The Spectacular Ordinariness of P-Square

THE MINISTRY OF ARTS / MUSIC DEPT.

It was the one song your mother approved. Facing the screen, she beamed at those sparkling young men dressed in white blazers and white trousers, with a host of children around them on a school playground. Perhaps it’s the flurry of positive movement that delights her heart, but as she listens, the music opens itself: this soft, comfort music, an autobiography—she’ll come to learn—of twins who seized their odds and made themselves legends of Nigerian pop culture.

P-Square was everything anyone could be, especially at a time when people could be anything. The much-vaunted Nigerian music scene of the 2000s: a hallowed space, one that was remarkably easy to enter but difficult to navigate. Unstructured for the most part, the figures who distinguished themselves in those times tended to cluster. To find spaces of potential impact, several non-music influencers such as record labels and radio stations would make an unofficial centre of the Lagos scene, being that it represented a fine sample of Nigeria’s multi-ethnicity. When P-Square began to emerge as a legitimate sensation, they were different in this essential sense—they didn’t seem tied down to any geographical location.

Jos, where they resided primarily, would supply their early musical education. Bands and the drama club. Friends and friendly challenges. The dare to become. As a rich cultural and musical centre, the capital of Plateau would have made the impression on these adventurous boys of Igbo extraction, absorbed freely in the charms of their resident state. Every account paints a glorified picture of starboys; one must understand the excited relief that came with living up to their potential, when they won the Abuja-held nationwide talent show in 2001 and their debut album, Last Nite, was subsequently funded by Benson & Hedges.

Amidst the acclaim of this first arc, P-Square’s presentation was ostensibly influenced by American showmen: the usual names are well known but peruse what this well-curated brand of appropriation would have done to an audience already familiar with the material. It was doubly satisfying, received as one would a visitor that speaks her language. And Peter and Paul spoke our language. We love stories. We love the progression from Point A to Point B, but only because of the people in-between those points. So, they gave us a story on Last Nite, but it was on Get Squared where they mastered the art, and act, of characterization.