Skip to main content

Lagbaja

I first took notice in 2002.

I was in Lagos and that particular day my cousin had switched the channel from channel O to A.I.T. There he was, the tall masked one trying to toast a woman who wasn't even trying to hear him out. I was captivated. I do not know what got me, was it the horns? the lyrics? the juxtaposition of english and yoruba? or was is simply because I was hearing homegrown music after a diet of stateside r & b by way of south africa?

Whatever it was, it was made concrete when i saw the video for Surulere a few days later. I was blown away. The cartoon video drew me in and had me transfixed in front of the television. The lyrics? He was more than an R&B toaster, he was a man of substance and that won my heart. I had to have his tapes, cds whatever. He was definitely going back home with me.

Fortunately, a friend hooked me up with Lagbaja's tape (We before Me) which I proceeded to play day in and day for months when I got back to Boston. Thank God for friends and family in my life. They have been the ones to grow the love that I have for Lagbaja. When I came back to Nigeria later that year, my uncle gifted me with another Lagbaja tape (Ikira) and another one of my friends worked it so that I got to see the last show of the year at Motherlan. It was the best night ever! The show took forever to start (NEPA) and we had to leave early (fear of armed robbers) but I had a blast. The highlight of the show for me was when Lagbaja took Baby Ta Ni Ko Fe Wa and extended that song with another that I have been trying to find ever since. I love when musicians take an old favorite and give it new flavor. Like what Mos Def did to Ms. Fat Booty in 2001 on the Lyricist Lounge tour when he pulled and extended the Gregory Isaac snippet he teased us with on the original track. I am still trying to find the live version of that too. Writing this makes me realize how much I have missed going to concerts. The last concert I went to was, it's a lie, it was Lagbaja's in 2002. O ma se.

But I digress. I was listening to Lagbaja's Akebaje on the way home and I just felt like expressing my love for the man. I am trying to get my hands on his latest cd. In the meantime, I have been reading the lyrics on his website (very nice by the way, i think he even chats with his fans, amazing.) and listening to it on duduradio. My favorite track right now is Aisan.

I wish that I could see Lagbaja live. Sigh. Lagbaja come do a tour in the states or better yet someone hook me up with a ticket to naija and someone with a car who will take me to Motherlan'.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New Week

I feel so accomplished this morning. My weekend was productive for once. I painted my chair and it is finally in my bedroom. The thing is, I underestimated the amount of paint I would need and went crazy with dilution. My first clue should have been that the original pattern was visible under the paint. I filed it down a bit with sandpaper which took off the color. Then, because I ran out of paint, I wasn't able to paint the seat and instead covered it with an old ankara skirt that I was planning to turn into pillows. I was very disappointed with the results, but it's now growing on me. I might leave the ankara like that or change it for another ankara I have. Lastly, I tried gluing the broken leg in place but alas, it didn't work. I guess I had better just buy a new leg for the chair. My next project is to figure out how to stick mirrors into an old painting. I also need to pick up my hall table from the office where it has been waiting for me all last week. I really wi
Post a Comment
Read more

2013 already!

I can't believe my last post was in November. Despite my good intentions, December was a wasteland in terms of my writing and life goals. I moved to my new apartment, came down with the flu or rather an influenza like illness, and have just been so blah. The cold weather is not helping either. I really cannot stand the cold, it tends to sap my energy. As always, I have a few goals for the new year. I already feel all kinds of stressed because it is already Janaury 4th and I haven't made any moves. I did do one half hearted workout the other day but it was bitter cold. I could actually feel the cold going through my hoodie, my t-shirt, my skin, my bones and grabbing my heart and lungs and squeezing them to death.  I scurried back home and vowed to buy some winter gear. Total mileage 1.6 miles. Yeah pitiful. My goals this year are simple: 1. Get with God and just delight myself in Him. Ps 37:5. I want to be serious about my walk with God this year. I promised myself last
3 comments
Read more

Writing Life

Last time I discussed my writing, I was moaning about how overwhelmed I felt about editing. Well, this past week I stopped whining and consulted my expert researcher Ms/Mr Google - s/he is an hermaphrodite- and discovered a nifty book called Self Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King. This book is so on fire that it impacted my writing before I even received it. How do I mean? Well, I read an excerpt of the first chapter online and realized what was wrong with my own first chapter right away. In a word -well several words- I was explaining too much and not letting the characters live. I was giving all kinds of background and history and what not. A whole lot of info that had me saying in my nephew's voice: "who cares?" I guess the avid reader in me knew the problem all along, but the writer in me resisted deleting a single word. I mean those words were agonized over and carefully chosen by committee. I was loathe to let even one of them go. But I
2 comments
Read more