Recall that Noble Igwe on Saturday disclosed that record labels, car dealers and clubs in Lagos are major fraud fronts in the country, calling the attention of EFCC to them.
This occurred after the alleged news that the anti-graft agency, EFCC, stormed the premises of Club 57 in Ikoyi and arrested over 12 suspected internet fraudsters.
Reacting on how Nigerian singers glorify wealth in their music, Eldee wrote on Twitter, stating that he is one of those responsible for how wealth has been glorified in the society.
He wrote: ” I made the song, Big Boy and unwittingly contributed to the decay. I know better today. We have a society that today finds justification for corruption, armed robbery and fraud because it doesn’t matter anymore how you get it, just get it, and for no other reason than to flaunt it.
“Today, we have a society that doesn’t respect honest work. A society that insists on the display of wealth for social status. A society that has raised the bar so high for everyone that even the rich have to lie about their true financial capacity.
“Poverty has a strong impact on our self-esteem as a people. The need to fill a low self-esteem gap with material things is what has led our society as a whole to where we are today.
“Recently, I started wondering why do people connect so well with materialism? What is it about a flashy lifestyle that is more exciting? Why is more respect given to people who are considered to be rich and wealthy in society? ”
Eldee mentioned how he is a more socially conscious person and prefers to listen to Bob Marley than to PDiddy, but as an artist, he is tempted to choose the opposite of his what he believes. He further justified himself by comparing his dilemma to Tupac’s.
“Truth is, people who are close to me know that I’m more of a Bob Marley, than a PDiddy.
In my natural state, I’m more socially conscious than flashy. Much of my music doesn’t give off that vibe though, primarily because a lot of my music was made to cater to my audience. Even the late great Tupac Shakur made records that if placed side by side are contradictory. Compare Dear mama to Hit em up, for example, same artist, different emotions. That was how I coped with my own contradiction.
“My coping mechanism was that in the expression of art, it is ok to have contradicting positions from time to time so I thought it ok to one day feel like Bob Marley and another day feel like Diddy. How can I care so much about the plight of my people and at the same time promote oppression and materialism? I struggled with it for a while but I eventually developed a coping mechanism that helped me get past the feeling of guilt”.
“When you place those two records side by side, the contrast is evident. The more I thought about what that interviewer said to me on the red carpet that day, the more clarity I had about the contradiction.
“A few years before, I had released another successful record titled, I go yan. I go yan is a socially conscious song that tackles the shortcomings of African leaders.
“There was a part of what she said though, that stayed with me and continued to echo in my head. It was the part where she asked how I was able to reconcile Big Boy with some of my previous more socially conscious music. I didn’t think much of it at the time.
“I mean, she fell right into the category of the haters I was describing on the song, so I just moved on. We didn’t have time to talk any further because we had to move along quickly and do another interview, but I noticed as we walked away that she looked disappointed.”
Listen to Eldee’s Big Boy below
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