Sitting today, my mind raced back to mid-2002 which was officially the first year of uni. I call it the first year because we had previously gone through the famed Pre-Degree Science Programme at Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH). That academic programme was a foundational one through which aspiring students gained admission at the time. It was a way of bypassing the Almighty Unified Matriculation Examination (UME), now known as UTME, and it helped many of us give the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) the middle finger back then.
Those were days when many of my friends starting from Wale and the many others that we were more or less a crew – Loko, Femi, Oyo, Oye, Segzy, Popeson, Sola, Piro, and the list goes on and on, were leaving home for the first time. Having previously had my first three years of secondary school at Olivet Heights Oyo, leaving home was not so strange in its entirety despite returning to Ibadan and becoming a day student while I sojourned at the great Wesley College of Science, an institution of as much value as history.
This post already started with some digressions! Blame me not, it is me talking with my writing. Wale, my bosom friend of over three decades and four years serenaded us with Born To Do It, Craig David’s hit album that ruled the airwaves in the early 2000s. Let me already raise my hand and say I am not so much of a music person. Despite this obvious fact, there are songs that I know because the people around me got to listen to them a lot.
That was when Nigerian hip-hop was fast gaining ground. Talk of Plantashun Boiz which had the trio of 2face, Black Face and Faze; Remedies (Eedris, Tony Montana and Eddy); Olu and Tolu Maintain; Artquake and the others who were becoming very popular and accepted. Along with these guys, my people listened to Nelly and Ashanti, JaRule and Ashanti, Missy Elliot and others of their ilk. Wale Ajala was a massive Shaggy fan so much so that we used it to differentiate him from my other Wale. He became Wale Shaggy while Wale was either Wale or Nackson, a tag he has had since his secondary school days. In fact, Peter preferred to call him Nackson back then.
The non-conformist me however did not tow their line. I was hooked on Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey’s philosophical songs and ensured that I bought different volumes of his Evergreen Songs. For all the love Wale had for hip-hop and other genres, he was a massive Orlando Owoh fan too. For me, it was mostly Ebenezer Obey or Sunny, and both of those were in the absence of anything from my fav, Lagbaja!
I was so much in love with Lagbaja that I could sing all the tracks in the We and Me album. To make it sweeter, tracks like Konko Below, Nothing for You and Tokunbo were trending everywhere in South West Nigeria, and even as far as Port Harcourt. During my Industrial Training in Port Harcourt in 2006, I picked up the Africano album along with other albums like Westlife Bootleg and Styl Plus’ reigning album at the time whose title I cannot remember now.
Being a Church boy, I have always had access to lots of faith-based music. However, rap and very fast music are not really my thing. It has never been, it may never be! With Nifemi’s interest in music after we watched High School Musical in 2008, he started listening to Mali Music and some other guys and tried to influence me. Still, those were not my kind of songs, they were too fast and I preferred something with a slower tempo. I would play Donnie McClurkin, Mary Mary and Cece Winans whose ‘I Promise’ was played on my wedding day as we had the nuptial dance.
These days, I still love my old Obey songs and interestingly, K1’s trending E Maa Yonu Simi is my ringing tune these days while my second line has Arsenal’s North London Forever rings out when you call my other line. My taste in music is weird like that. I can be loving one not-so-popular musician when everyone is singing the praises of a trending musician. For instance, Ayob played me Black Magic in 2014 and I got hooked on him so much so that if I want to do something creative and it seems like it is not flowing, I simply start playing the album and it arouses me till there is a dampness at the source of my creativity.
I do not listen to Black Magic again these days, I hardly listen to much music these days really. Music can be therapeutic but for me, writing is more therapeutic and it replaces music but I get to find my music per time. Right now, Elizavocat and her songs are doing it for me. The way she serenades me while I drive is something I cannot quite explain yet.
However, if you see Lagbaja anywhere, tell him I will still come after him because he did not let me have the chance to visit Motherlan’. The last two albums still sit pretty in my car and I have them ripped on my PC, hoping I won’t get charged for piracy sha.
If you see me listening to some music that you are not used to, just know that it is what is reigning and meeting my musical needs at that time. It may change to another song or album tomorrow. Now someone says this guy is not a child of God again. No vex ehn, I don’t have a playlist. I just listen to what works for me.
Tomorrow, we meet again.
OSCARPOEMS 