Nigerian rapper MohBad’s death exposes murky side of Afrobeats

[Yehuda]

Nigerian rapper MohBad’s death exposes murky side of Afrobeats​

Rising star’s sudden demise after raising maltreatment accusations puts genre in the spotlight

Protesters demand justice for Afrobeat star MohBad following his mysterious death © Sunday Alabama/AP

Aanu Adeoye in Lagos | SEPTEMBER 26 2023

The mysterious death of a young Nigerian rapper has sparked protests and vigils from Lagos to London and brought the murky side of the billion-dollar Afrobeats music industry into the spotlight.

MohBad, born Ilerioluwa Oladimeji Aloba, a fast-rising star whose club hits “Peace” and “Feel Good” climbed the streaming charts in Nigeria, died at a Lagos hospital earlier this month. His sudden demise at 27 and the rush to bury him in the early hours of the following morning have led to angry speculation over foul play.

Fans have taken to the streets in several Nigerian cities to demand a thorough investigation, with many saying they identified with the industrious young artist — who was also a singer and songwriter — cut down in his prime.

As Nigerian musicians such as Burna Boy, Davido, Wizkid and Tiwa Savage sell out arenas at home and abroad, the Afrobeats music scene has morphed over two decades from a little-known genre to a globe-spanning industry.

With limited opportunities in the wider economy, Afrobeats has become a symbol of hope and means of expression for Nigerian youth — roughly 70 per cent of the nation’s 200mn citizens are under 30.

“I’m so sad,” said 29-year-old fan Wemimo. “The guy was bullied and it’s really emotional for everyone. Nobody should have to go through that.”

The bullying accusations stem from problems revealed by MohBad after he left his record label last year, alleging that he was owed royalties and had been maltreated. MohBad had also posted a number of videos of himself injured in what he claimed were attacks ordered by industry figures.

Following his death on September 12, a letter written by MohBad to Lagos police was published in local media in which he claimed to have been attacked by a group of men at a video shoot — he said the men had threatened to kill him.

High-ranking Nigerian politicians, including the Lagos state governor and the Senate committee chair for the creative economy, have assured MohBad’s supporters that due process would be followed to uncover the cause of his death. Lagos police exhumed his body last week and have conducted an autopsy, but its findings have not yet been made public.

Nigerians protest in Lagos after the death of Afrobeats star MohBad © Reuters

Afrobeats passed a milestone this month when “Calm Down” by Nigerian singer Rema and US star Selena Gomez became the first song with an African lead vocalist to reach a billion streams on Spotify. But underneath the genre’s growing success is a seedier side, said Segun Akande, a former record label executive.

The music industry — globally and in Nigeria — has always attracted shady characters, he said. In the Afrobeats scene, there has long been suspicions that wealthy drug dealers, internet fraudsters and other criminal groups often lure in up-and-coming artists with financial support.

The involvement of respectable international labels such as Universal and Sony had brought more “structure” to the genre, but “the guys on the lower end are still shut out”, said Akande, referring to artists from poorer backgrounds such as MohBad. “Talented individuals have had no choice but to seek funding from questionable individuals because music is incredibly expensive to produce and market,” he added.

MohBad was known for his “Afro-Adura” tracks, a sub-genre of Afrobeats characterised by rapping or singing about hustling while praying for a better life. The sound is popular among Nigerian youths who live in the working class parts of Lagos, such as Ikorodu, where MohBad was from.

At a candlelight memorial in Lagos last week supporters wearing white T-shirts, some emblazoned with a picture of the late rapper, chanted “justice for MohBad” amid the din of vuvuzela horns.

They also lit a lantern and set it free in memory of the artist whose nickname was “Imole”, meaning “light” in his native Yoruba language. “Imole ti de, okunkun parada,” they sang, “light is here, darkness has disappeared”.

“The guy’s death is really painful,” said a MohBad fan called Ojo. “We cannot continue like this in the music industry. All the bad things happening in the industry have been revealed and we don’t want it to happen again.”



Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2023. All rights reserved.

Nigerian rapper MohBad’s death exposes murky side of Afrobeats

 

[ReturnOfJudah]

nigerian scam artist dun fukked up the game

 

[Swahili P'Bitek]

The music industry is where criminals go to clean their money worldwide. Its nothing new. Some of these African artists, they are new yet the video looks too clean, out of nowhere, it doesn't take much to figure out whats going on.

 

[African Peasant]

It reminds me of what happen in K-Pop.

The massive industrialization of music seems to always lead to abuse.

