Davido Is Keeping His Demons At Bay, Don’t Crucify Him – A Reply to Joey Akan

January 2017 and March 2018 is a Mighty long time – or so I’m made to believe. A lotta things have changed, Mr Eazi’s gone, M.I’s back, shaku shaku’s here, Slimcase is a thing, LYTA and Limerick don “sh’ori ire,” and “tempo ti change.” BUT, it’s not only tempo tha yaff change oh? The mindset of an “Elder statesman” of Music Journalism in Nigeria, just flipped. Maybe writers don’t mean what they say, afterall ?
When sometimes last year, I realized the genesis of the now-infamous Edition of Loose Talk Podcast, which had M.I on it, was as a result of Ayomide Tayo‘s article(also, influenced by K.E.A.D‘s “Letter To M.I“), which M.I thought to be inaccurate, I was like “which kind man be dis M.I sef?” He should respect journalists na. Seriously. But, less than a year later, I can’t but agree with him. The state of Music journalism in Nigeria has worsened, and continues to worsen Every time a new song drops. As a 16-year-old kid, I’ve watched this happen, helplessly. So bad, that the best articles on music are the ones meant to praise an artist (like the review of Rendezvous), whereas the critique-esque ones are bunch of sh*ts. That’s to say, Even tho it’s good, nobody pays for bad publicity (Industry Rule 5240!) “Don’t devote time criticking artists, find Labels to pay you to write for them,” a bro once told me. I think, and think, this is the state music journalism is at right now, and it’s a cause for Alarm.

So, I ain’t too surprised when in less than a year, Joey Akan of Pulse.NG is contradicting himself. (And yeah, Pulse is the victim of my “faint pen,” ‘cos I actually read ’em articles.)

Davido

Once I saw the headline of a recent article on Pulse, something reminded me of two more articles. I paused. Bound the spirit (I attended Mountain Of Fire), saying, “Joey never failed me.” I pressed on, and read the write-up. And, by the time I was through, I started writing this… Now, this can get a little bit tricky, and Joey-sy, but I promise to walk y’all through.

On January 19, 2017, a post appeared on Pulse: “Should you disturb your favourite lazy artiste to make new music?” by Joey Akan. The article was centred around Wizkid, and why he (Joey) thinks Wiz’s lazy with his craft. One thing I noticed tho, mid-way through the article, Davido’s picture appeared, a reference to the fact that Davido might actually be one of those “lazy artistes.” We couldn’t be sure, just speculations. Not to worry…

PulseNg

March 14, 2017, another article came : “Davido : When singer isn’t pressed to make music, the devil offers him a new job,” aimed directly. It was a caution to pop-star Davido, and a warning for him to get in the booth, and get busy. Maybe I should quote;

“But this is where things get scary. The art is all that Davido leaves for. He has to stay engaged and continue to seek an elusive number of hits.”

More? “Davido needs to get back to being hungry and recording more hit music.”

One more ? “The devil is lurking by the corner, waiting to pounce, but by recording new music, and being engaged by the art, Davido can keep his demons at bay.” End of quote, needless to say.
Barely a year later (Feb 13), Joey is “biting his own tongue” – whatever this means in 2018 ? He now has an article with the heading: “Why is Davido over-flooding Nigeria with too much music?” And, now, I for one, don’t understand. The same guy you wanted to “stay engaged,” and “seek an elusive number of hits,” is now over-flooding? Just ‘cos of six songs ? In the Jan 19 article, he did mention the numbers of songs acts likes Weezy, Lil Yatchy, Future got featured on, and it’s nothing close to six. I saw 40, 60, etc. Now, he’s questioning whether 6 songs in 4 months is healthy ? Law of Marginal utility wasn’t around, last year. While the secret to “staying fresh,” is definitely not in working with Fresh, it’s also definitely not in being a lazy artiste.

MI Abaga

Apparently, from time-to-time, music journalists, and Media houses seem to find faults in Everything an artist they don’t like does. But, Joey got this wrong.
It’s important to “always” criticize people, to make them better. BUT, what do you do when your present criticism contradicts your previous ones ? You fall cheaply? While I’m an advocate for saying your mind, and telling the truth, I’m always an advocate of the fact that you can always shut the fuck up! And that goes to Everyone always criticizing, including me.

Buroda Joseph, Davido’s busy now. He’s reconciled with Wiz, Momodu, and he’s back to music. Davido is only keeping his demons at bay, don’t crucify him.

By Quasar, aka Joey AQuan, aka @quasARMiami on Twitter

Quasar is a 16-year-old writer, rapper, and Entrepreneur. He is so dis-respectful, he had to write this bio himself. Hit me up on FB!

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