‘Before the dog impregnated its mother, it all began like a joke ‘ – Linus T. Asong. ************************** Je ne savais vraiment pas que c’est comme ca qu’il allait faire. That same line that made Grand Barack famous could as well be used to describe my astonishment when I heard that the man that had become an internet meme and viral sensation, was going to put out music.
Forget 'grandes ambitions' this is definitely the Cameroon of grandes surprises.
I’m not sure how this 65-year-old man; a welder by profession was able to be convinced by those responsible for this hideous circus show. A man that was once doing some dignified work, despite the challenges of insufficient electricity has now been turned into a circus clown, performing for us at the middle of the circle of Cameroon’s penchant for glorifying the immoral, while we do what…watch and laugh and clap for him?
How was he convinced? What seduced him? Is it the promise of some financial material gain from the whole experience, or was he too, like a 20-year-old impressionable slay queen attracted by the blinding lights of social media fame? Ahh! Le buzz sur les reseaux sociaux, so dear to many who live for it. But does he understand how this whole viral thing work? Does he understand how fast it moves and how one day you are something and someone and how the next day you are replaced by the next viral phenomenon and that the only way you can stay relevant is to go up the spiral by doing one unconventional thing after the other?
And so the people behind this whole madness chose music as the stairwell to go down that spiral. He has prepped and propped up like a prize turkey dressed up in Christmas decoration and has released “music.” And they served him on their platter of choice; social media. The same black hole via which was he was birthed, except that this big bang didn't birth a wondrous star, but a circus clown instead.
It had to be music, of course. I mean, there already exists a reference point for Grand Barack. Another circus clown by the name of Nyangono du Sud that we have applauded and laughed at, and pushed to higher heights than he should have ever reached. It all started as a joke and one could laugh and enjoy at the beginning but we let the joke go too far; just like Linus Asong warned us.
It was easy for the puppet masters behind the scene to concoct all this. It was easy for them to choose music as the path via which they could continue this sad spectacle. We the public gave way to them long ago. We gave way when we let whoever wanted to, to bastardize our music and water down its essence however they liked. We gave way when we let people sing gibberish over a hot, frenetic beat that got our feet thumping. We gave way when we let them reduce the complexity of what is good music to this guileless racket we have now. We gave way when we invited them to our weddings and parties and when we went for their concerts and gave them the views they sought for on YouTube.
I could have even given this thing a bit of consideration if they had tried to use the man to make some music about the insufficiencies of electricity and other issues about how life in the small town where he lives is. Something pertinent about the state of his state. He would have been a poor man’s Longue Longue but at least it would have been straight in line with what made him viral in the first place.
But no! They had to go with a song about sex. “Jai deja goute ca” it is called. A man that was doing a respectable job and doing his best to take care of his family has now been turned into a lecherous old clown, putting his lascivious thoughts out in a song boastful of the fact that he has tasted his “daughters,” Nathalie Koah and Charlotte Dipanda. Charlotte Dipanda ei name don really suffer for inside this outside.
Wayayouille!
But would he have agreed to be a pale copy of Longue Longue, is what I ask myself. I mean this is the same man that when he was offered a generator by the governor, appeared on State TV dressed in full CPDM regalia and thanked the president of the country. The man responsible for his problems gave him a poisoned gift and he gleefully thanked the man. So who am I kidding here?
Soon enough the smoke and the camera and the lights will disappear and he would have to go back to his shop and continue his welding. It won’t last forever. It can’t last forever. I hope for him that he would at least make enough money to finally buy fuel for his generator. We all know how the music industry works, the artist gets next to nothing.
I honestly cannot wait for this house of cards to collapse so I can bask in the sun of the schadenfreude.
But it’s the long term impact that frightens me. It won’t be long before the next viral sensation will be dressed up and sold to us. And we will buy into their nonsense and dance to their nonsense. And in the meantime, the people who do real music, good music, the people who were born with a passion for music and all they know is music will likely not be given that platform.
I’m talking about people like Joyce Babatunde, Cysoul, Joel P Official, Awu Mbele, Dready Christ, Chili Wawaye, Bonzyz Kwakwa and the others that you know. They have to work hard, spending time writing, composing and pouring their heart and soul into a craft that is being trampled upon by a bunch of $*&*@*!# who bastardise what they are trying so hard to build with quality work.
Est-ce que on savait alors que cest commme ca qu’ils allaient nous faire?
- Wandji Wilfred.
. Picture: Cultureebene.com