14 lessons every rapper can learn from that controversial Modenine article

Modenine is the poster boy for gritty, hardcore hip hop that is a seemingly lost art in Nigerian music these days. It’s not hard to see why: he is the most lyrically proficient emcee to ever bless the mic on this side of the Sahara – and I daresay, on the entire African continent.

Below are 14 important points you should see.

1. ‘At 41 years old and on his fifth studio album, there’s no reason Modenine should still be the ‘Underground King’ he referenced on Alphabetical Order (2013).’
2. Modenine’s curse: his skill-set is an orphan in an environment that screams loudly for something entirely different.
3. Only Modo is standing in the way of this happening. True greatness ought to know when to stoop to conquer. Modenine does not.
4. They say imitation is the best form of flattery; no one has flattered Modenine by imitating his style.
5. The audience doesn’t hate him; the audience just doesn’t get him like it gets other pop acts.
6. Modenine has not achieved mainstream success like Jay Z, neither has he had any major influence on the Nigerian music scene, like Don Jazzy in shaping Nigerian urban music
7. It takes away from his accomplishment that for all his brilliance, he cannot find a way to merge commercial success with his famed lyricism.
8. People who still hold Mode in high esteem only do that for sentimental reasons.
9. Modenine is the poster boy for gritty, hardcore hip hop that is a seemingly lost art in Nigerian music these days.
10. Perhaps Modenine’s greatest undoing, and a gaping chink in his otherwise gleaming armour, is his inability – or worse blatant refusal – to adapt and evolve.
11. Modenine has fallen just short of achieving true greatness. I will attempt to share why.
12. Modenine’s fan base is quite small and it’s not necessarily because the larger audience is unsophisticated- it is because the rapper’s lines are simply not resonating with them.
13. Mode’s second issue: he’s making music that nobody actually demands or wants. It is a cardinal rule of hip hop that your lyrics match your realities and that of the audience.
14. Modenine has proven to be a clever wordsmith, often spitting rhymes that practically fly over the listeners’ heads.