THE hip-hop musical culture has come to stay, judging by the huge acceptance and acclaim it is currently enjoying with the youth.

Without doubt, the music would thrive better as an authentic genre if the young exponents are exposed to highlife and our various indigenous idioms. The examples of 9ice, Timaya and others have gone a long way in prescribing its fusion with Nigerian and African music as a desirable option for redefining the music and internationalising it.

However, this cultural orientation is difficult because our traditional forms such as apala, sakara, waka, dadakuada, awurebe among others, have disappeared from our musical menu. They seem to have suffered the same fate as highlife in terms of the inability of the younger generation to take over from the pioneering veterans and perpetuate the tradition.

Revival is currently posing a problem because, unlike highlife, some of whose veterans are still alive to bring about the much-needed promotion through concerts and live performances, almost all the pioneering traditionalists have gone to join their ancestors.

One way in which these traditional forms should have been exposed, promoted and kept alive would have been through special cultural festivals initiated by the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and National Orientation.

Actually, the various ministries of culture in all the states should have been mounting regular festivals to highlight their various musical cultures both for the preservation of the music itself, and the information of the younger generation whose outlook it needs to influence. Government has shirked this responsibility over the years and has allowed foreign idioms to infiltrate, dominate and overtake what is ours in an unrelenting manner.

Even if government decides now to promote this cultural idiom through concerts, it is too late because the musicians are no more.

Apala king, Haruna Ishola died in 1983, and before his demise, he promoted apala music to international level. While he lived, he influenced some followers who led various bands, and even after his death, some of them tried to keep their mentor’s spirit alive; but with time, it all fizzled out. However, his repertoire has been well documented and preserved on compact disc; and classical composition such as Inaran can still be enjoyed in their freshness and evergreen mould.

The same cannot be said about his counterpart, Ayinla Omowura. He emerged on the scene much later than Haruna in the 1970s, but he earned instant success with Danfo Osiere, and from 1971 till his demise in 1980, it was hit after hit. Even as his lay-in-state in 1980 was being observed, Ebi kii pagun dale, second to his last album, was enjoying immense popularity in the charts.

However, Ayinla Omowura is not enjoying the facility of being heard on compact disc today because EMI, the exclusive stable for which he recorded countless albums seems not to be enterprising and forthcoming enough to reissue his works.

It is a shame because in Ayinla’s music were folkloric melodies and philosophies propelled by the legion of percussion and polyrhythms. And with the volume of work he recorded, his family should have been smiling to the bank now from royalties, but that is not the case.

Awurebe music also filtered into the charts in 1981 through Dauda Epoakara, the music’s major exponent from Ibadan. Awurebe had great potential for crossing over to the popular music realm and was waiting for somebody to take it over and bring about the fusion that it badly needed. No one came to the rescue. Epoakara himself has since passed on.

The name of Ligali Makaiba has gone down as one of the most creative apala exponents on the scene because not only did he evolve rhythms that were delicate, oblivious of the fact, he evolved tempos and rhythms that bordered on unusual time signatures like 5/4 and 7/8. Besides, he sang with a falsetto voice that was wedded in the traditional blues idiom. Ligali Mukaiba’s works deserve to be reissued for this innovation.

But his works are all stuck between Decca West Africa, a multinational company and Shanu Olu, a Nigerian indigenous label, owned by Shanu Olu himself, a former sole distributor to Decca who, in the late 70’s built a studio at Ijebu Ode and recorded numerous local artistes. Ligali’s works may never be heard by this generation.

Batuli Alake set the pace for waka to thrive, but Salawa Abeni has since taken over and has tried to take waka music to contemporary level over the years. But from her efforts, which lack depth and imagination, it is obvious that the influences of such veterans as Batule Alake and S. Aragbada are absent. These two singers sang with emotion and great feeling, with compositions that were loaded with proverbs and great philosophy lyric wise. These great female musicians have been completely forgotten even though Batule Alake is still around and can still create waka music if she finds an interested sponsor.

Like a griot from the Sahel region, Yusuf Olatunji promoted and popularized sakara music with the goje as the major accompanying instrument. According to culture patriarch, Chief Segun Olusola, “Olatunji belongs to the core of artists who elevated Yoruba language and contributed to popular music, particularly sakara.”

Like Mamman Shatta, Yusuf Olatunji was a philosopher of high repute who used his music not merely for entertainment. Olusola also remarked, “Yusuf Olatunji’s major contribution centres on the socialization process among age groups, the age group system in Yoruba land and such social groups, which could be used to advance co-operative development”.

But thank goodness, all these qualities have gone unnoticed by this generation. Ogun State Government paid glowing tributes to him a few years ago with, among others things, the exhibition of his musical instruments, personal effects as well as musical clips in the form of tapes, records and films.

A public lecture on Traditional Music as an Instrument of Nation Building, and the place of music with emphasis on the examination of Olatunji’s musical genre was organised. Resource persons were drawn from the University of Ibadan, Obafemi Awolowo University, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, among others.

Even though a lot more is expected in this direction to give the process concrete meaning, this gesture gives one hope and joy that Olatunji is being remembered for his valuable contributions to our musical culture. This revival initiative should be happening in all the states on a regular bases to keep our musical culture alive.

But perhaps the most valuable of all these tributes is the effort made by Premier Music to capture and reissue his old works on compact disc. Towards this end, two CDs are standing in his name in the market. Entitled Evergreen Sakara Hit Collections Series 1 and 2, each one carries over 18 songs, spanning a long period from the 50’s to 70’s. Most of them are praise songs in keeping with Nigerian social music of this type, but even within this context, Olatunji was able to philosophise on the essence of life and living, including words of advice and exhortation, carefully woven to add value to the songs.

This valuable contribution is coming from a recording company, which means well for this musical culture and the late Olatunji himself, whose family would continue to enjoy royalties accruing from these reissued works.

However, government still has an important role to play. It cannot sponsor live concerts because these musicians are no more around. But what government can do is to compel the electronic media, especially radio, to emulate the example of Lagos State whose second channel is entirely devoted to the promotion of indigenous Nigerian music.

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