John Ogah ft Adekunle Gold x Simi – Uncle Suru

Songs can elicit emotions without words. A track full of minor chords will sound melancholic by default, another with soaring guitar riffs might suggest freedom. So, when Uncle Suru starts slow, the generic highlife-based beat of Nigerian pop reduced to a drag, it’s clear that John Ogah is aiming for a semi-meditative vibe. And he hits the mark.

Uncle Suru is an ode to artists and the things they do to make it, packaged as a dedication to those who help them achieve their dreams. It’s mildly enjoyable if you do not care to match the words of the hook to the mood of the song. And if there’s any part of the opening/hook that carries the fullness of the singer’s intentions, it is the sixth line where Ogah sings “they say that I’m day dreaming, musician life e no easy.”

In the first part of the hook, he sings “Uncle Suru, I’m off to Surulere, they say if I meet 2face, I’m gonna become a big star.” This seems contrived simply to make the "Suru-Surulere-2face" internal rhyme. It matches the name of the song's titular character to a suburb in Lagos and to 2face—aka 2Baba—the popular artist he hopes to meet so he can become a big star. But Surulere is not famed for producing artists, neither is 2Baba known to own a house in the area.

Given how John Ogah misses the opportunity to create something profound by putting effort into the lines of his hook, one gets the feeling he sings of a struggle he doesn’t understand, at least not viscerally. At 18, Ogah won the first edition of Glo Naija Sings, a musical talent hunt that rewarded him with $100 000. He produced a popular track with rapper Sasha titled ‘Gbedu'. In the years following that win, he has earned two degrees, and intermittently released songs with little buzz.

In 2014, he got a call that Suru, the man who encouraged him in secondary school to sing as part of a choir died in a terror attack by Boko Haram in Kaduna. His response to that incident was the tune of the song Uncle Suru, which was then released in 2014, but has now been remade into a single with Adekunle Gold and Simi. The backstory of this song explains its mellow nature. It is actually an ode to the titular character. But John Ogah’s lyrics do little to match the spirit of that story.

Featured artists Adekunle Gold and Simi show some songwriting skill, making the song less pedestrian. Being part of a band long before he found success sampling a song by a British boy band, Adekunle Gold knows what he’s saying when he sings, “You gats to get connection to become a big star.” He found his connection in Olamide, famous rapper and YBNL record label boss. On his verse, Adekunle Gold turns to his usual habit of sampling words from popular Yoruba songs when he says “Mo n k’orin ju R. Kelly lo, irinse lo n je mi niya.” He is saying, “I can sing better than R Kelly, but I lack the required instruments” adapting a hook that usually uses names of Fuji stars Pasuma and Obesere.

Getting features right is a science—precisely, Chemistry—that few artists have perfected: The naiveté of the song fits Simi’s musical persona and the aspirational theme is tailor-made for Adekunle Gold, who hardly makes a song without referencing his path to success.

The masterstroke is that Uncle Suru sounds written with these featured artists in mind. But through mediocre songwriting—the easy hook, the convenient rhyme—John Ogah detracts from the emotions of the tragic backstory. And that is another kind of tragedy.