ZLATAN: WHAT HITS ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?

Sometimes having the talent isn't just enough.Nigerian artistes have over the years pulled stunts to draw attention to themselves and their craft.From the semi-effective like Skiibii faking his own death to the utterly feckless like Peruzzi having a bedroom video of himself and a lady leaked just weeks before his HeartWork EP dropped.But if ever any real discussion is had on factors outside the music working to favour an artiste then Zlatan Ibile will feature prominently.

I followed him more closely once i heard Oja and by virtue of that,have had a front row seat to his meteoric rise in the music industry.Zlatan has grown to become not only Nigeria's number one street artiste but also the most featured musician in the industry right now.His most widely accepted song is Zanku (Legwork) which at best is a semi-hit and of all the zillion features he has had,Killin Dem with Burna boy and Chinko Ekun's Able God, if we walk a little further in time are the only ones worth mentioning.

A critical look at his input on both songs will reveal he didn't have as much bearing as others on it.Killin Dem was almost entirely Burna's chorus and verse while Lil Kesh in addition to a verse,also contributed to Chinko Ekun's well loved chorus on Able God.Why then is Zlatan the most coveted artiste in the country?.Where are the hits?.

First he courted attention.A careful look at Zlatan's instagram page before the fame will reveal he aggressively pushed 2 things-a bottled water throwing challenge in which he tagged a lot of celebrities but didn't get much response and the Zanku dance.At that time,the bottled water challenge which involved tossing a half full bottle and making it land upright appeared his best bet at catching the eye.The Shaku Shaku was in vogue and he appeared somewhat lame and desperate trying to start his own dance.

Zlatan even before the fame was pictured and videoed in fly houses and had as friends he hung out with,even bigger artistes who appeared to be eating from his palms rather than the other way round-Lil Kesh and Naira Marley to name two.He featured both on the follow up song to Oja, Jogor which also didn't get much buzz.

Then the break through finally came in the form of Chinko Ekun's Able God where the artistes danced his Zanku in the music video.People loved the dance and it started to grow from then on.It became much bigger than an even bigger Zlatan whose best claim to fame at that time was being on Able God.When he released the Zanku (Leg work) song,a lot more people got to know he started it and that was when he started popping on the streets.

He badly needed to build on that and he got featured by Burna boy and Davido back to back.Most people i told i felt he had an 'agreement' to be featured on those songs said he wasn't rich enough.They obviously hadn't seen what he was living like.The yahoo scandal had them thinking again and even sprung up the question of whether Chinko Ekun was also paid through Lil Kesh to have him on Able God.Bum Bum didn't have the usual fanfare accompanying a Davido song asides the fact that it was produced by Zlatan's producer,Rexxie and both videos weren't at par with what both artistes were used to making.

Killin Dem was initially pitched as a joint effort when it was released and till this day,Zlatan's name comes first on the video on Burna boy's YouTube page.Remarkable also is the fact that only Zlatan's name was mentioned at the beginning of the song.However,that strategy worked wonders.

The 'Zanku' guy had the attention of the big boys and everyone too wanted a slice.The yahoo saga worked more in favour of Naira Marley who went on to drop 2 well accepted songs upon release in Opotoyi and the monstrous hit, Soapy but most people barely noticed Zlatan recorded 4 Days in Okotie Eboh and This Year as well.Not even his street fan base.

Countless features ever since but Zlatan asides not having a decent delivery,has neither a catchy nor distinctive style to enable him make a solid impression on virtually all the songs he has been on.A hit is truly a hit when the streets love it and the Zanku dance and 'Gbe bodi e' slang have kept the streets enthralled till this day.

Most artistes try to key into the street cred when they put him on a track.Regardless of having not really  stood out artistically, the streets love Zlatan and that represents opportunity.

He has teased a song dissing recently evicted Big Brother Naija contestant and erstwhile favourite,Tacha.Everyone is talking about it with fans on his side finding it ballsy and hilarious.

Focus will most likely be on anything but the quality of the song and because the Gbe bodi e master is still appreciated where counts most for him,it won't change a lot.Never have factors outside the music favoured an artiste this much.

