Nigerian rap culture is boring and weak

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.

In the African nations of Burkina Faso, and Tunisia, rappers were behind the revolutions. Smokey (Burkina Faso) and El General (Tunisia) quickly became the poster boys for the struggle against corrupt governments. Their songs were the anthems of the struggle. In Egypt, its first Hip Hop group Arabian Knightz composed two songs that signified the fight against the toppled Mubarak regime.

Even in America, Hip Hop mogul and god MC Jay Z famously rapped 'Fu*k Bush' on his track 'Blue Magic', and performed it while campaigning for Obama during his first presidential bid.

What are rappers in Nigeria doing? Nothing. Rap music can be tied to rebellion, and fight against oppression. Frustratingly, it has never been the same in Nigeria. It's an election year, and all our top rappers are in bed with politicians who will fail to enforce anti-piracy laws to help protect their songs and albums once elected into office.

The love affair between our top rappers and politicians is worrying. The same political system that denied these celebs a good education, good roads, electricity and health care, is the same system that has produced many of the politicians that are vying for office this year. Choose who you will based on beliefs, not on cheques.

Minus the political angle, rap culture is almost non-existent. Last week in America, Drake dropped a surprise mixtape, Kanye West launched his new sneakers, had the hottest show at the New York Fashion Week, and Diddy and Snoop Dogg held a sold out concert. That's just one week.

Rap in Nigeria is devoid of peak cultural moments. In all respects it shouldn't even be called a culture. What are the most iconic moments of rap culture in this country? I can only think of two; Rugged Man challenging the system when he dissed Eedris Abdulkareem blatantly, and Alibai calling out the then President on Black Face's 'Hard Life'.

For all the top rappers we have in the country, how come we have no annual rap concert? Where are the rap shows on radio? Where are the strictly rap music programmes on TV?

Rap is not taken seriously in this country, because rappers do not take themselves seriously. Rappers behave like second class citizens in the industry. It has gotten to a point where many will disassociate themselves from the genre totally. When three of the hottest rappers in the country cook up a song mocking the art of punchlines, then you know rap music in Nigeria is almost a joke.

Imagine Drake, Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole coming out to denounce one of the core aspects of lyricism? Your guess is a good as mine. Rap music in Nigeria has conformed to the shabby way of how we do things in Nigeria, and blended with pop culture (instead of becoming pop culture) that it is almost non-existent.

Most of our rappers live for the next cheque, instead of aiming for glory. Doing this has ensured that rap culture, music and in general Hip-Hop can never be taken seriously. Leading rappers have bowed time and time again to the powers that be and the Naira instead of challenging the establishment and becoming agents of change. Far from being cultural icons, they have become zombies.

Rap in Nigeria is too weak for it to fulfill its purpose and better society. Instead of empowering the youth, it has blinded them with materialism and the next hot dance step. We have rappers in Nigeria, we just don't have a rap culture.