ARTICLE ---PLEASE DONT KILL HIPHOP BY TILE FOLARIN ( @9JAHIPHOPNATION )

I'll begin by giving a big shoutout to notjustok.com for the good work over the years, We really appreciate your efforts.

I visit your website regularly to download good music and on that fateful day i logged in only to come across "Top 10 Most Gifted Rappers In Nigeria" and truthfully, as an Hip Hop head It hurts to see the list.

Lots of peeps visit the blog just like i do and most believe in what you say. I put together this article to address a particular phrase in ur post which states.  "During this process we judged each EMCEE on skill, from wordplay ability, delivery style, catchy and versatile flow, lyrical potency, punch line, rhyming not just to rhyme, and story telling".
   
I would love to state here that there are different approach used in judging different kinds of genre! You can't use the characteristics of country music to judge apala music, neither can you judge rock music the same way with afrobeat. All music in the world are judged from different perspective based on some fundamental rules.

Hip Hop/Rap music is a unique genre of music, it is sacred, it has its roots and value which can never be taken away from it.Yes, there are lots of characteristics which makes up an emcee which you have listed out in your article but you have left some very critical and most important characteristics out of it....which makes the list a slap on the face of Nigerian Hip Hop!

Rap is not all about ryhmes, flow or story telling, It wasn't created for that. Rap is deeper than music, An Emcee is like a pastor that teaches positive. An Emcee is an intelligent being dat can potray his life and community in his song. There's more creativity when you are able to write about your environment in rhythm and rhymes.

Emceeing is an art created by the voiceless black community to air their voice to the government, it was used to say NO to oppression. An emcee plays a vital role in an emerging economy, An emcee should by all means promote peace, love and unity in any given society not to promote immorality.

Hip Hop is spiritual, it goes beyond the music... The first thing to be used to consider a good emcee is how conscious, intelligent and creative he/she is.

"Good rap music has given me knowledge on different aspects of life, rap music has developed my mind to think fast and smart, Rap has made me believe in myself, Rap has built my psychological membrane".

I actually wrote this article out of the pain in my heart because its obvious we are confusing popular rappers for gifted rappers. If this kind of issue is not been addressed, if we encourage rap songs witout message for the mind.... Our generations to come would be the one to suffer it...when they can't listen to songs to liberate their minds....Our government would keep on getting worse because no one is saying anything about it. The radio already failed by playing only dance songs.

Please don't get me wrong, I do listen to dance songs but we shouldn't sweep the real music out of d box. We should encourage and support conscious music. In a falling economy like Nigeria where a high percentage of people are illiterates, We need more conscious music to educate the mind of the youths. There's problem in the east, north, west and south and none of your so-called gifted rappers is talking about it even mode9 did not agree with the list because its so confusing to put a conscious emcee amongst commercial rappers while rating...  Maybe you should have done a list of "10 most successful commercial rappers".

Please work on your fundamentals, This is not the legacy grandfathers of Hip Hop left for Us! #plsdontkillHiphop

Tile Folahan