DelCity Has a Story to Tell - Nigeria’s newest hip-hop artist talks about the message in his music

Wait. Country music? “Country music is poetic,” he explains, mentioning Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers, country stars whose brand of music is so emblematic of white, working-class America that it seems like a galaxy away from the ultra-cool, urban world of hip-hop. But he’s talking about substance, not style. “A lot of reality goes into country music. It’s about heartbreak, or being away from home, or finding love. Their sound may be different, but they’re telling real stories about real life.”

Real stories. Real life. Those are recurring themes when you talk to DelCity, whose full name is Bamidele Citizen. While rhythm and melodies drive his music, he also wants the world to know that he has a story to tell. “I talk about life issues,” he says. “Issues that deal with everyday living, waking up in the morning, finding love, wanting to be somebody. Every young person on the street can relate to that. That consciousness of reality is reflected in every single song I do.”

The son of a father who is a pastor and a mother who is a businesswoman, DelCity loved as a child to listen to his father’s 8-tracks of musicians like Shabba Ranks, Aswad and Fresh Prince. Later, he gravitated to Nas, and Tupac Shakur with his lyrical raps about life in the ghetto. He studied Theatre Arts and Radio Production at Lagos State University, but he first made it into the studio about four years ago, using money from his mom to record his first single, “Where I Dey (I am Del)”. He spent almost a year working on it, perfecting the lyrics and nailing the beats. It was an emotional time for DelCity. He remembers breaking down in tears in the studio, because the stakes were so high. “I looked at it like, okay, I have this one shot,” he remembers.

That burning desire to achieve his dreams—to make it big—is another recurring theme in his music. It’s a desire he says every kid on every street corner in the world can relate to. Music in my veins, in my blood, and my soul, he raps in the song “C Me Now,” This black boy, music, I will never let go! The Internet radio platform Jango says “DelCity’s music blends the consciousness of rap, the swing of reggae and the international flair of his background into a mélange of emotion.”

This summer he hit a new level of exposure to fans with the album “Welcome to DelCity,” released this summer on the DDD Entertainment label. DelCity, who recently moved from Lagos to a new home near the mountains in Ekiti State, says each song on the album tells a different story about his life. You can see the emphasis on storytelling in the video for “She No Want Me.” He appears as almost more of a narrator in the video than the star, rapping the lyrics while actors play out scenes of an aspiring musician with a girlfriend who’s tired of waiting for his payday.

In all of his songs, though, DelCity hopes the overall message is one of perseverance and survival. “As Africans, we are dealing with overpopulation, energy problems, problems with selfish people…but despite everything we go through, we are really trying to carve out a personality for ourselves. We have a lot of stories to tell. Africa is full of stories, so I don’t want to spend time making videos where there is no concept, no message. To me, that’s missing the point. Everybody is imparting some kind of message to the people around them, like it or not. And at the end of the day I want to preach positivity, because in spite of all the broken pieces and the things that could tie you down, you can turn all that into something beautiful for the world to see.”