Review column, sported two pictures. One of P square and another of D banj and Tony Tetuila, all of whom are notable Nigerian "singers". Please note that i stressed the word singers. This is but one of the numerous erroneous mistakes Mr. Idonijie made. In case he did not know, Hip Hop is not just a genre of music, it is a culture, an art form. It basically has four elements that can classify any work of art as Hip Hop. These elemesnts include DJing(also called disc jockeying), MCing(also called Microphone checking or Rapping), Graphology also known as graffitti writing but with an occassional political or protestant twist and last but not the least, B-boying commonly called breakdancing. Needless to say the above artists potray none of these elements in their music or any other form of entertainment they perfrom.
If Mr. Idonijie thinks Hip Hop is just some slap-dash haph-hazard put-toghether by the oppressed and uneducated blacks in the US, he should respectfully take a look at websites such as http://www.soundclick.com or http://www.africanhiphop.com(on which I happen to be an Administrator), if possible Google the word Hip Hop and any of it's four elements. There he will see the true face of Hip Hop and not try to pass off, like the commonly mistaken lay man, the insult that says singers are Hip Hop acts.
There were numerous mistakes in his article, all of them personally insulting to me as veteran adherent of Hip Hop(I have been practicing this culture since I was 9 years old) and a gross mistake on the part of an African journalist talking about something that is essentially African, albeit started by Afro-americans, for him not to do his work well and find out the ture roots of Hip Hop and what it entails is by far unimpressive.
I was very happy, initially, to see that someone had given Hip Hop a home again in Nigeria. So much so as to publish an article about the art form, only for me to read the article and come across heart-rending blunders that paint Hip Hop in the poorest of lights. The culture is strong an survivng in the US but is coming under a lot of criticisms because of people who try to warp the mentality of the publ;ic by making any kind of uncouth music and calling it HIp Hop, which is part of the reason why I belive Mr. Idonijie and many others see Hip Hop as it actually is not.
A notable Hip Hop act, Nasir "Nas" Jones titled his 2007 album "Hip Hop is dead" because of the light in which Hip Hop is now potrayed and for the fact that the true tenets of Hip Hop which were once espoused by great minds like DJ Kool Herc, KRS-One, Rakim, African bambaata, Run DMC, Jam master Jay(RIP) and so many others, are no longer seen in the vast majority of people who claim to be Hip Hopers. In America this is the case but not so in Africa which looks to be the next home of Hip Hop, infact it's rightful home. So instead of tarnishing and insulting the blood, sweat, tears, achievements and even lives of those who have propagated true Hip Hop, he should instead try and give a supporting arm to something that has inspired young blacks the world over that our race can actually create something from seeming nothing. He should not let the media glitz of the silver screen which seems to be polluting everything from blinding him to the true beauty of this culture.
To him and all others yet to encounter true Hip Hop, listen to the street corners, classrooms, university dormitories and hallways, basements, studio booths and numerous other places where solitary black minds contrive what man has never before encountered. A universal culture.

Yours sincerely,
Nurudeen "Guru" Osai

dats your proof!

Banky had always scored a -20 with me but his response kinda of raised him to -2,  very articulate.

I thot ElDee was unecessarily rude,  Banky had more points and didn't have to be rude to get them across.

I think Abati had a point or two, but didn't communicate it/ them well,  culture is getting lost and while some of us would like to hold on to it, times are changing. I was listening to Chinese radio the other day and they were rapping in Chinese. Mexicans are rapping in Spanish,  it's all part of the change necessary for growth. We can't hold on to before or now forever. As for the sagging, earrings, and excessive "fune", that's taking the "change" too far, 

Did anyone see this as well?

http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/guest-articles/a-nations-identity-crisis-a-rejo.html

How old is this Mr Abati sef?? somebody said he's young.

I'm not surprised Banky was so articulate,but I'm impressed by his control of diction and syntax,however,the same cannot,unfortunately be said of Eldee,whose response was very shallow devoid of valid points,his anger and immaturity got the better of him;a grammatical neophyte will pooh-pooh his submission in a heartbeat

That said,I eagerly await 9ice'e response,I'm sure he'll do better than  Banky  

@ Mr Abati

You had some salient points no doubt(as most of what some so-called artistes dish out these days are so crappy,bereft of meaning and undeserving of any serious attention),but you showed a kind of extreme disdain for the artistic identities and preferences of our present day artistes,without taking a lot of factors into consideration,you appeared to talk down to your target artistes in your write up,and exhibited neither tact nor diplomacy therein .Is it the many name spelling errors?I guess you tried too hard to lump so many sub heads into your editorial write up and ended up with a journalistic howler.

I suggest you do a RE and set the records straight as some of us regard you too highly to now assess you based on that write up

Bros,I still hail

I thought Eldee's response was appropriate tbh. Banky w's was great though