This Is Nigeria : Why Falz Is The Most Important Nigerian Rapper

On the 5th of May 2018, Donald Glover who goes by the musical moniker Childish Gambino released a song with an accompanying music video. The song was titled “This is America” - the song but mostly the video portrayed most of the ills that plague America as a country amongst a host of socio-cultural representations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYOjWnS4cMY

The video was so powerful it blew up in an instant, sparking political conversation and becoming an instant hit at the same time. Since the release of the video there have been several remakes of it, in attempts to go viral or to crack jokes. Most of the remakes have been horrible, well until our very own Falz’ remake “This is Nigeria”. The song touches on what it is to be a Nigerian living in Nigeria.

It starts off with Femi Falana’s speech on how the Nigerian economy is funded by fraud. Then the opening line “This is Nigeria, look how I’m living now, everybody be criminal” - amidst brewing background violence, a guitar-playing northerner committing murder and the young girls in Hijabs bursting out a quick shaku shaku. He also highlights the infamous snake dining on money issue. He calls out politicians as criminals in the line “This is Nigeria, never ending recession Oh, where looters and killers and stealers are still contesting election Oh, Politicians wey thief some billions and millions e no dey go prison oh”.

While he’s rapping, there are kids in the background drinking codeine - which points out the current drug problem Nigeria is facing. He touches on the fake pastors with the line “Pastor put his hand on the breast of his member he’s pulling the demon out”. He talks on how Yahoo Yahoo is now a norm and how people came at popular style blogger Noble Igwe for calling out Yahoo Boys - “Yahoo Yahoo don tear everywhere now and we act like it’s so cool, casting the P and being castigated for trying to be noble”. He also highlights the Police; SARS stopping young boys and harassing them for money. And finally he does a spoof on the Inspector General of Police and his troubled speech.

This is another example of Falz doing what he does best, passing out a message we all need to hear in a fun and educative way - showing us once again why Falz is arguably the most important Nigerian Rapper.