Weird MC
Shola Idowu, Nigerian-British rapper a.k.a. Weird MC, on Monday took a cusory look at music sampling and said why, in her view, most Nigerian artistes do not sample local songs.
The artiste who came into the Nigerian popula music space with “Allen Avenue”, gave her two cents on the subject-matter when she featured on media Twitter space alongside Ayo Shonaiya, the producer of the ‘Afrobeats: The Backstory’.
Music sampling is the reuse of a portion of a sound recording in another recording. Samples may comprise elements such as rhythm, melody, speech, sounds or entire bars of music, and may be layered, equalised, sped up or slowed down, repitched, looped, or otherwise manipulated.
Weird MC said some song owners may not want to clear the samples for reasons best known to them.
Another reason, the rapper held, was that some of the artistes of this dispensation might not find songs by the old-timers appealing or marketable.
The ‘Ijoya’ hit-maker also urged Nigerian singers to sample old and local songs, adding that it would serve as a way to fund the music industry and put money in the pockets of Nigerian music pioneers.
Said she: “Two things, it could be that the original owners of the copyrights may not want to clear the sample or have not been approached, or maybe some of our artistes don’t really see the appeal in something back home.
“I’m working on new stuff and I still want to sample more stuff at home, because by sampling songs at home we are putting money back in our system. We are putting money back in the pockets of our pioneers and it would even help to push the commercial side of publishing more and more in Africa.
“So, I would encourage people to also sample from stuff back home, it would help us to grow”.
Idowu’s opinion on music sampling in Nigeria would come as a surprise to many singers who have constantly sampled songs belonging to old-timers.
In Shonaiya’s documentary, it was revealed that Weird MC got permission to sample ‘Look And Laugh’, the 1986 song by Fela Kuti, the late Afrobeat icon, for her mega-hit ‘Allen Avenue’.
A plethora of songs by Fela, including ‘Lady’ and ‘Confusion Break Bone’, have also been sampled by Nigerian artistes as well as late Hugh Massekela of South-Africa.
The late Victor Uwaifo’s ‘Joromi’ was also sampled in ‘Killin Dem’ by Burna Boy and Zlatan, while Simi did the same in a song of the same title.
Controversy also ensued recently when Ayinla Kollington claimed ownership of the term ‘Zazoo’, which many music lovers assumed was pioneered by the controversial singer, Portable, thanks to his 2021 breakthrough single.
Kollington had used the term ‘Zazoo’ melodically in ‘Fans Club‘ (Original Zazoo), one of his albums.
