SMASHING STEREOS AND BREAKING BARRIERS 🔥
Dawap is HipHop in ‘Baban Riga’
It’s one thing to know how to rap. It’s another thing to be able to apply it to your real life and local community.
Strike One…
It’s one thing to preach the gospel. It’s another thing to break it down and make it relatable to the man on the streets.
Strike Two…
It’s one thing to make music that’s trending amongst your peers. It’s another thing to make an album your friends can bump to but even your Grandma has a favourite joint.
Knock out…
Dawap is relatively new in the game but we all can learn something from his debut. The 24- track mixtape (that’s an awful lot!) effortlessly bridges the gap between generations and music audiences. From the hiphop heads to the trappers. From the urban gospel crowd to the traditional churches.There’s a song for everybody…even 4 year olds (I’m not kidding). That’s not something your favs can pull off in a jiffy (lol…believe me they have tried!).
Dawap exhibits a maturity beyond his age in his approach to topics. It’s refreshing to hear music with depth and substance from a young Nigerian rapper (not like he is the only one sha…but you get the point). Anyway, this is not an album review so i wont bore you with a track by track breakdown. However, i find it interesting that the songs done in hausa sound more hiphop than the ones done in English. Dawap’s translation of the gospel through hiphop does not drop quality…infact it enhances it. That’s the point of this whole gist.
There’s evidently a lot of room for improvement for young dawap in terms of his artistry, delivery and song arrangement. Maybe a lot less number of songs next time (wink)…But in terms of interpreting hiphop in the context of Northern Nigeria and making music that resonates with his environment without losing the core essence of the artform, Dawap has the art down to a science.
I believe the cultural significance of this album would be better understood and appreciated in retrospect. Unfortunately a prophet is often without honour in his hometown and amongst his own brethren. Nonetheless we meuve!
P.S
Care to listen to the mixtape?
Get it here for just N500
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