VECTOR'S THE PURGE: BREATHING LIFE INTO THE GAME

MI HAD IT COMING

There couldn't be a better pointer to how dormant Nigerian hip hop was than MI walking away unscathed with a proclamation as audacious as You Rappers Need To Fix Up Your Life.South African rappers were killing ours out there but this guy too was below par and singing like his peers.He released a pop culture friendly album after that and just months later was back to his opportunistic best exploiting the low-pressure ambience of the rap scene to tell us he wanted to resurrect hip hop in Nigeria with his crew and had 3 albums coming.MI may be the biggest ever rap artiste Nigeria has produced but he wasn't half the rapper he once was.Like Vec rightly said on The Purge-"African rapper number one my ass.Boy,the Flavour left".

MI was more or less a personification of the problem-our rappers simply stopped being good enough but MI rather than cop to the fact that he slipped off,was telling others they needed to up their game.Of the 3 albums released on his hip hop mission,AQ & Loose Kaynon's The Crown was the only one qorth talking about.Blaqbonez sang and nursery-rhymed through his while MI was appalling with the excessive attempt to sound foreign over some lame songs.He was telling us Pusha-T ought to be grateful to be mentioned in the same breath as him and was preaching against racism where he lives (Nigeria,just so we are clear).The Martell Cypher came and rolled past without a single line worthy of mention.Then a second one dropped after Blaqbonez declared himself best rapper in Africa with 4 guys from Chocolate City still chest-thumping like they were doing something out of the ordinary.Vector had enough.Heck,even if it meant resurrecting a 'deaded' beef,MI and his baggage needed to be put in their place.

IMPACT ON THE CULTURE

Vector's The Purge featuring Payper and Vader was the number one trending topic on twitter just hours after it was released.Rap is a contact sport and beef is a highly appealing aspect of rap culture especially for fans outside the genre.The Purge is quite simply the strongest surge Nigerian hip hop has felt in quite a while.No desperate chorus trying to appeal to a wider range of fans and no fancy beat to conceal a lack of substance.Albeit for just one track,we were back to talking dope punchlines and metaphors-3 lyricists unleashing a most brutal verbal assault.

There's been several degrees of revolt against the subsisting order by some top rap acts in the past and in all cases,a shred of purity is sacrificed with each level of conformity to the status quo.The Purge is classical rap music and it highlights just how viable pure content still is.

They say if you shoot at the King then don't miss and MI took quite a hit from Vector.That is a landmark and there couldn't be a better wake up call to naija rappers.'Accountability' is key.Anyone wishing to assume flagbearer status must be up to it.Rappers have been quiet for too long.

ALBUM REVIEW: DESPITE A DIP IN ARTISTRY, PHYNO STILL DELIVERS ON DEAL WITH IT

Phyno made a name for himself as an indigenous rapper with the least dependence ever on a groovy or catchy chorus.He always had an inch-perfect delivery for a track and the classy drift from ibo to english and back was breath-taking.When he tried his hands on afro-pop,he made 2 of the biggest songs in the country back-to-back in Connect and Father Father.It has to be said for him that no nigerian artiste has ever managed that prior.

A lot has happened since he released his sophomore album,The Playmaker where we saw him excel at new levels of versatility and display an abundant knack for the extraordinary.Everything that has happened since then are pretty much summed up on the 21 tracks on this album.

Though the unique quality the artiste has does pop up every now and then, in between he makes songs that at the very best,can be referred to as casualties of the very high standard he has set.Then finally,there are ones that make you wonder if you even know the artiste at all.

Noteworthy also is the heavier reliance on the indigenous elements of his game for Deal With It than ever before.Some times to great effect,other times not.He opens the album with much panache on the title track,Deal With It.Phyno oozes sheer class on a thumping Benjamz beat in a style quite reminiscent of the 'King of the East' we fell in love with.

Deal With It is perhaps the best indigenous hip hop song made in at least the last 2 years while the trappy and infectious Oso Ga EMe gives an insight to just how ingenious Phyno's creative process can get.Ke Ife O is sweet,refined and well produced with all the trappings of a new era love song.On his day,the Playmaker is a master of sounds.

