Maybe Trap music by Nigerians isn’t for Nigerians

As a child, I loved the taste of toothpaste. I chased it wherever it lay, grabbed a lot of it and shoved it down my throat. My entire family were alarmed, but my parents understood. Kids are weird little animals, with half a brain, and no iota of self-preservation.

One day I got lucky. I snatched the entire tube of paste and escaped into the school playground, where I spent an entire break period generously offering it to other kids. Painfully but thankfully, they all rejected it. No matter how I offered t, they turned it down. Some would take a taste, but spit it out and run away.

I finally learned my lesson, and threw it into the dumpster. And up until today, I understand people will not fall in love with all my interests, and try to not push it down their throat.

But Nigerian musicians have not learned this skill. They are yet to understand that some genres of music connect with their fans, and as such, are almost worthless. They create music with the intention of making money from the mass market. Anything that does not further that aim, or achieve it is useless.

Just imagine a pop artist singing Rock music for mass consumption. Useless.

Trap music is another great example. A section of fans love the sound, the bounce of it and the lyrics that are so mindless that it becomes fun. And that’s why Nigerian artists are so quick to jump on it in a bid to make money by appropriating it.

Trap music is a genre that has gained quite a momentum through the ever growing sub-genres of dance music culture. Although this hype towards trap music, or EDM Trap Music as some may call it, has recently emerged, there is a history behind the origin of the Trap genre that is all but new.

Trap music fist emerged coming primarily from the US South, a genre filled with a hard attitude that you can feel in the sound of the brass, triangle, triplet hi hats, loud kicks, snappy snares and low end 808 bass samples that are used when composing tracks.

The percussion samples of choice when making trap music are usually originate from the Roland TR-808 Drum Machine.  When speaking of the “originators” in the trap music game, southern rappers like Waka Flocka Flame, Gucci Mane, Young Jeezy, Three 6 Mafia, and Manny Fresh come to mind. As well as some of the iconic trap music producers like Lex Luger, Zaytoven, and up and comer Young Chop.

In 2016, some of the biggest songs in world music were Trap. Desiigner put himself on the map with ‘Panda’, Rae Sremmund’s‘Black Beatles’, was a hit, and this year, we have had Migos dominate with ‘Bad & Boujee’.

There’s a reason why Nigerian artists think Trap music will work here. It’s intrinsically Hip-hop, and connects with a growing fan base in Nigeria. The lyrics are pretty easy to understand due to its drone-like simplicity. It sits just fine in the Nigerian pop song template; where the lyrics are always basic.

And just as it has been the story of our art forever, artists in Nigeria have absorbed the sound, added local elements of language and melody to it, and released it as official singles designed for the masses.

But so far, none of it has worked on a large scale. Nigerians have been bombarded with numerous, locally concocted Trap songs to no great effect. The songs find a haven in a niche fan base that are both Afropolitan and exposed to global music trends. But the generality of music fans have failed to grasp and enjoy it.

Name one Nigerian Trap song that has gone viral. Name just one and compare it to the success of Runtown’s ‘Mad Over You’, Mavin Records’’Dorobucci’, Wizkid’s Ójuelegba’, and Davido’s ‘If’. If any can stand at that level, this article is rendered baseless.

None has made it, At least for now.

But we have had minor successes. Kach’s ‘Odana’, Ycee’s ‘Sumi’, Terry Apala’s ‘Champagne showers’, and a few others have made waves, but none has cracked it.

And so far it is looking highly unlikely. Rapper Zoro’s latest single, ‘Buy the bar’ featuring Falz, is a Trap song. It even features an uncredited artist with a bridge which is drawn straight from Desiigner’s hymnbook. The video by Clarence Peters is expensive, with bright striking colors, elaborate set designs and great cinematography. But judging by history, it will be hard to bank on the song breaking even.

But let’s keep an open mind.

Why aren’t Nigerians zeroing in on the Trap made by Nigerians for Nigerians? Why haven’t we had a Trap song become so big and all-conquering record?

It’s because it’s an appropriation of foreign sound, which is still in its infancy in Nigeria. Trap music in Nigeria is still young, and people are yet to embrace it fully. Every day, local artists work hard at cracking the right formula to make it work. That has been an effort at futility so far.

But maybe, just maybe, we might stumble upon a success story, and then the jinx becomes broken. If that happens, then we have a new money-spinning genre. But how long can our artists slave at it? How long can they direct valuable resources towards cracking a glass ceiling?

Nigerian music is a potpourri of different sounds, condensed to form a mix of what we call ‘the Nigerian sound’. Everything and everything has been incorporated into that mix. Maybe, just maybe, Trap music will be the one who got away. The one ‘easy’ genre that defied our musicians and escaped being sucked into the vortex of sounds that we appropriate.