Salawa Abeni: Young artistes rebranding our songs… old is being modernised

Salawa Abeni, Waka Queen, says indigenous traditional music genres will never go extinct, particularly because new generation artistes get inspiration from them.

The genres, she said, would continue to survive modern trends of today’s musicians.

Abeni said: “’Waka’, ‘juju’, ‘fuji’, ‘apala’, ‘African kenery’, afrobeat and our other local music will never die despite the dramatic changes in the art form year-in-year-out.

“In fact, the so-called new generation musicians are tapping from the past’s rhythms, lyrics, rhymes and styles in their art today. In truth, the old is just being modernised by the artists of nowadays.

She said many of what the new generation of musicians are presenting to the public were rebranded ideas of what had been described as ‘old school indigenous music’.

“These talented musicians of today rephrase and many times remix lyrics from many of the songs from the likes of King Sunny Ade, Ayinde Barrister, Orlando Owo, myself and many others,” she said.

“We cannot also dispute that the instrumentals and musical rhythms of the rappers as well as highlife artists in these times greatly resemble our own and many times likely borrowed from us.”

The Waka queen said she was, however, impressed by the talents by how far the industry has developed.

“These younger guys have taken the music industry in Nigeria to another level entirely,” she said.

She advised them to be more focused, adding that they should be more serious in everything they do in life.

“Today’s Nigerian musicians and other artists must not allow their wealth, fame, popularity and riches lead them astray,” Abeni said.

“These artists must also live mature lifestyles that represent respect for marriage, family life and they should eschew immorality, drug addiction and homosexuality.

“Our music industry must also be guided by law and not jungle justice, in which talents are exploited by godfathers and money bags with possession of the power of force to cheat.”