However,what baffles about this album is the disparity between the great songs and others not on their level.God's Willing with Runtown lacked a genuine spark to lift it out of the ordinary while he had Phenom and Falz to save Get The Info and make the nice chorus count.A Major Bangz beat complete with a subtle soul sample and what is fast becoming a trademark switch in rap instrumentals make Speak Life sound perhaps more pleasant than it ordinarily would.

These latter set of rap songs are what you could classify as victims of an over-pampered listener.

But it is Body feat Harmonize and Recognize with his Pent hauze signee,Cheque that shockingly speak little of Phyno's artistry.He sounds many worlds apart from the artiste we have seen severally shuffle ibo and english lines with an absorbing delivery on the right beat.

While Recognize has a decent pre-chorus and chorus to serve as a healthy distraction,he is ineffectively fast and tasteless on Body.Phyno in addition to being a rapper also sings and a song with the highlife King and fellow Enugu boy,Flavour would have anyone salivating at its prospects but then Vibe is a huge disappointment.They never quite adapt to the native instrumental with Phyno's pace being put again to dismal use and Flavour's unmoving chorus making matters worse.When language starts to become a barrier when listening to a Phyno track,you know he has set himself up really wrong for it to come to that.

Judging from more recent antecedents, Phyno's best was likely to come from his pop songs.The Bag was so very well received by fans,everyone overlooked the not-so-impressive All I See featuring Duncan Mighty which could very much pass for the second pre-album single.There was the typical sprinkling of highlife elements but it basically had you stuck in foreplay all through with no raw cutting edge to drive it home.

Overall,it must be said for Phyno however that there are more outstanding pop songs on the album and a lesser gap in quality between them and the ones that aren't.

A lot of focus will be on songs with high profile features like Blessings which had the chorus-killing heroics of the maestro,Don Jazzy himself and a verse from his regular side kick,Olamide to complete the 'Father Father' recipe.Then also the very captivating Ka Anyi Na Yo; where Phyno and Teni combine so brilliantly with some great singing in ibo and yoruba.

But songs like Deri deserve just as much mention.The absorbing shift in rhythmic gears on that tempo is so dazzling.The ibos have proven time and time again they have a distinctive winning formula when it comes to gospel songs and Phyno taps quite brilliantly into that for the uplifting I Got Your Back.The Zoro assisted Uwam also has to go down as a memorable Phyno track.

On the other hand, Ride For You tops the list of songs that fall victim to the standard set by a singing Phyno even on this album.It has a big name feature in Davido and he did some really good singing in ibo.Ma Chi is a bit drenched in too much intensity for a love song and the only song to fall on the not-just-good-enough column is Problem.

Phyno may not quite be the artiste he once was but dripping this much quality in his current state attests to just how talented he is.Deal With It is an impressive album.

XENOPHOBIA: BUHARI HAS LOST US RESPECT IN THE EYES OF THE WORLD

Until at least the last 48 hours,there were videos online of nigerians being killed in South Africa almost on a daily basis.The only crime this men along with other African nationals committed was to be in South Africa and be prosperous enough to become a threat.A threat the South African Deputy Minister of Police,Bongani Mkongi clearly pointed out in justification of the killings-"there are many foreigners and one day,they could take over the country".

Our nigerian brothers and sisters lucky enough to escape being clubbed or macheted to death,sought refuge in the nigerian embassy but were shut out.Yes,the nigerian embassy shut its doors to nigerians for them to go and be killed.Government didn't issue a press release to deny or state why.Instead it serenaded us with some very uninspiring 'It is doing' stories.

Nobody in government talked about flight arrangements for nigerians willing to return or promised to look into how the South African law enforcement agencies allowed the crisis degenerate to this level.Finally,we were hit with a bombshell; Buhari wasn't even going to travel down to South Africa until October.Normally when lamenting government's inaction or non-responsiveness, we ask 'Is it till nigerians are being killed?'.Nothing could be worse than nigerians being massacred in the most godless ways and filmed for the world to see.Is it because there is a virtually non-existent possibility of any of those killed being fulani?.

