Jumping on the ‘Rap is Dead’ wagon Wizkid rode to the trend section before it sails into the sunset. It seems the statement hurts a lot of Nigerian artists that came into the industry through rap, but have been caught doing the Afrobeat mostly now. Is Big Wiz saying the truth and if so, is it a hundred percent true?
Wizkid himself started his music career in the limelight in 2011 and before then, Rap was the main gain in the Nigerian music industry, well dominated by MI Abaga, Neto C, Ruggedman, Ikechukwu and a lot of others too in the early 2000s. But these days, we can barely here them through the radio and rappers in Nigeria are not ass prominent like they used to. Ice Prince also came in and did his thing.
Of course, the talent is still in the rap game, but understandably, the industry is more competitive than it is before and currently, we have Olamide and Phyno carrying the baton and ready to pass it on, waiting for the likes of Ladipoe and the young ones to continue the race.
Rap is not dead in Nigeria, it is just getting by and truthfully should be doing better with craft and aiming its target audience, mainly putting in more work and more money and in the industry where it is all man for himself, it is hard to keep up with the ones cashing out from international deals who are mainly afrobeat singers.
Wizkid could cut them some slack, but at the same time, Nigerian artists should perceive it as a challenge and bring their A-game.
P.S: It’s wrong for me not to mention Dagrin, Vector and 2Shot in this article and those that came in the game along the way.
