Understand The Boundary Between Gospel and Secular Music

Chidinma. Source: https://www.withinnigeria.com

Politics is everywhere: it is in classical politics, but there is politics in the home, at work, in the church, and mosques, too. If you want to understand the politics of Gospel Music, you have to hear it from someone who has been in it for a very long time.  One of these voices on the Plateau is Job Manja. Over the years, Manja has grown, presiding as a youth leader from the lowest level of his church administration to being a committee member at its pinnacle. He has, as a result, built a strong voice and base, and has become blunt. Thus, he is in a position to challenge traditions he considers old-fashioned, as long as doing that does not cross boundaries. 

I met Manja at his home at D. B Zang Junction, in Jos-south. We talked about the identity of Gospel Music, the tension that exists within evangelical churches as a result of changing views of today’s Christian youths, which have been triggered by the rise of flashy, liberal churches. We also talked about how a gospel music artist is supposed to earn a living.

According to Manja, Gospel Music is “a call into a ministry.” One has to be called and then answer the call. The implication is that if you are not called, or if you refuse to answer the call, after you have been called, whatever you play could not be classified as Gospel Music. There would be collisions between what you are playing and what Gospel Music is supposed to be. Gospel Music is not supposed to be explicit. The videos are supposed to stay miles away from human nakedness, or any other form of expression that corrupts the mind. On the reverse side of the coin, however, a secular artist doesn’t have boundaries as far as his messages and video scenes are concerned.  

When evangelical churches started getting invaded by an avalanche of music rhythms that had been made popular by mundane music, most evangelical pastors were uncomfortable, but they were compelled to tolerate the youths for fear of losing their population to the liberal churches. Manja says his personal opinion is that any genre of music, whether Reggae, Rock, Rhythm and Blues, does not matter. To him, the lyric is what matters. In Benin Republic, he cites, the rhythm that is mostly played in churches is primarily Macossa, but laced with spiritual messages. For those who argue that those genres of music are borrowed from the secular realm, which is essentially influenced by the devil, Manja counters by saying that he believes God is the originator of all genres of music, and that, if the devil has made an attempt to smear it, the devil should not be considered the originator of the style.  

As a spin-off, Manja referred to a grouse he has with a lot of pastors who don’t have room for discipleship. Simply put, “discipleship” refers to spiritual mentor-ship. Most pastors, he says, do not draw younger members close, for the purpose of spiritual mentor-ship. When that happens, it creates a window for the devil. He admits the truth about the evangelical churches losing members, a situation that suggests that the pastors affected must have to wake up. By “waking up” he means that the pastors must encourage the culture of discipleship. “Everyone is going to die, whether by sickness or by age,” he says. When that happens where there is no discipleship, it creates a missing link that could compel a church to shut down. According to Manja, Gospel Music has lost so much to its secular rival because of this issue, but he who knows his calling will never derail, no matter what happens. 

My host went on to dig into the book of Leviticus, where there is a reference to the Levites Family. God was sharing land to the twelve tribes, but did not include the Levites Family. Instead, he told them that they would eat from his temple. The Levite Family was made up of the Priest and the singers.  Asaph in the book of Psalms was a singer who led the Levites that performed the spiritual art of worship in the tabernacle. Everything that was channeled to the priest was equally channeled to Asaph. So, singers are supposed to be accorded the same respect that priests are accorded. Today, there are churches that are aware of this and take it seriously. Even here in Nigeria, we have Christ Oyakhilome’s Christ Embassy. His artists are among some of the richest, not only in Nigeria but in Africa as large.

 

Single Soul by Yiro Abari

 

African Music Success Algorithm

 Afro Beats is going places far beyond where it originated.

Burner Boy. Source: Burner Boy Instagram Page

The current Afro Beats (not to be confused with Afro Beat) started in Ghana, but, like a UK based Ghanaian DJ puts it, “the Nigerians pick it up and polished it, and they are gone.” Afro Beats is over ninety per cent Nigerian. A lot of Africans want to join what has become a band wagon. So, there is a dogged search of the formula to achieve this dream. In proffering solutions, sadly, we see a lot of lies from folks that are bent on feeding fat on the ignorance of wannabe musicians.

There will always be abuses of anything that is designed with a good intent to help people. Some assume, without researches, that what they think of something is what it is. Others are aware that they are ignorant of a topic, but care less and knowingly go on to dish out lies.    YouTube is one platform that has been abused. There, there is this huge lie that why the Nigerians are successful in contemporary African pop is because many of them speak a lot of languages from across Africa. What that means is that Davido will probably speak Swahili, Zulu, Wolof, Hausa... in addition to the Yoruba and English that he speaks.  

It is not true that if your music must succeed you must speak multiple foreign languages. “Theories” like these work against what they are intended to solve –helping intending artists. Artists would only get more confused, since there are multiple of these sorts of lies that are told.  It is the reason why I am posting this to let people understand, precisely what is required to become successful in music.

Here are they:

Talent.

An “artist” must have the talent. The singer must have the vocal ability, if he wants to sing.