Other governments preceding Buhari's may also not have given nigerians the sort of leadership they deserve but under them,we commanded a great deal of respect.In 2012 when South Africa sent back 125 nigerians for presenting fake yellow fever vaccination cards,President Jonathan responded in kind by deporting 84 South Africans in just two days.The then Minister of Foreign Affairs,Olugbenga Ashiru boldly referred to the conduct of the South Africans' as 'Xenophobic' and warned them to not take the conducive business environment availed them here for granted.Nigeria demanded an apology and that the yellow fever policy be reviewed.Just days later, the South Africans apologized to Nigeria through their Deputy Minister of foreign affairs who said deportations from then henceforth would be handled by the foreign affairs ministry.He also quite interestingly, added that they were not expecting an apology in return for the deportation of their 84 country men.

That was when we still had our reputation abroad intact.Jonathan may be a lot of things but Nigeria under him was more respected globally.He never travelled overseas to go and lament over how nigerian youths were lazy or how the US and UK countries didn't want us there because we were criminals.There is nothing nigerians are being accused of today that they weren't under President Jonathan but no one had the privilege of being able to refer to any corroborative remarks from our President.

South Africa was one of the very first places Buhari visited as President and he is on record as saying there that he was proud nigerians wherever they were in the world would make both 'positive & NEGATIVE' impact.Today,any South African not sounding preposterous with the claim that their land is being taken over is conveniently falling back on the notion that we are all drug dealers and fraudsters.

Buhari,perhaps forgetting he was proud of the 'negative' impact,then said in the UK months later while warning nigerians to desist from citing the boko haram crisis as a reason for seeking asylum there that our reputation for 'drug and human trafficking' had made it difficult for the US or the UK to accept us because they had too many already in their jails.Our global image has suffered a serious dent under a President more interested in piling up the dirt than laundering our image.

His tame response to the killing of our brothers and sisters abroad begets an undesirable impact on the travails of the every day nigerian there.To add that countries aren't bending over backwards to ensure they prevent our citizens from getting slaughtered,these satanic elements can wake up before his October visit to pick up from where they left with Garba Shehu issuing statements the South Africans ordinarily should on how it was an isolated breach.

There may be reasons to think even South African leaders themselves are xenophobic and may have allowed the problem thrive but there was a time when they would in the best interest of their country,ensure the safety of nigerians living there.That is no longer the case.At the risk of sounding immodest,we are now no different from the Tanzanians,Zimbabweans,Zambians and others that have run there for a better life.

Nigerians down here that have quite regrettably, resorted to vandalizing Shoprite and MTN outlets across the country do so because there are practically no South Africans to kill.They are in a more comfortable position.

I remember saying when MTN was fined N1trn for an infraction that despite our sad financial state,we must thread with caution so we don't frustrate a key player in our business community and one of the highest providers of labour in the country.Government did eventually take the right step by cutting down the fine to N330bn but only after the company had reportedly spent a lot on bribes.Notably the N500M allegedly paid to President Buhari's Chief of Staff,Abba Kyari.

Even if the South African President called or visited Buhari to intercede,he would have heard every story MTN also had to say.Why bother saving a South African company money that would subsequently go into bribes?.Whatever power any threat would have on their government had been severely watered down.We have never been this powerless towards South Africa and instead of Buhari to try and adapt to the climate he has created by making a sit down with the South African President a matter of national priority,he is sending people that will go and start whatever they say with 'Sir'.

It is our hope that the killings stop but ultimately,nigeria will need to command the respect it deserves.If not for anything,for the good of its citizens in the diaspora.

$9BN JUDGMENT: A BREAK DOWN OF BUHARI AND MALAMI'S INCOMPETENCE AND THEIR PATHETIC SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM

Expecting Abubakar Malami,the Attorney-General of the federation to satisfactorily defend the Buhari administration's handling of the Process and Industrial Development Limited situation is no different from giving him a chance to explain how Section 174 of the constitution allows him to disobey court orders-he won't make any sense.

