{"id":644864,"date":"2019-05-13T14:01:03","date_gmt":"2019-05-13T14:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"
\"Lemi<\/div>

A veteran artist, Lemi Ghariokwu, has cond"},"modified":"2019-05-13T14:01:03","modified_gmt":"2019-05-13T14:01:03","slug":"lemi-ghariokwu-most-nigerias-contemporary-music-evasive-of-societal-realities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/05\/13\/lemi-ghariokwu-most-nigerias-contemporary-music-evasive-of-societal-realities\/","title":{"rendered":"Lemi Ghariokwu: Most Nigeria\u2019s contemporary music evasive of societal realities"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Lemi<\/div>\n

A veteran artist, Lemi Ghariokwu, has condemned the lyrical contents of most Nigerian music which he says are very evasive of the realities in our society.<\/p>\n

He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lagos that poor and shallow lyrical contents were the banes of contemporary Nigerian music.<\/p>\n

Ghariokwu, a graphic designer, designed 29 out of 56 covers of the musical albums produced by Fela Anikulapo.<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cArts; be it music, creative, visual, performing arts, theatre, among others are supposed to play a role in shaping any society philosophically.<\/p>\n

\u201cArtists are expected to express whatever they see or observe to be happening in the society and proffer solutions to them if they are bad, commend them if they are.<\/p>\n

\u201cFolarin Falana, popularly known as \u201cFalz\u2019\u2019 has rich lyrical contents of happenings in the society. His songs are addressing issues affecting the society.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Ghariokwu, however, said that the lyrical contents of most Nigeria\u2019s music were about materialism, bum bum, money, buy big house and cars.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome musicians only plan is how they will credit the bank accounts of their girl friends with huge sums of money.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a very bad moral standard when we are talking about fighting corruption in the society.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of Fela\u2019s records were waxed over 30 years ago and they are still relevant and evergreen till date because they were philosophical and rich in contents.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost records being produced by most of our budding artists may not be evergreen in about 30 years time,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

He wondered whether grandchildren of musicians seeing their grandfathers leading reckless lives would agree that the country was only a bed of thorns without roses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are borrowing other cultures: Americans to be precise, especially, African Americans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe Africans have to be proud and promote our cultures, our colonial masters don\u2019t want us to liberate ourselves mentally.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a president of a country and some other important personalities from other countries could visit the Afrikan Shrine, it means Fela did something good.<\/p>\n

He reminded Africans that they should develop and promote their cultures saying nobody would help them to do that.<\/p>\n

He stressed the need for the up-and-coming ones to face realities, play genuine music based on happenings in the larger society.<\/p>\n

The graphic artist said that some musicians were surviving from the fantasy music they played.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are not helping society. At the end of the day, they will make the leaders to be ignorant of what the society is facing,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

Ghariokwu said that he was happy with the trend of events because people had cultivated the habit of listening to the genre of music that Fela started during his life time.<\/p>\n

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