Article written by entertainment journalist, Chilee Agunana
The remix has always been a popular part of the music industry and adds a different flavour to an already good song or gives a new lease of life to a song that initially did not perform so well. A remix simply means another artist’s version of a song where he or she must have added something to it. And while the remix mustn’t necessarily be better, it largely involves an ‘addition’ to the original song rather than removing ‘something’ from it.
That being said, some of the songs remixed in this country
in recent times have actually removed `things’ from the original songs and one xample
of this is Davido’s remix of Humblesmith’s Osinachi.
The young singer had already introduced himself to the
Nigerian music audience with Chairmo
and then in August 2015 dropped a career-defining single which he titled, Osinachi, featuring Phyno. The song was
an immediate hit and the fact it combined excellent Hip Hop elements with
didactic lyrics was a plus and in that regard somehow similar to Korede Bello’s
Godwin which led to the latter’s
controversial invitation to some church programmes. Osinachi had an even cleaner claim to church performances but
Humblesmith may have closed that door by allowing Davido to burden it with his
Dubai-infected baggage.
Osinachi, an Igbo word, literally means ‘It’s from God’ and can be figuratively adapted to mean `Destiny’
or ‘blessing’. It’s also a beautiful name which many parents have gladly
bestowed on their offsprings just like Godwin.
A look at the original lyrics makes for an interesting read and further
highlighted the very essence of the song as originally composed:
Plenty people don dey
ask,
Na which baba do the
jazz,
Say the baba do well
for me oh,
Now my life don better
Not because I suffer
pass
Not because I pray and
fast
No be osho no be jazz,
okwa chinenye
Also look at Phyno’s
verse with some loose translation provided in brackets:
Ibe, ekene kenelum
olisa bi ne nu igwe (Greetings to God in heaven)
Daddy ne mezi nu m obi
oma (Daddy has made me happy)
Nwanne inee aya, n’ime
ndum o (Brother if you look into my life)
Iga fu na chukwu emego
nu aka boys achaa (You will see God has blessed boys)
God I dey beg you
don't leave me oh
Okwa ikwelu nkwa si na
ima rapum oo (Remember you promised you won’t leave me)
Baba obi ni'gwe o-oo-o
(Father in heaven)
Wee simu golibe oooo
(Told me to enjoy)
Hey, nwanne okwa ima
na oke chineke di okpotopo (Brother you know God’s grace is big)
Amamihe gi kam choro
(I want your wisdom)
Maka m di ogogoro
(Because I’m empty)
Some dey think say na
jazz how the boy came up fast
Mana ha maro na ngozi
gi na di ogonogo (But they don’t know you blessing is long)
Okwa, everyday nne kpe
ekpere (I pray every day)
Chineke iwee nyemu the
reason m ji enye ekele (God you gave me to give thanks)
Now m nanwuli with my
family and friends (Now I’m rejoicing with family and friends)
Ayin n’eme the money
down ka (We are doing the money down like)
Nwanne oburo jazz
(Brother it’s not jazz)
The lyrics of Davido's
remix is a sharp and confused contrast that not only presents a total deviation
from the initial spirit of the song but also reduced it to a platform for
advancing some personal issues which is a complete let-down to such a beautiful
song.
My humble father
sinachi
My loving daughter
sinachi mo
My baby mama sinachi
Dele Momodu sinachi mo
No be by force to go
Dubai
Abi na wetin cause the
fight
And I just dey my own
dey laugh eh
Because God dey my
side
They want to take away
my favour
They want to spoil my
career
Them no know say I get
flavour
You fit ask Nabania
I forgive and forget
Baba God knows the
best
My papa just buy jet
And about to take off
everywhere oh
Humblesmith in allowing this remix may have mortgaged his
immediate progress for a few coins from the Omo
Baba Olowo as this remix has stunted his immediate growth because, one, it
removed attention from the main song which was doing marvellously well and
redirected it to Davido. Secondly what Davido brought to the song was
immediately expendable as the Baby mama drama while being stupidly negative and
shouldn’t even come close to a song like Osinachi,
it died once Davido moved on from it and in this sense, the Sony signing
immediately took over the Davido narrative and Humblesmith is now left with the
few Judas coins he made from betraying such a good song.
Apart from being one of the most hardworking and talented
artists in the country, Davido is also one of the most mischievous—scheming out
one publicity scheme (positive and negative in same measure) immediately after
the other, and the narrative of Humblesmith’s career as regards the traction he
would have gained from his hit song has now been subsumed in the shenanigans of
an already made act.
This is the danger ‘upcoming’ acts face when they excitedly
allow bigger artists to buy into their arrival and remix their already
successful songs. This happened to Kiss Daniels when he allowed Davido once
again and Tiwa Savage to guzzle up whatever attention and goodwill he had
garnered with his hit, Woju, and his
successive attempts to resurrect that success with new singles using virtually
the same beat, have largely failed.
Another sad case is Oritsefemi whose struck gold with his
version of Fela’s, Double Wahala, but
he then allowed a fading D’banj to hijack his song. Not to mention what D’banj
also did to Iyanya’s Kukere but by
then, Iyanya had already exhausted the song’s goodwill and revenue, so D’banj’s
remix never really affected the success of the song or Iyanya’s progress.
A new ‘upcoming’ artist is supposed to ride on the back of
the success of the older artist he features in his song, not the other way round.
Naeto C did it for Davido and Phyno has already done it for Humblesmith on the
original Osinachi track, so there was
no need for this remix, not at this time.
Humblesmith is no doubt a good artist and would most
definitely release other good songs who knows how long it will take fortune to
smile on him again with another hit seeing that he humbly threw away the
`Destiny’ already given to him?
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