At Felabration sex and social issues share stage

Sometimes, however, the randomness and chaos gives way to complementary order, such as the back to back performances by Jesse Jagz and Reminisce on Saturday 14 October.

The night started, as it often does, with aspiring artists in need of attention miming to singles on stage. This was followed by artists with some name recognition like Jon Ogah, who performed his Uncle Suru to a tepid response and Seun Olota whose ExTasI band delivered a frenetic Afrobeat set—brass blaring, dancers wiggling, and Seun singing.

But it was hard to figure out what Seun Olota was saying, because the sound system seemed primed for the instrumental backup to the detriment of words. This wasn’t a problem with the miming artists, for whom the microphone was just for show. It was, however, impossible to hear whatever message Olota was trying to pass to his audience. Felabration 2017, after all, was about prophecy, and Fela, over any other artist in Nigerian history, valued words as much as sound. He may not have been a prophet in the eschatological sense of the word, but he was definitely a wordsmith.

Jesse Jagz, another artist for whom quality words are priority, came onstage and the crowd greeted him with wild chants. Jagz is that rare Nigerian artist who has managed a decent following and stayed relevant without "dumbing down" like his fellow hip hop artists confess to doing.

Midway through his set, Jesse Jagz asked the DJ to halt the music so he could deliver these lines from Burning Bush: "A lot of people burning bush / Living in the city some are living in the bush /Desire is the root and evil is the fruit / See a lot of lies can be hidden in the truth / Like how our politicians take possession of the youth / Take the election booth and they burn it to the roots.”

It was as if he needed music to stop so words could be heard. The crowd was mellow while he delivered his lines. The music resumed and they remained subdued, only roused when Jagz coaxed them into a sing along. Reluctantly, they joined, some parts of the crowd showing knowledge of the lines.

Reminisce had no such problems with the audience. From his entry till he dropped the mic, they were on their feet. Loudly, they chanted “Wa fe ku laleyi ehn”, a line from Reminisce’s ‘Tesojue’ that is explicit in its promise of vigorous sex. They did not stop singing along, and even took over when he paused and extended the microphone to them.

The rise of local rappers and the verve with which audiences pay attention to their words betrays the argument that Nigerians do not care about lyrics. Of course, the average Nigerian pop star is still preoccupied with sex and its appurtenances. To expect a time when they’ll abandon this and focus on the social issues like those Fela wrestled with is to wait by the waters hoping to catch the crab blink.

But how shall the people hear the prophecy if they are not told, you ask. Well, first we’ll have to pay even more attention to the words spoken by local rappers. For they, more than any class of Nigerian artists, hold the promise of a time when lyrics will match beat.

The New Afrikan Shrine crowd loved Jesse Jagz and Reminisce. Their respect for the former might be forced, love for the latter loud, but they do not lack the capacity to acknowledge both. At Felabration, sex and social issues weren’t mutually exclusive. Even Fela would approve.