Will rapper be now and last king of Eastern Indigenous rap music?

People come and go. That’s the way the game works. These artistes you see today, one day you shall see no more.

It’s true for Eastern rap music. One of the side-effects of the internet age is the love of immediacy; we only ppreciate what is put in front of us, and enjoy it to its end. We get the news now, we get the music now, and whichever star shines brightest, we enjoy that real-time.

Phyno is the king of Eastern indigenous rap music now. That’s all we care about, and that’s all we enjoy. Many of today’s music consumers will argue to an inch of their lives that Phyno created and popularized Eastern rap music. And you can’t blame them.

They are products of a generation force-fed with hyper-information in this digital age. They are too busy consuming what comes out now, to go back in time and glean deeper insights into the genealogy of a music genre.

Eastern indigenous rap didn’t start from Phyno, neither will it end with him. But at the moment, he is king, and through various channels of communication, he is the only thing we know now.

But long before Phyno, there was Junior and Pretty. This duo, alongside Daniel Wilson, Plantashun Boiz and a few others pioneered Afro Hip-hop and Afro-Pop in Nigeria, specifically in the early 90s. The duo came through at a point where early attempts at replicating Hip-hop was awkward and blatantly imitative.

They both had a unique synergy and style that helped them ‘blow’. Junior gave his raps in Igbo and Pidgin English, while Pretty would throw on a reggae/dancehall edge to it all. They broke through with a single ‘Bolanle’, and had other hits including ‘Monika’.

That was the first original infusion of Igbo into rap that took Nigeria by storm. And they had an influence on Phyno.

I listened to Junior and Pretty, no doubt about that…” Phyno told Sun. “But to be honest, as I was listening to them, I was so deep into English music. Talking about mentorship, I may say yes.”

Over time we have seen some indigenous rap acts go on to dominate the scene or find niche success. Nigga Raw, MC Loph, Slow Dog, Illbliss and more have passed from that conduit to push the culture. Right now Phyno is at the fore. In the West, Lord of Ajasa once ruled too. He admits too, that these acts inspired him.

“When I was a producer, I produced for Nigga Raw. So, talking about inspiration, yes, he did inspire me because at a particular point it was only Nigga Raw and I that were being invited to the studio.

“Also, the late MC Loph and Slow Dog inspired me. It was like they carried the Igbo rap music on their heads. I equally got inspiration from people like Lord of Ajasa. He was rapping in Yoruba but he was different.” He says.

After Phyno there will be more people to push the culture. As long as Enugu – which is melting pot of all Eastern Hip hop influences – continues to exist, more people would grow, conquer the region and become kings of the culture.

Already, there are quarters of this nation who already have crowned Zoro as the prince of the genre, and are pushing for his music to become bigger than it currently is. There’s a strong possibility that such a succession will happen, but it is still a moot point.

But if Zoro fails, there will be others. The culture must go on. The people will get a new king.