President Buhari was sworn into office on May 29th 2015 and precisely 3 weeks 5 days earlier on May 3rd,PI&D had offered to drop its right to challenge the breach on the part of the Nigerian government of a contract to supply gas for a settlement sum of $850M.Jonathan then indicated to the company that he was going to hand over negotiations to the incoming Buhari administration and even if Buhari would deny ever being made aware,the arbitration tribunal's liability award just 2 months later in July wouldn't have escaped the notice of a proactive and responsive President.Buhari sat back and did absolutely nothing.

It is sad that we have sunk so low that 'Buhari had no Attorney-General for 5 months' is what some expect to us to accept as a plausible explanation.Why didn't Buhari in that period,order the Solicitor-General of the federation to monitor the situation and advise him?.Buhari could as a matter of fact have done what he ought to after assuming office any time after the tribunal passed its judgment-write personally to the company and plead for more time within which to have a sit-down.But he didn't.

Malami was appointed Attorney-General in November 11th 2015 and opted to continue with the lawyer engaged by the Jonathan administration to prosecute the matter,Olasupo Shashore SAN.Shashore only filed an application to set aside the award at Federal high court of Nigeria only 2 weeks after it was refused in the UK on the basis that the time to contend the award had lapsed by 4 months.The records show the tribunal as affirming the UK as the seat of arbitration in line with its rules within this period and as such no nigerian court has jurisdiction over its decisions.This was on May 27th 2016.If we count 4 months from May 2016,it stops at February in that same year.Malami had a whole 6 months counting from his appointment date of 11th November 2015 to facilitate the filing of an appeal against the award (different from an actual hearing for damages payable) which he failed to do.He even retained a lawyer 'smart' enough to think he could frustrate an arbitration tribunal in the UK with a nigerian court.

P&ID are not lying.Buhari and his Attorney-General are the reasons why we are paying $9bn as a judgment sum instead of $850M or even less.$850M is less than 10% of $9bn.As the company itself has said,Malami could have still negotiated an award of $850M or even less i add, when he took office instead of pushing all the way to a quantum hearing (to ascertain the amount of damages payable).He has gambled away 20% of our foreign reserves and 40% of the 2019 budget.Experts are saying off-setting the debt would lead to a dollar crisis that may lead to a dollar being sold for as high as N500.

It has become quite typical of Buhari and his proxies to always forget they are here because nigerians wanted better.If they were satisfied with how the country was being run under President Jonathan they wouldn't have voted him out.Malami's press statement instead of explaining the reason for government's costly inaction and matching the P&ID's version with dates and steps taken,basically had as its focal point a reiteration of the fact that the highly dubious contract and subsequent breach was under the Jonathan administration.Don't let the metaphoric irony skip past-Nigeria's problems have multiplied from $850M to $9bn.

It is sad how President Buhari has handled this matter so far.Instead of fashioning a reasonable way out of this mess,government has chosen to get confrontational and that would lead it no where.Malami's claim in an interview on CNBC Africa of the Jonathan administration doing nothing for 3 years while neglecting to point out how their incompetence led to us losing this much prompted P&ID to release its diary of what transpired.

Now paid protesters have been told to lay siege at the UK and Irish embassies for the next 7 days till the $9.6bn judgment is reversed.The danger in getting overly adversarial is that P&ID will gradually be dragged into a position where if it negotiates,it could come off as being subdued.These companies have entire PR departments writing reports on how decisions affect their public image and reputation.

The President we deserve or at least one smart enough to surround himself with living brains, would understand his priority at this juncture would be hopping on a plane to the UK to try and talk the Prime Minister into prevailing on his Irish counter-part to lean on P&ID to accept a settlement well within our means and not paying people to protest against both countries.Dialogue is the key and not war.These are not people he can arrest and dump in a DSS cell.

The british are our colonial masters and would as a matter of courtesy, pretend to care at the very least.If they can woo the Irish government to our side,P&ID can either be cajoled or threatened into making a deal.

Whoever said we would be lucky to still have a country left by the time Buhari was done wasn't exaggerating.