Rapper embraces 'social media music'
With the rise of social media in Nigeria, and the improved internet access to young people in Nigeria,. Life is changing, and continues to affect different facets of our life including the arts.
Hip-hop has been the most affected by this internationally, as artistes are creatively working out new ways to take interact and the rapport that they have built online, into the creative process. Or to make new music employing elements of the online world.
Social media interaction employs a different set of skillset from the offline communications that we enjoy. It is colorful, witty, dipped in imagery, storytelling and reactions. Humor is another great hit online, and beef, which everyone enjoys on the internet is also a part of it. Hip-hop understands this.
The beef between Drake and Meek Mill, was fought and won online. With Drake calling on some of his best digital arsenal to win the war online. Where previously beefs involved offline altercations and fights, today’s beef is modelled for the online space.
With so much more than distribution fusing music and Hip-hop, there has been a growing need for artistes to find a new way to appeal beyond the traditional means of music.
Falz is increasingly embracing and making music for Nigerian social media.
Falz is a great example of the power of social media in careers. Many fans of his music today got to know him far away from the music industry.
A huge number of his fans embraced his Instagram persona which generates humour by passing the English language through a filter. That crowd laughed and followed him through his comic self, becoming loyal in the process.
And then he sold them his music, creating his lyrics and composition and videos around that character which has made him appear seamless on all platforms. His transition to TV is based upon this.
In 2016, he is back with a new single ‘Wehdone Sir’, with a video to drive home a movement. A conscious song, Falz delivers it with the wit of social media, complete with plenty of humor and enough material gotten from countless Twitter opinions and memes.
He also cooks up and introduces a sarcastic greeting ‘Wehdone Sir’ for the subjects of his verses who live counterintuitive, and counterproductive lives. It is genius and has the potential to catch on.
This isn’t the start of it, Falz’s sophomore album “Stories That Touch” contain elements of music created by and for social media. Songs such as ‘Soldier’, ‘Karashika’, and ‘Soft work’, were social media crazes, and became some of his biggest hits.
That style of music has seen him increasinly relevant and successful, catering to a generation that loves a dose of humor and comedy in the art that they interact with and consume.
Falz is still a social media king, and the people are loving it.
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