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Abstract
The social morality of Afrobeats in Nigeria often evokes reactive emotions of approbation and obloquy. While some critics contend that hip hop has deleterious effects on youths, because it encourages permissiveness, others are of the opinion that the music genre performs certain invaluable functions, and should not be besmirched. The binary variables trailing hip hop have even been recast by religious mawkishness, as many adherents of Abrahamism dissociate themselves from Afrobeats claiming that it promotes vulgarity, and is not fit for the consumption of unfeigned believers. This bias underpins the emergence of a parallel religio-centric music genre which has Christian and Islamic eschatology as its central theme, though the music sometimes copies Afrobeats style. In this study, the antipathy of religious persons/institutions in Nigeria to hip hop is examined. Using sociological-functional theory, moral relativist paradigm, and (traditional/virtual) exploratory-qualitative research instruments; we argue that the music is functional and socially relevant, contrary to the stereotypical view of anti-hip hop proponents. The study critiques some Nigerian Afrobeats songs to confound the conventionalisation of the music genre as a site of libertinism or a locus for the thingification of femaleness. It advocates aggressive promotion of the music locally and abroad, since it bears Nigerian signature and serves as the country’s creative contribution to global hip-hop culture. We submit that the art form can be pruned of its smuttiness to augment its acceptability, just as it can be developed to an industry capable of generating foreign exchange for Nigeria.
Acknowledgement
My sincere appreciation goes to all the people who responded to this survey and spent their quality time to share their thoughts with me. I also express deep gratitude to all my anonymous reviewers.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on Contributor
Emmanuel Adeniyi currently teaches at the Department of English and Literary Studies, Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria. He is a fellow of Forum Transregionale Studien, Berlin, Germany, and World Journalism Institute (WJI), New York, USA. His research interest covers diaspora/migration studies, literary theory and criticism, eco-criticism, oral literature, African literature, transcultural studies, literary stylistics, literature and security, intersection between music and literature, among others.
Notes
1 Afrobeats and hip hop are used interchangeably in this study to refer to Nigeria’s popular contemporary music.
2 The book was originally published in 2008 and revised in 2010. I consulted its eBook edition published in 2018 by Wooden Books.
3 Though not directly related, a letter written to the choir of First Baptist Church, Agbede, Nigeria, warning a chorister to desist from a dance style that doesn’t glorify God during worship service has gone viral on social media. While some interpret this dance style to be zanku invented by one of the latest Nigeria’s sensational Afrobeats artistes, Zlatan; some note that it could be shaku shaku, believed to have been invented by Olamide, another popular Nigerian hip hop songster.
4 Reuben Abati originally published the piece in the Guardian in 2009. The piece was cited in Adedeji (Citation2013), and can also be found on the website of the Net.
5 The researcher attended Sunday services at some churches and Islamic open-air preaching (mihadara) in Ibadan. The researcher also listened to CDs of sermons and khutba where preachers made remarks about unholy music that youths dance to in Nigeria.
6 One of such is a newspaper story/interview adulating Afrobeats stars for producing songs that ‘have saved many Nigerians from depression and suicide’. See the story/interview, entitled, ‘Davido, Wizkid, Others’ Songs save Nigerians from Depression, Suicide […]’, the Vanguard, 9 April, 2019. Other journalistic writings are inadequate to really tease out the essence of Naija Afrobeats.
7 Cited in Louise Kelly’s thesis (Citation2008, 49)
8 OFGD is an improvised focus group discussion (FGD) mode. It brings information and communications technology (ICT) into humanistic research by creating platforms for research participants to use ICT tools as they take part in research efforts, irrespective of their location. It facilitates seamless virtual discussions, and safeguards the privacy of participants. While FGDs enable physical contact among participants, OFGD de-naturalises physical space associated with FGDs, and takes discussions from physical domain to virtual reality, thereby bringing discussion of topical issues to the homes of research participants.
9 Apart from the cleric-interviewees aged between 38 and 42, the respondents/discussants’ ages range from 28 to 35.
10 IDI was only used in the South West (Ibadan) to save time and money. As part of purposive sampling design, the interviewees were considered as representatives of the study’s population.
11 This is a quote from Natilene Irain Bowker.
12 Social solidarity produced through interdependence or complementariness of different social units so as to enhance individual efficiency and boost the strength of the system.
13 Our working definition of morality is simply any rules, principles, and actions that uphold the notions of rightness and wrongness, but not in absolute terms. We approach the phenomenon from the normative relativist standpoint underpinning the absence of absolute rightness or wrongness in human society. We believe moral principles differ from one society or social group to another, and our position is in sync with Jonathan Dancy’s moral particularism. Rather than universalising moral principles and applying them to all cases, we are of the opinion that allowances should be made for their contextual alterations.
14 This concept refers to religious biases that present one religion as possessing absolute truth, while other religion is inferior (Ray and Doratis Citation1971; Franscisco Citation2007; Ayantayo Citation2018). We use the term as an extended metaphor to describe the superciliousness of some Christians and Muslims who often emphasise the alterity of any view that runs contrary to theirs, irrespective of the innocuousness of such views or practices.
