Shut Up! The Lack Of Female Collaborations In Nigerian Music Doesn’t Mean They Hate Each Other

Shut Up! The Lack of Female Collaborations in Nigerian Music is not

because They Hate Each Other.

I repeat, they don’t hate themselves, they just don’t feature each other

enough.

I write for different reasons but in most cases, I write when something

bothers me, and I feel that sharing it with you people will give me a well

thought out and balanced answer.

Our society is changing, men are growing to realize that we need to treat

women better. Men have come to the realization that certain things

masculinity regarded as cultural is bare horse shit and only a means our

ancestors came up to subdue the women in their lives and the society in

general.

The Igbo man refers to his wife as “Ori Aku”, (My wealth spender) while this

may have moulded the Igbo man to take up the responsibility of providing

everything at home, some have argued that it has also made the Igbo man

consider his wife as a property acquired by the payment of an expensive

dowry.

This is not the topic for today.

Our society is changing not only in the ways men treat women but also in the

ways women treat each other. Women are considerably supportive of each

other so much so that today, we have an advanced society with room for both

sexes to attain unimaginable heights.

A couple of days ago, a day was set aside on Nigerian Twitter for women to

praise other women by telling them what they have come to admire about

them. It was a remarkable sight.

The changes are not limited to how we treat one another but also towards the

things we love. I don’t think there has ever been a time when Nigerians loved

Nigerian music and fashion more than today.

We go out wearing Nigerian made/designed outfits, dancing to Nigerian music.

We went from a time when Nigerian music got played 25% of the night in a

Nigerian club, to a time where we hardly give room for another type of music

in our clubs and social events. Nigerians songs are played in major stores,

clubs and shows across the world. There has never been a better time to be

proudly Nigerian than now.

However, I have also noticed something else; while these changes are taking

place, some other important things are not changing with the times and seem

to be on a fatal backwards fall, the Nigerian female-female acts

collaborations.

I don’t claim to be an expert in music matters, but I love and follow Nigerian

music. I have worked with the best of the best in the industry from Mo’hits,

Banky W, MI, Waje, Saucekid, Pope,Ycee and Omawumi to mention a few.

I have come up with some of the dopest album and single covers, but this

article is not about my work in the music industry. I have heard dope collaborations such as;

Eldee’s “ Big Boy” featuring Olu Maintain, Banky W & Oladele

9ice’s “ Street Credibility” featuring Tuface

Banky W’s “Lagos party remix featuring D’banj, Eldee,Muna

Psqaure’s “Bizzy body” featuring Weird MC

Phyno’s “Fada Fada” featuring Olamide

Tiwa Savage’s “Malo” featuring Wizkid

DJ Jimmy Jatts “Stylee” featuring Ela Joe, 2face & Mode 9

Patoranking’s Girlie O” featuring Tiwa Savage

Lami’s “ Know” featuring MI

Ice Prince’s “Oleku” featuring Brymo

Illbliss “Aiye Po Gan” featuring Terry G

Nigga Raw’s “Obodo” featuring Klint D Drunk

Tiwa Savage’s “Eminado” featuring Don Jazzy

Samklef’s “Molowo Noni” featuring Ice Prince, The Prince & Wizkid

J Martin’s “Good or Bad” featuring Timaya & Psquare

2face’s “Entre the Place” featuring Sound Sultan

Keffe’s “Kokoroko” featuring Timaya

MI’s”One Naira featuring Waje

Dare’s “carry De Go” featuring 2face

And the list goes on but clearly in this long list of hit songs one thing is

missing, where’s the banger collaboration between two female Nigerian

artist… I’ll give you 2 years to mention 1 that stands out.

I have waited for our “the Boy is mine” moment and it hasn’t come even at this

time when the society is changing.

Sometimes, it feels that the Nigerian music industry is set up in a way that it

favours only men, but I think this is one time our female artists can come

together, change the narrative, and get things going in a different direction.

It seems like we’ve given up on ever having female rappers as none of them

seem to be in the limelight or relevant alongside their male counterparts.

I was having this argument few days ago with a female friend who argued

that the reason for non-hot collaboration between Nigerian female acts is

because of the lack of love amongst them and to this, I disagree.

Dear female acts, I believe in you and I think you can do it. The men didn’t

achieve all this because they loved each other more, some of these

collaborations were paid for by the smaller acts or their record labels at that

time but I believe that women can achieve even more without a monetary

exchange of any sort.

We have collectively agreed that the narrative that men and women work

better is bullshit, this is the time to turn things around and get this sailing.

This article is a bit too long for my point, but the idea is to highlight the

industry today and push for more all female collaborations in Nigeria. There

are young fire female acts out there such as Wavy The Creator, Bella Alubo,

Lady Donli, Teni (all new school) and they will need love from Tiwa Savage,

Seyi Shay, Omawumi, Waje, Niniola et al. Let’s get this ball rolling.

In other news, If you think you have a hot collaboration and I didn’t mention

it, don’t blame me, we didn’t have a lot of radio stations in Aba growing up.

Name some female acts you’ll love to see collaborate.