You must know how to write professional lyrics.

If you are not sure how to achieve this, listen to successful musicians to study the structure and content of their songs. These days, with the internet, there are always lyrics of popular songs posted online. You can download and study it. And the word “study” shouldn’t scare you. Studying could just be ten minutes of you reading to see what the artist has said in the song and how it is related to his life.

You must be original in your singing style. 

This is important. Originality is the quality of uniqueness that is natural to you. Check out the vocal character of every successful artist. You will see that he is unique. 

You should be able to sing with an urban feel. 

Growing up in a major city should give you an urban personality.  But it is always good to start somewhere and grow.

Find a good producer.

There is the need to find a good producer. How do you know if someone is a good producer? You know a good producer from the consistency of his good works.

Your song must have a hook.

In this context, a hook is that mood that gets your head spinning or which “makes your head scatter” as the saying goes in Nigeria. When people keep coming back to your song, you surely find relevance.

Understand when your song is good.

Not all good songs get heard. It does come from poor publicity or ill luck, sometimes. There could be other factors. If you know your song is good, despite its inability to get heard, you understand that the problem isn’t you.

It is dangerous for an artist to be unable to understand that not all good songs or albums rise above the horizon. The danger is that the artist begins to try other needless and counterproductive approaches.

The Wailers songs weren’t known, for instance. It was after they broke off and found individual successes that people started looking into their past works to discover how good they were. What if they didn’t know that they were good?

 

Yiro Abari High is the author of How to Become a Music Maestro: 

 https://www.amazon.com/dp/1523494999?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860

Kevin Lyttle Comes Again

 The Billboard Magazine rates it as the best Dancehall chorus of the 21^st century, but it is shocking how fast we have forgotten Kevin Lyttle’s song, “She Drives Me Crazy,” and how it taught millions to see and understand the beauty of life.

Kevin Lyttle's Music Album Cover

If you are the type that relates well with music, you will agree that music, though underrated, is one thing that gives life a soul. Music that is sublime has a way of creating an imprint in one’s heart, an imprint that lingers for as long as you live.

Today, a roadside music-retailing shop played Kevin Lyttle’s “She Drives Me Crazy.” Suddenly, I recalled there was a time the song thundered, rumbled and reverberated around the planet. I had forgotten such a song ever “lived.”

I love music anytime. However, big hits from genres that I understand have often done something astonishing to me when I am homesick and the longing has eaten up its bounds. At this point, I will feel like I have travelled to another planet to feel something mother earth couldn’t offer. And, in the years to come, that moment will show up anytime I listen to that song.

 It happened to me three times. The first was in 1992, when I was travelling away from Jos, my home city, to Benin, Edo State, for national youth service. The second was while I was away in Port Harcourt and a deadly fight broke out in Jos. The third was in 2006, while staying in a remote town where I had been posted to work. It is this last one that concerns Kelvin Lyttle’s “She Drives Me Crazy.”

Ganawri, where I had been posted is a rural town with a funk that the even the blind can feel by groping. All decent housings you see are built by owners who live in them, the shack in which I stayed had no electrify, there weren’t restaurants except if you had to eat moi-moi or drink the highly fermented and sour kunu that is native to Ganawuri, friends were scarce and, hence, I was always thinking of Bukuru, in Jos-South. I often returned on Fridays to resume on Mondays. Thus, the five days between Sunday and Saturday often felt like five years. It was so grave that, on Fridays, I hadn’t the patience to wait until closing time. 

On one such Fridays, I left before closing. The jalopy roved around the hills bordering the dusty road. I felt like an American solider returning from Afghanistan after a year searching for Bin Ladin on the Tora Bora Mountain. Eventually, we hit the Jos-Abuja Expressway by Makera. Once there, the feeling of being in the city was triggered, perhaps, by the sight of the sparkling automobiles driving to and from Abuja. Like the petals of rose on an accelerated TV footage, the relief unfolded.

There was just one logical thing to do at the point: celebrating that milestone of the journey. I hopped into a road-side kiosk to have a cold and soothing Fanta drink. At that moment a Friday reggae show on Peace FM was live. Just as I sat down, She Drives Me Crazy started playing. My lips constricted, gripping a plastic straw, my mouth sucking the top end and ushering a gentle flow of the drink. With eyes closed, I felt the music rising to a crescendo, accentuating the beauty of the freedom I had just found and etching itself on the tablet of my heart.

Today, as I strolled by Vom Junction, a roadside audio monitor rumbled with She Drives Me Crazy, and the astonishing feeling at Makera, Riyom, played out again. Thanks to Kevin Lyttle; you added your own colour, making the world even more beautiful.

The Tiwa Savage Sex Tape Seems Staged

Captured from the Tiwa Savage video     

 What is trending within the Nigerian music circle, at the moment, is the topic of Tiwa Savage’s Sex Tape. I first saw it on YouTube, but shoved it aside –I had other issues on my mind when I logged into YouTube that day. Later, I saw it on Facebook, when a former Nigerian Senator commented on it, saying he would faint should he dare watch the video.