15 The popularity or otherwise of hip hop in the Core North is problematic. Some contemporary young musicians who rap or sing in the English and Hausa languages spring up daily in Katsina, Borno, Kebbi, Yobe, Adamawa. Ado Haliru Daukaka is, for instance, prominent in Adamawa (Yola), while BOC Madaki and Morell, though from Bauchi and Borno states, are household names in the North. In Kaduna, young rappers, such as Jesse Jagz, Kheengz, Classiq, Hafeesz, DJ AB, Dr Smith, IBN also produce a blend of modern beats and song texts or raps in the Hausa language. However, a school of thought holds that no Afrobeats artiste can make a huge impact in the Nigerian music industry unless they break into Lagos (Southern) market. Lagos has many record labels. Besides, it is the economic hub of Nigeria, while social life there is also considered topnotch. The relocation of many artistes from different parts of the country to Lagos lends credence to this claim. Some of the artistes include P-Square (recently Rude Boy and Mr P), Ice Prince, TuFace Idibia from Jos; Timaya from Port Harcourt; Flavour N’abania from Enugu/Port Harcourt, and many others.
16 This supposition is corroborated by Banning Eyre and Mark LeVine. They reveal that censorship of songs released by local pop artistes in the North is on the increase, due to ‘local interpretations of Islamic law’ (par. 5) that frowns at immoral practices in the area. Songsters such as Sadiq Zazzabi, Baba Iyali, Ado Daukaka, Dauda Kahutu, Adama Zango and many others have, in recent time, been either gaoled, detained, attacked or abducted by northern conservative elements ‘for political or so-called “moral” or religious reasons’ (par. 8). Zango was particularly jailed for two months in 2007 for featuring a female dancer who revealed her navel in a music video (Eyre and LeVine Citation2017, par. 31). The Kannywood actress, Rahama Sadau, was banned from participating in the local movie industry (Kannywood) in 2016 for ‘cuddling and holding hands with a man in a music video’ (Eyre and LeVine Citation2017, par. 12). Eyre and LeVine note that ‘Music, videos or films that are censored in the Muslim north might well be released without complaint in the south’ (par. 9). Though some of these musical artistes are persecuted for political reasons, one cannot rule out the possibility that the intolerance of contemporary musical expression in the North often takes the ‘form of moral than political sanction’ (Eyre and LeVine Citation2017, par. 19).
17 Some notable fújì musicians, such as K1 De Ultimate, Adewale Ayuba, Obesere, Pasuma, Saheed Osupa, now incorporate Afrobeats into their songs. Perhaps the innovation brought into Nigerian music scene by Abiodun Awesola (Awesome Abbey Band) is noteworthy. He sings a medley of jùjú, fújì, Afrobeats, Afrobeat, highlife, gospel, calypso, dancehall and local songs.
18 Some youths also broke into the music scene and overcame restrictions that earlier prevented them from participating in the industry. Nigeria’s 60s, 70s, and 80s witnessed the flourishing of fújì, jùjú, highlife musicians who were in their late 20s and early 30s. The popular jùjú and fújì maestros, King Sunny Ade and Alhaji Sikiru Ayinde Barrister, for example, were relatively young when they started singing. Prior to their emergence, the music scene in the country used to be dominated by adults. From 90s upward, hip hop became a major means of artistic expression for young university students.
19 This phrase is credited to Cain Hope Felder in the introduction to his 1991 edited book, Stony the Road We Trod: African American Biblical Interpretation (Felder Citation1991, 6).
20 This quote is credited to Sterkens and Anthony (Citation2008).
21 It is a cult of Hausa women animists who use spirit possession, song and dance to perform therapeutic functions.
22 Islamic spiritual songs
23 See for a letter banning worldly dance steps in a Nigerian church.
24 Quoted in Femi Adedeji (Citation2007, 87).
25 As above.
26 Flavour N’abania, Don Jazzy, D’Banj, Timaya, Wizkid, Iyanya, Waje, Dare Art Alade, Wande Coal, Chidinma, and many more actually began and honed their singing skills while in church choirs.
27 Eben, Mike Abdul, TobyMac, Ceejay, DJ Gosporella, Obiora Obiwon, Spokesman, DaBoomsha are all gospel (Christian) hip hop artistes. Islamic hip hop artistes include HYB Addis, Al Mubarak Kewuyemi, Saoti Arewa, and many others.
28 Émile Durkheim claims that crime is functional in any human society. According to him, ‘crime is normal because it is completely impossible for any society entirely free of it to exist […] crime is necessary. It is linked to the basic conditions of social life, but on this very account is useful, for the conditions to which it is bound are themselves indispensable to the normal evolution of morality and law’ (Citation1982, 99, 101). Applerouth and Edles (Citation2008) also maintain that the normality of crime is derived from the ‘moral boundaries of a society and, in doing so, communicates to its inhabitants the range of acceptable behaviors’ (94), because it ‘affirms and reaffirms the collective sentiments upon which it is founded and which are necessary for its existence’ (94).
29 It is contained in his 2004 album, face 2 face (Kennis Music).
30 Released in Citation2016 (YBNL).
31 Released in 2015 and produced by Seyikeyz.
32 Contained in his 2009 album, Transition (Alapomeji Ancestral Records).
33 Released in Citation2018 and produced by Seyikeyz.
34 Released in 2011 and produced by Mosa Adegboye.
35 It literally means that whoever is hit by an acerbic statement or satiric barb should amend their ways or desist from doing evils.