Veteran 'Galala' singer talks history of indigenous rap music in Nigeria

Daddy Showkey who tells how he coined the stage name as “Key to the show” narrates how he and his group member took their rap demo which was recorded in ‘broken’ English (pidgin) to a certain record company that turned them down asked them to go re-record it in plain good old English.

He however mentioned how they went on to another record company , where they were encouraged by a certain Tolu Ige, to go on and use ‘broken’ English in their galala rap infused demo collection.

The ‘Galala’ pioneer himself maintained the resolve to record the music in pidgin English, describing it as Nigeria’s real and original  lingua franca.

“I myself decided I will use broken English to sing reggae music, that is, galala, because I want to sell my music to my people and I want to promote my cultutre, so I’ll say that using broken English was the best thing that happened to our music, because that’s our lingua franca, it’s the only way we can relate to every tribe being as we are a multicultural society” the veteran singer says.