The young lady you see in the picture that accompanies this article is Olgha NK. She is a Cameroonian singer based in Yaoundé. Her style is a fusion of Afrsoul and Gospel-Soul with a tinge of native Cameroonian music. Just keep that in mind for now. I’ll get to her later.
A week ago, C.A published an article here on PoiseSocial talking about how befuddling the change in Awu’s music had been to her after she watched the Sidomina. And it wasn’t just about the change of musical style (to be honest I think its OK for musicians to test the waters from time to time), it was also the change in the lyrical content of his music itself. It’s funny, I had seen that same video for Sidomina a few days earlier and I had planned to write something about the song. Let’s just say C.A beat me to it and expressed most of my views in her write up. But that got me to thinking about the whole thing from another perspective.
I personally discovered Awu back in 2014 when he entered his song “If A Can” as a contender for the 2014 World Cup song. Personally I think that should have been THE world cup song. It was that good! But instead, we were served that monstrosity from Pitbull and Jennifer Lopez. The song was so horrible that people remember J-Lo’s skimpy attire worn during the opening ceremony more than they do the song.
But I digress. Let us come back. And while we are steering ourselves back onto the road, don’t forget that I still have to come to Olgha NK mentioned above.
So, now we have Awu singing a pretty much generic pop song, to put it heavily. And while it may seem easy to point the finger outward saying, ‘Awu’s has changed his music ‘or ‘Awu now wants to pander to the masses’, or maybe a little heavily (again) ‘Awu has sold out’ I ask myself…..BUT CAN WE REALLY BLAME AWU?
I say a resounding NO.
If you were to ask me whom I assign blame to, I would say you and me. We are the consumers. And while I am tempted to believe (like Talib Kweli said) that true artists make music for themselves first and then the audience connects with it, it is hard to say that they do not in some way make the music for us. We are the consumers after all, and our choices to a very large extent dictate the supply of the product. Awu has been putting out good stuff for years and we have been oblivious to it. Suddenly his music changes and we are surprised?
You can’t hold a duck over your head for one whole day and then you act surprised when it shits on you. You should have known that shit was going to happen sooner or later. Pun intended.
Awu’s shift is simply reflective of the state of mind that we are in. We, our generation, has accepted that the only things we will vibe to are the watered-down generic stuff we see on TV every day. You turn on TRACE and listen to 20 songs and 80% of them sound not only the same but talk about the flipping same things. As a matter of fact, you could play each one of those songs on the same beat and the tempo will fall right into place.
We, through our choices, have told musicians that that is what we want from them and they can sing just about anything, and so long as it has a good beat and a certain rhythm, we will dance to it. We have told them we don’t care too much about the content.
We have consistently lied to ourselves so much that our metaphorical pants are now on fire. Et du coup nous voulons tous sauver les meubles. Our grandparents left us with a great musical heritage. It was not for nothing that Michael Jackson sampled Manu Dibango, or Shakira sampled Zangalewa or Arcade Fire, one of the biggest indie rock bands sampled the flutes on Francis Bebey’s “The Coffee Cola song” on their song “Everything Now.” Does our generation make music that is worthy of a sample?
I sound a little harsh, I know. I understand that my own personal views of music are influencing a lot of my arguments. I have written a lot about rap music here but you will be surprised that my favourite genres are neo-soul and country. I’m a lover of words and when I listen to music, the lyrics/content matter to me a lot.
I understand that most people are not introspective listeners of music and lyrics doesn’t matter that much to them. But when our generation keeps doing the one thing they are good that (singing about love) with the ever-present “sisi caro” – (whatever the hell that means), we start understanding that we the audience have been giving them too much leeway.
We acted like the neighbour who decided to warm his pot of soup on the embers of the fire that were burning his neighbour's house. J’ose espérer qu’on pourrait au moins faire ne serait-ce que le strict minimum.
So is there space for conscious music in Cameroon? Apparently not. Being able to sing nonsense and break out is already hard enough. To break out and make money is hard also. And for a genre like conscious music is that today is pretty much a niche market, what more of that? How many people would want to promote that? How many of us will show up for their shows?
So a middle finger to us all for breaking Awu down and pulling him down the slippery slope and into the watery canyon of adulteration where his authenticity and his singularity will inevitably drown in the noisy water crashing on the shores of the Maahloxes and whatever generic Afropop playing over the radio and in the clubs today.
You all have killed a inimitable talent. I hope you are happy. Have a coke and a smile and meditate on that.
Let's go back to the beginning: The young lady you see in the picture that accompanies this post is Olgha NK. Her style is a fusion of Afrsoul and Gospel-Soul with a tinge of native Cameroonian music. The type that is good for your soul. Below is a link to my favourite of her songs. The title is “Stand Strong.” Please Listen to it and share with your network. We need more Olghas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2j2WSeM4NBI
Don’t kill her talent now and then act surprised when her duck shits on you.
- Wandji Wilfred.
P.S. Tell us in the comment section about any other Cameroonian Olghas you know. We would love to talk about them.