“I made the single because I am a fan of what he does, and what he has been doing before,” Kead says. “I just feel like if I could reach to him to get us another “Talk About it” album.”
M.I Abaga probably has to be the trendiest artist in Nigeria right now after the emergence of the controversial episode of Pulse’s Loose Talk podcast where he talked about criticism, his art, and his career so far.
While everyone has shared their hot takes and opinions on social media about the show and the conversation, unknown to many, the entire conversation was started from the most unlikely source; A young rapper named Kead, who released a record titled “Letter to M.I.” [You can stream it on Soundcloud above.]
Kead, 21, born Chukwubueze Okolie, who dropped the record in April 2017, didn’t know that his labour of love for M.I Abaga his idol would lead to the Loose Talk podcast, and an industry-wide conversation about his music and legacy.
“I made the single because I am a fan of what he does, and what he has been doing before,” Kead says. “I just feel like if I could reach to him to get us another “Talk About it” album.”
Released in 2008, “Talk About It” is regarded as Abaga’s most critically and commercially successful project. It contained the records ‘Anoti’, ‘Crowd mentality’, and ‘Blaze’ democratized Hip hop and provided music that everybody could relate to. M.I singlehandedly took Hip hop mainstream in Nigeria, and up to date, his live performance sets still contains records from that project.
“I’m a fan of Hip hop, and I think the Hip hop game in Nigeria has gone too soft,” Kead complains. “And for someone that says ‘I’m the king’, you can’t be the king and not actually wear the crown. You need to sit on the throne, and say ‘Yo this is the culture we are carrying.”
Kead has been following M.I since ‘Crowd mentality’, and has been a firm supporter through the releases of all projects. Three mixtapes and three albums have been released by M.I in almost a decade. Almost a decade of fandom for Kead.
But it isn’t until the release of the 2014 LP, “The Chairman,” that Kead began to doubt the quality of the artist that he had dedicated his emotions, money and time to. Just like numerous ardent M.I fans all over the world, “The Chairman” album was a conundrum. Their favourite rapper had learned the language of the streets to keep up with time and reduced the lyrical integrity of the project. This killed Kead.
“When the album came out, all M.I’s hardcore fans overrated the album. I thought it would be the bomb, and I rocked with it for the first one month, and I got tired of it.” As he described his frustration.
“I tried to introduce the project to my friends and force it upon them to listen to it too. But everyone I asked said they were not messing with M.I. It got frustrating as a fan, and so I had to speak up. He was the person I looked up to, he just needs to raise the bar up for Nigerian Hip hop at the moment.”
Fundamentally, M.I disagrees with Kead and thousands of his fans who rank the album low. According to the rapper, “Talk About It” was his worst project. Abaga ranks “The Chairman” higher than his groundbreaking classic rap project, a statement that fans on social media have argued against on Twitter. It’s a typical case of the consumers and creators disagreeing over the quality of the product.
“The production of back then can’t be the same with today’s production. Technology gets better, and the sounds improve,” Kead rationalises the statement. “But lyrically, I don’t think so”
“Compare ‘Shekpe’ to ‘Blaze’ for example, no one says M.I should be releasing ‘Shekpe’, but we are requesting that he just makes another ‘Blaze.’”
In June 2015, Jude Abaga was announced as the CEO of Chocolate City Music. He was succeeding Audu Maikori, a lawyer who founded the record label, in partnership with his colleagues Paul Okeugo and Yahaya Bello. Audu spent many years at the helm of affairs at the company, before stepping down and handing the mantle to M.I. A section of fans have argued that it was a wrong move because the running of such a huge company might have affected M.I’s concentration on his music.
Kead disagrees with that. Drawing on the example of JAY-Z who is the head of Roc Nation, a company he has run for nearly 10 years, but maintained his relevance in music and in the culture. He says added responsibility in the life of musicians is not a reason to allow their art suffer. “Old man Hov is still impactful in 2017. If we can have a Nigerian rapper that can do that, I think I’ll be fine.”
Kead goes further, explaining that the Hip hop culture needs more people to carry the culture and lead the path. He says the Loose Talk Podcast is one of those ways in which progress can be achieved by Hip hop. He also says the blending of pop music is a threat to the survival of Hip hop, but it can be managed to improve the culture. “Look at what Ycee is doing, trying to fuse his pop influence with Hip hop.”
Kead is working on a new project and thinks “Letter to M.I” is the start of something great. On the record, he flows “This ain’t a diss to M.I Abaga, just a letter from a son to a father.” I ask him if he could go back in time to four months ago. Would he still make the decision to record the track again?
“Definitely,” he says. “I meant every word I said to M.I and I would definitely make it again.”
Read More: M.I Abaga: We spoke to Kead, the young rapper who inspired the entire Abaga podcast
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