 

[Yehuda]

nigerian scam artist dun fukked up the game

I just finished reading this, they once had Colin Powell dancing to a song about fraud.

On October 14, 2008, the former US Secretary of State Colin Powell joined Nigerian singer Olu Maintain on stage at the Africa Rising Festival in London to dance to Yahooze, arguably the hottest record out of Nigeria at the time. The dance racked up headlines on both sides of the Atlantic.

“He traded statecraft for stagecraft,” Foreign Policy’s David Kenner wrote.

It was also a seminal moment for the burgeoning but mesmerising genre known as Afrobeats, long before its global domination today. It also highlighted the significant role London would play as an amplifier of the genre that grew from the streets of Lagos.

In doing the Yahozee dance, Powell, one of the most idolised Black men in the world even after his October 2021 death from COVID-19, had unwittingly given a stamp of approval to an ode to flamboyance underwritten by internet fraud. The irony was highlighted by The Guardian two days later.

“The Nigerian hit is a celebration of that country’s most infamous export, advance-fee email fraud (sometimes called 419 fraud, after the relevant section of the Nigerian penal code),” the article read. “The perpetrators are known as “Yahoo Boys” after their email service provider of choice.”

That dance – as well as the song – remains pivotal in the genre’s story arc.

‘New millionaires’​

In 2002, Nigeria had established the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). One of its first high-profile cases was the trial of Emmanuel Nwude, a former bank executive who impersonated the central bank governor and defrauded a Brazilian bank of $242m.

Internet connectivity was on the rise and cybercafes were dotting small towns across many parts of Nigeria. Young men began trooping to cybercafes to send “Nigerian prince” letters and a culture of flamboyance from ill-gotten gains followed, so the EFCC had its hands full.

The arts, too, began to take note.

In 2005, Nollywood star actor Nkem Owoh released the satirical track I Go Chop Your Dollar, as the soundtrack to the movie The Master – playing an internet fraudster who dupes “greedy” white people. Authorities banned airplay of the song as its lyrics mirrored Nwude’s modus operandi.

And then there was Yahooze (a derivative of ‘Yahoo’) a comeback record for Olu Maintain (born Olumide Edwards Adegbulu) who had split from the popular boy band, Maintain, three years earlier. Unlike Owoh’s song, this was a celebration of materialistic culture.

After its October 2007 release, it quickly became a viral hit. Olu Maintain had struck a nerve, affected pop culture and resurrected his solo career; in 2008, Yahooze won the Song of the Year category at the Headies – Nigeria’s equivalent of the Grammys.

New millionaires, new music: How cybercrime was codified into Afrobeats

 

[Blessings]

I just finished reading this, they once had Colin Powell dancing to a song about fraud.



New millionaires, new music: How cybercrime was codified into Afrobeats

That picture is wild

 

[fscballin]

WTF, I was just blasting money the other day!!! Damn!!!!

 

[Yehuda]

Lawyers to Mr Joshua Aloba, the father of late singer, llerioluwa Aloba, popularly known as Mohbad, have written the Coroner inquiring into the controversial death to summon Ayobami Fisayo (popularly known as Spending), Boluwatife Adeyemo (popularly known as Darosha) and Ibrahim Owodunni (popularly known as Prime Boy) to testify and give eyewitness accounts of the events that led to the death of the singer.

By a letter dated Jan. 15th, 2024 and signed by one of the lawyers, Emmanuel Oroko, the application for issuance of summons on the three proposed witnesses says the testimonies of all three persons would provide more factual evidence and shed better light on the unnatural and suspicious circumstances of Sept. 12, 2023, upon which a coroner inquest has been set up.

A part of the letter to the Coroner reads, “Our research for instance has shown that there were incidents on the 3rd Mainland Bridge at about 2.30 am (Sunday, September 10, 2023, that the appropriate witnesses did not mention and which no one has related at the Coroner Inquest and in our opinion would have given away the circumstantial event that led to the death of Ilerioluwa Aloba.”

“In furtherance to the above, we believe that there were also events on 12 September 2023 at the deceased residential premises, which were not mentioned by the appropriate witnesses, and such information would have given a better insight into the real cause of the death of the deceased, as recent events have shown that some probable witnesses have been suborned”.

“These key witnesses include the driver of the car that drove the deceased, his wife, his brother and the witnesses proposed to this honourable coroner Inquest court”.

“Furthermore, we believe that the situation of the CCTV at the deceased residential premises not functional at the time the deceased and others came home may not be true”.

Mohbad Father’s Lawyers Ask Coroner To Summon Primeboy, Two Others