Modenine and rugged man are the two most prominent rappers in Nigeria, you can equal them to Jay-Z and Nas of Nigeria. I wouldn't know who would be jay-z and who would be nas in the two of them, but talking about clout, they got it.
The two started of around the same time, around the early 2000's, Mode entered the game with the delivery of mad skills on the mic, while rugged entered through a controversial diss track where he goes at his contemporaries in the Nigerian music industry.
Who is more skilled? I do not know, i guess that i the question everyone is trying to answer right now. I can say rugged man is more successful than modenine in the industry, but modenine drops crazy metaphors on the mic, but to a fault, because people have criticized him for that, saying he pays more attention to the punchlines and metaphors. They say his songs do not have a theme, that he just goes on ranting about different things. Although they his rhymes are amusing to the ear, they get boring after you have heard like 10 songs from him. It is more like you are listening to the same song.
They has been some underground beef between the two, but they have decided to bring the beef to the mainstream. Recently, modenine dropped a track, that had some subliminal shorts at rugged man. The lines go thus; "this baba that baba/you are not a father/you got intellect myopia/so when i diss a baba its not Ethiopia".
I do not have or have not heard the reply from ruggedman, as he replied the diss almost immediately. On a recent interview, modenine said the song could have been addressing anybody, that there were many baba's in the industry, so now that ruggedman feels it was directed at him, it's on.
I would really loe to see a rap battle between these two heavy weights. They are the biggest in the game, and i believe in the two of them, their pride would never either back down.
Lets wait and see where they take it with this.
Hip-hop bares its fangs in Naija. And just like in yankee, the soul of the culture has its protectors; like the priory of sion to the holy grail; the republican guards to saddam; the praetorian guards to julius ceasar or the majestic lion guards to emperor haile selasie. In otherwords, against popular culture a.k.a POP, some hard-headed, annoyin, pig-headed mofuckers out there just refuse to let the culture be "pussified" pardon my qualifier. However, this select few refuse to budge like the early christians at masada.
ReplyDeleteLet the schooling begin. A well developed model of the artform "HIPHOP" exists in nigeria jealously guarded by enthusiasts. This artform is thought not to have enough commercial appeal among music lovers nationwide because it makes SENSE, involves TACTICS and gives KNOWLEDGE. Hence some hiphop heads have decided to go POP just to make a living. Good examples include Ruggedman, Sasha, 2-shot, Eldee da don, Naeto-c, Ikechukwu, Obiwon of the thoroughbreds etc. The morality of such an act can easily be justified. " I grew up in stark, dire circumstances of poverty and gloom orientated in a culture of light, hardwwork and knowledge. But to make money and be better than nigeria airways, i'ii give up my orientatio and accept the popular culture of stupidity and senselessness cos its what pips want. Nuff of dat.
Ruggedman has a good hiphop orientation. he is ahiphop artist that does some pop songs. As an hiphop artist, he has dope hiphop tracks but he is a "DEFECTIVE" lyricist.
The ninestein has deeper hiphop roots. his understandin of the culture is almost flawless. All his tracks are dope. He has international acclaim.
In the realm of pop, rugged is king. afterall in his hiphop 101, he taught us what hiphop is. however, in a hophop battle: weapons include diss tracks, dope beats, punchlines and metaphors, subliminal disses, wittiness and swagger, rugged will burn. afterall modenine taught us his version of hiphop in his track titled "HIPHOP".
CORRECTION.
1.that hiphop dont sell in nigerai is erroneous. a good hiphop album will move good figures and get u endorsements and shows. Modo has his own fair share of shows and numerous endorsements nationwide.
2.that mode is vague and boring is not true. since shedding the his battle gear, Nigel Benn has matured into an artiste that makes esnse in the midst of nonsense. He's so fly, is why he raps without flaws(floors). His dope tracks include cry, fellow nigerians (a satire), leaders of tomorrow, lagos state of mind, ogun isoye with nomoreless, regular guy, contradictions. Ruggedy feels the heat. He's retiring from rap? to float a non-existent clothing line. His career's like a mouthless hooker, it dont blow. Battle is modenine's experience not them ruggedy wack disses. Rugged will be destroyed. You heard it first from me SOJ the don A.K.A ted bundy. For more schooling on this and other subjects, watch this space. Peace y'all.