When I decided to watch it on YouTube finally, it wasn’t the full tape. It was a short slot shown in an interview in which Savage was hosted. The interview was on something else, but the Nigerian singer changed the trajectory of the discussion by introducing the story of the sex tape in a manner that seemed so unnatural. If she had failed to bring it up, the interview would have gone without the host asking anything about it. To her, it is an accomplishment the world needs to know.

The idea of a sex tape is an American subject. It was trending in the US for some time until the tide of events brought forth other issues that drowned the topic of sex tapes. Scandals about sex tapes seem old-fashioned. It was in connection with top American celebrities. It never happened anywhere else. At least we never heard it happening somewhere outside the US. Now, it is “happening” in Nigeria, not in the UK, not in Germany, not in France and not in Italy. It seems Nigeria is in a rush to narrow the gap between it and the US, at least on this subject.

There is no doubt that Savage is the Nigerian diva. If, however, some Nigerians, including Savage, are of the notion that stardom for a woman is never fully accomplished without a sex tape, then they have got it wrong. There hasn’t been any sex tape in connection with Beyoncé! There hasn’t been any in connection with Brandy whom Savage recently featured in one of her songs, “Somebody’s Son”! Neither has there been any in connection with Rihanna. Yet, these American women are among the most accomplished global music superstars.

The tape was, allegedly, recorded after Savage came out of a concert in Lagos. So, what it means is that immediately she ends any concert, the next thing is to have sex. I thought the next thing would be to shower. So, who is that Nigerian that has become so sophisticated (or rather stupid) to conceive this idea? How did he break into the hotel room to plant the camera without being noticed? Why was Savage in a rush to break the news?

Nigerians haven’t that kind of liberal culture. What we have is this warped notion that we are big when things happening in the US also happen in Nigeria. Sadly, Savage is of that notion as well. I had thought she had grown past the circle of people with this mindset. It is fine to put on revealing dresses in a music video and dance in a very seductive manner, but I think that there will be a problem if a video comes out that features you having sex.

Tiwa Savage was married to her former manager, Tunji Balogun until another sex scandal led them to end the marriage that had yielded a son. Since then, she had remained single, preferring to date, rather than get married. Meanwhile, she has continued to occupy the front seat of Nigerian and African Avant-Garde. But she needs to understand that a sex tape does not consummate stardom and that she needs to keep things real.

On Closing the Nigerian-Ghanaian Music Gap

Shatta Walle, a Ghanaian music artist

And the Ghanaian DJ said, “We will start something, the Nigerians will pick it up and polish it, and they are gone.”  He is a UK-based Ghanaian DJ who was visiting Ghana. He was asked how Ghanaian music was doing abroad.

Ghana has hundreds of successful music artists. The issue, though, is that their number isn’t proportional to the Ghanaian population. Plus, Ghanaians want to be the best, an aspiration that you find in many African countries.

I also listened to Shatta Wale, a famous Ghanaian Afro Hip-Hop artist, talking about the fact that Nigerian music has gone far, and that Ghana will never close the gap in five million years. Though Shatta Wale is very famous for his brutal truths as he is for his music, I don’t agree with him a hundred per cent.

I have also listened to Ghanaian music artists whining about the fact that Ghanaian promoters are more preoccupied promoting Nigerian music, rather than Ghanaian music.

It has been the constant worry for Ghanaians, the issue of the gap between Ghanaian and Nigeria music. The gap can be closed faster than folks think if Ghanaians understand where the problem lies. Matter of fact, Ghanaians should not be thinking of closing the gap between them and Nigeria as far as this subject is concerned. They should just focus on improving their music.

I want to believe that a lot of Ghanaians don’t even believe Shatta Wale. At least, the passion for careers in music hasn’t diminished in Ghana, despite his opinion.

Recently, I have been watching a Ghanaian TV channel, named TV3. Each time they play Ghanaian music, I watch, as often, with the eyes of a music analyst, rather than just a music fan. For most of the videos I have watched, the problem is the issue of originality, the issue of a natural feel in the music, the issue of spontaneity. Originality is what makes the music professional and conquering.

Let us be specific about the issue. When an artist is performing, whether in a video or live, for instance, he displays an attitude. The attitude is triggered by the music. For the video or performance to convey that feel of originality or spontaneity, the artist should not be acting more than the music is pushing him to. It amounts to falsification. Its consequence on the music is very grave, despite the fact that people underestimate it.  Unfortunately, this is the case, the issue of overacting, with most of the videos I have watched.

Overacting is one instance of harm that can be done to originality as the issue of originality is broad, cutting across the vocals and the instrumentation.

Understanding originality shouldn’t scare wannabe artists. You just need to understand the concept and watch how it plays out in professional music.  You will be surprised that it takes five weeks rather than five million years. 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHLytIFGNddajPEnt2Ry_Xg

Why Did My Second Album Fail?

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHLytIFGNddajPEnt2Ry_Xg