Falz fires up Internet with ‘Nigeria’

Rucker, Brown make country chart history

LAGOS, June 2, (Agencies): With nearly three million YouTube views in less than a week and an avalanche of reactions on social media, rapper Falz’s “This is Nigeria” has touched a nerve about the country’s problems.

The track and video, a cover version of US performer Childish Gambino’s “This is America”, sees Falz wander around a huge warehouse bare-chested as a series of violent scenes unfurl.

“This is Nigeria. Look how we living, nah! Look what we eating, nah!” he riffs to the camera.

Machetes replace the guns of the US version, where Gambino questions his compatriots about life for black people and police brutality.

That version has been viewed more than 220 million times on YouTube in the last month.

“This is Nigeria” was released on the video-sharing platform on May 25 and paints an unforgiving picture of life in Africa’s most populous nation.

Despite having generated billions of dollars from oil, more than 70 percent of Nigeria’s 180 million people live in poverty, corruption is endemic and violent unrest commonplace.

If the track arouses passions, it’s because it overturns the status quo.

In Nigeria, it’s rare to see a music video open with anything other than scantily clad women sprawled over a luxury car or free-flowing champagne.

Music more often goes together with easy money than political conscience.

Distracted

“I think we are too distracted by entertainment in general, by flashy lifestyle,” the 27-year-old Falz told the private Wazobia television channel this week.

“We need to pause and think and look at our social space. We have a voice as artists and we need to use that voice for the right purpose, we need to speak the true to wake people up.

“The terrible state of Nigeria has become so normalised.”

Falz has won high praise in Nigeria

2.6 million track equivalents sold worldwide.

Childish Gambino debuted the song during his stint hosting and performing on “Saturday Night Live,” and it quickly rose to the top on Spotify’s global and US charts, and reached No. 1 on iTunes in 45 markets. Additionally, the track continues to hold the No. 1 spot on and abroad for the track.

In the United States, hip-hop star P. Diddy shared the video on his Instagram account, celebrating “artists changing the game!!!”

Music journalist Joey Akan was quick to compare Falz to Fela Kuti, the icon of Afrobeat and freedom of expression during Nigeria’s three decades of military rule.

“’This is Nigeria’ embodies the revolutionary and rebel spirit of Fela Anikulapo Kuti before him,” he wrote in an opinion piece published online by CNN.

“It shows that contrary to popular opinion among local talents, there is a demand for conscious music.

“Musicians tend to avoid political commentary, partly due to an ingrained fear of persecution from the powerful political class.”

For example, Nigeria’s 2Baba last year announced a mass demonstration against economic recession but was forced to back-pedal under pressure.

Global superstars such as Davido or Wizkid meanwhile continue to perform for political bigwigs and captains of industry who are prepared to pay a small fortune for private concerts.

Falz — his real name is Folarin Falana — is not a nobody.

He gave up a career in law to go into music. His father is leading Nigerian human rights lawyer Femi Falana and excerpts of his speech on corruption are in the track.

One of Falana senior’s most famous clients was Fela Kuti.

Falz is giving a voice to the thoughts of many Nigerians who are tired of years of bad governance, and as President Muhammadu Buhari vies for a second term at elections next year.

After three years in power and repeated promises to turn the country around, they feel nothing has been done — and may even have gotten worse.

In Falz’s video, dancers wear long blue hijabs in a clear reference to the schoolgirls from Chibok, whose kidnapping by Boko Haram caused more

the overall streaming chart for three weeks in a row. (RTRS)

NEW YORK:

The Weeknd, Jason Mraz, Fantasia and Tony winner Brandon Victor Dixon will appear at the 2018 Songwriters outrage abroad than at home.

In other scenes corrupt police officers beat up young men and drug addicts, and generators run flat out to make up for a lack of electricity from the national grid.

Even Nigeria’s numerous powerful evangelical pastors aren’t spared. They’re depicted as hypocritical charlatans on the hunt for cash.

Not everyone is a fan of “This is Nigeria”. Some have criticised it for “plagiarism” and of even being a “bad Nollywood” version of the US track.

“If we go by social media reaction... we could give him (Falz) the award for Best Political Commentary,” critic Oris Aigbokhaevbolo wrote on medium.com.

“He would deserve the award but that is only because there is no competition.

“Wizkid and Davido will not sing it, sequestered as they are in some club or festooned to a fluffy bed by a buxom broad.”

Also: NASHVILLE, Tenn:

Darius Rucker and Kane Brown are sharing a chart record as the first two solo acts who are also minorities to follow each other with No. 1 country songs in the 28-year history of the Billboard Country Airplay chart.

According to Billboard, Brown, who is biracial, had a two-week No. 1 with “Heaven” and Rucker, who is black, followed him with his single, “For The First Time,” on the chart dated June 2. The chart, which digitally measures airplay, began in 1990.

“I wanted to be involved in and make country music because I loved it,” said Rucker in a statement. “To be making history, especially with my little brother Kane Brown, is incredible and a great, added bonus.”

Rucker got his first country No. 1 “Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It,” in 2008, which was also followed at the top by Kenny Chesney’s song “Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven,” with reggae group The Wailers.

Hall of Fame induction ceremony this month.

The organization announced Friday that Kenneth Gamble, Leon Huff, Leon Bridges, Stephen Dorff, Chad Elliott, Bob Gaudio, Nora Guthrie, Keith Stegall and Steve Wariner will also attend the June 14 event in New York City. The newly announced attendees will either perform or present an award.

The new Songwriters Hall class includes John Mellencamp, Alan Jackson, Jermaine Dupri, Kool & the Gang, Allee Willis, Bill Anderson and Steve Dorff.

Sara Bareilles, Universal Music Group CEO Lucian Grainge and Neil Diamond — who announced he has Parkinson’s disease earlier this year — will receive special honors. (AP)

LONDON:

Singer Ed Sheeran picked up two prizes at Britain’s Ivor Novello awards on Thursday, scooping the prestigious Songwriter of the Year prize for a second time while grime star Stormzy won in the album category.

The 63rd edition of the awards, presented by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, saw Lionel Richie and singer-songwriter Billy Bragg also honoured.

Sheeran, who won Songwriter of the Year in 2015, was recognised again with the same accolade and his chart-topper “Shape of You”, which he co-wrote, won the award for Most Performed Work. (RTRS)