Nigerian veteran musician, Salawa Abeni fondly called the Waka Queen, says young artistes should not allow wealth lead them astray. Abeni notes that indigenous traditional music genres will never go extinct, particularly because new generation artistes get inspiration from them.
“’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.
“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
“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” she reveals.
The Waka queen also urges young artistes not to be led astray by the allure of wealth.
“Today’s Nigerian musicians and other artistes must not allow their wealth, fame, popularity and riches lead them astray.These artistes 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”.