Mr Incredible

In a time when rap music in Nigeria was almost in a state of inertia, M.I Abaga, with a cohort of ‘Jos boys’, gave it life once again, this time, introducing an original aesthetic that transformed the sound of Nigerian rap.

Written by Carl Terver

Dec 8, 2023

Illustration by Charles Owen (blvninjv) / THE REPUBLIC.

Editor’s note: This essay is available in our print issue, The Age of Afrobeats. Buy the issue here.

Folks from Jos, the capital of Plateau, like to say their city is the birthplace of Nigerian rap and hip-hop. The pointer is mostly to a rap group called Black Maskuraderz whose song ‘The Truth’, very early in Nigerian pop history, was featured as a soundtrack in the 1997 film, Out of Bounds, starring Richard Mofe-Damijo in his first ever acting role. This happened in the context of an already vibrant rap music consciousness that was fostered in the city since 1994, when radio host, Sammy Rita, hosted a 30-minute show on Peace FM 90.5, tagged ‘Ghetto Raps United’. The show was later continued by Eldee Extra Large, Yiro Abari High, a writer from Jos, told me during my research for this story. (Eldee Extra Large would later be part of the hip-hop group, Swat Root, which shot to fame in the early 2000s.)

The debate about the birthplace of Nigerian hip-hop is mostly an argument about paying respect—as the hip hop culture is known for—especially since The Remedies, formed a year later, in 1998, blew up in Lagos and is, today, more likely to begin a conversation on how rap music became mainstream in Nigeria. But silent in this conversation is Kaduna, where the rappers Six Foot Plus, Overdose, and Eldee, once avatars of Nigerian rap music, are from. In the end, however, from a long line of ancestors, emerged a rapper who would represent not just his city, but his country, and even the African continent, in a ground-breaking career arguably unrivalled by any African rapper to date. That rapper is M.I Abaga.

THE BEGINNING OF A LEGACY

M.I didn’t announce himself so loudly. The year was 2008 when Abuja was still lauded as the ‘fastest growing city in Africa’. M.I, who had formed a music group, Loopy Music, in Jos (with brother, Jesse Jagz, Ruby, and Lindsay), moved to Abuja following a record deal with Chocolate City label. Abuja was very much still morphing, unassuming, still defining itself, which led to the proliferation of satellite towns as a direct result of an influx of citizens relocating to it to enjoy its comfort and safety. There wasn’t any solid entertainment infrastructure. What was available were new radio stations like Hot 98.3 FM, Capital FM, and Cool FM, among others. With Cable TV, young people could watch South Africa’s Channel O, and MTV Base, popular music channels at the time. And on paid airtime on AIT, indigenous music channels like Soundcity and Hip TV aired, becoming popular.

It was perhaps this slow and lukewarm landscape that inspired M.I’s laidback but hippy and funky 2008 single, ‘Crowd Mentality’. Before the first punchlines of the song, we hear the intro, ‘Now we’re going to talk about something serious…’ In no rightful rapper’s mind, or even the mind of a music executive, could anyone have expected such a song, which defied known formulas of a hit song, would become pivotal. ‘Crowd Mentality’ paralleled (known as Tuface at the time) 2Baba’s ‘Nfana Ibaga’ as a song that announces an artist as well as a new era...

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This story features in our print issue, 'The Age of Afrobeats'.

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About the Author

Carl Terver

has a BA in English from Benue State University, Makurdi. He was longlisted for the 2024 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. He has been published in The Stockholm Review, Goethe-Institut Nigeria, and Afapinen, and he is the author of the photobook, Glory to the Sky. Terver writes about film, literature, photography, and music.

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