About That Line In Yeba

Yeba is a delightful song. From the first beat, you're drawn into this earworm of a song, you are compelled to move. You nod and hum along to the song. You're enjoying this. This is a good song. And then you hear it. Three words that send you into a puzzled pause: “uncle stop touching”.

Those words are very easy to miss, and if you're not listening intently, you probably won't hear them. The first time I heard Kiss Daniel's now hit Yeba, I was carried away by the upbeat tempo of the song and how he delivers “ah one ... ah two ... ah tiri”. I even argued with the person who told me. Maybe you were listening to a different song. Or maybe it was one of those DJ mixes. Alas, it was not.

Yeba is undoubtedly one of the biggest songs to hit the airwaves this year, and it will most likely appear on many lists of the best Nigerian or African songs of the year -- it would have been on my list too, but I can't get over that line.

In the Nigerian music scene today, you can count on one hand the number of artistes who can be considered socially conscious. Fewer still explore issues such as sexual exploitation and harassment in their work.

Kiss Daniel is not known to be overtly, or even covertly, sexist or misogynist, whether in his private life or in his lyrics and music. He also makes us laugh with his funny Instagram videos. This is why you aren't sure what to make of those words. He projects the image of the quintessential good guy who just wants to love you and make you dance. He’s also not known to use his music to explore or criticize social issues. This is why it’s difficult to decipher the meaning and purpose of that line. It doesn't seem to fit into the overall sense of the song, which appears to be about partying and dancing.

Does he not realise that this is a serious problem, especially in light of the conversation surrounding sexual assault and harassment. Is he attempting to shine a light on something that we already know all too well? Is it there for the shock effect? Is it supposed to be a light-hearted take on harassment that happens on dance floors at Owambes? Is it supposed to be a joke? Funny? You could interpret the subtleness of the line to be a reflection of the subtle ways women experience harassment. You could also say that the apology that follows the line shows that he isn’t trying to encourage sexual harassment.

Artistes like Falz and Ajebutter, who can be considered as socially conscious/aware, take a definite stand on whatever issues they choose to highlight in their songs, be it leery uncles, tribalist relatives, thieving politicians, or greedy girls, but it’s not easy to determine where Kiss Daniel stands.

The conversation about the content of Nigerian music alluding to or indirectly promoting sexual harassment and assault is not new. Following the release of Olamide’s ‘Story for the Gods’ in 2014, there was a lot of controversy and criticism about it. Was it encouraging rape? Was it discouraging rape? Was it just a party song? Should we even look to Nigerian music for meaning?

To attempt to parse the lyrics of contemporary Nigerian music for meaning or substance is usually an exercise in futility, and while this one line in Kiss Daniel’s Yeba seems innocuous, especially when compared to the entire song that is Story For The Gods, it is important to take a second look because whether we like it or not, and whether musicians mean to or not, we are influenced by the things we listen to. Also, people always look for meaning in art. For these reasons, artistes must pay attention to the possible interpretations of the work they put out.