Mangosi x Culture: Why Makossa is dead!
Ngoma doesn't provide much content but every time he comes out of hiding, it is with something adding to the standards he set with his debut video 'Afe nkap'
The name I think people will remember most from this video is Shamak Allharamadji. No one is yet to beat the image quality Shamak gave us in Stanley's Njama Njama cow and this video is just another proof that we have a lot to learn from him. I'd love to see him do more videos and take some apprentices
Ngoma was just Ngoma. I know he has some interesting things to say when he raps in the language of his ancestors but I’d love to be able to understand what he is saying. Some of us respect the bars more than the flow reason why Sarkodie might not be in my list of best African rappers but I think he would have been for me as he is for many Ghanians -if I understood his native language.
I personally believe in rap, in Cameroon, rapping in your native tongue is limiting your reach especially when only few thousand people understand you. We can site other African rappers using their native tongue and doing it big but we forget the number of people who actually understand their native language locally is huge. You can’t compare the reach of someone rapping in Igbo to that of someone rapping in Bafut. Igbo is spoken by tens of millions of people but Bafut by thousands.
Kikoh continues to define his space in the industry. I can't quite put an adjective to his style or find someone to compare him to. For now, let me just say he is distinguished. He has what it takes to be a 'A list' artist and is well on the way to competing on the world stage
The standout part of the song comes from Nernos; his reference to makossa as a dead and gone genre of music which has many people feeling some type of way. I like this and I believe this is the essence of hip hop; touching controversy that forces people to have conversations about the culture.
I have seen many peoples interpretations of the line. In one case I saw someone, in trying to go all literature expert on us, call it 'an allegory used to say makossa artists need to wake up' which makes me wonder why he couldn't just take a moment to verify the meaning of allegory.
*Life is not a bed of roses (example of an Allegory)
Fact is, most people are offended by what he had to say about our indigenous makossa.
In culture blogger Emmanuel Mfon’s opinion, what Nernos means is “Real Makossa is dead, what we are listening to now are still the old songs...we don't get Makossa songs that are very sweet like the old school stuffs.majority of the attention is on urban music. Just like Nas said sometime ago that REAL HIPHOP IS DEAD bcs nowadays it's just mumble rap.”
Personally I like Makossa but I only listen to it,I don’t play it. What I mean is, if I’m sitting in a bar and some makossa is on the speakers, I will dance and vibe but I won’t take my phone to shazam, there is 0 makossa tracks in my iTunes library and that is true for many if not all of the close friends I have of my generation.
That makossa is dead, I’m not sure but when Nernos goes on to say “et oui, ca me plait,” I can’t help but think the makossa reference was there to express the conflict that exists between two generations of Cameroonians - what better way than to push buttons on some sensitive topic.
It is no news that the 50+ generation believes the younger generation is just a bunch of losers when it comes to everything; they believe we are, bluntly put, lower humans with a distasteful mentality - a poor taste in things -from our behavior to the music we consume.
Nernos’ line is there to express how disappointed the youth are with the 50+ generation and a deep wish that they and all that can be tied directly to their generation be gone. It’s sarcasm that says “Maybe if you didn’t listen to makossa too damn much, Cameroon would have been in a much better place.”
I’m sure Nernos will get an opportunity to clarify his motives. Continue watching, continue sharing, and tell me why you think he said what he said and what he meant by what he said.
Link in Comments Section
by Tino Foy