By Anote Ajeluorou
The revolution in Nigerian
music is heavily rooted in America-influenced hiphop styles that manage to
retain a certain local flavour through the use of local languages and nuances.
It’s this cross-over influence that has endeared it to many so much so that
nightclubs and the airwaves are saturated with it. Which is good, as it
delivers great entertainment value, with its attendant reduction of foreign
music influence.
Now, the duo of two brothers, Michael and James Osehan,
known as Izon, are redefining the cross-cultural currents in Nigeria’s music.
In what they call ‘trado-contemporary’ music, they have done a remix of ‘Iworiwo’, the music of highlife master, Jim Rex Lawson, also
of Izon or Ijaw extraction, like the two brothers, which is in a singles. The
video has also been made, with Akin Alabi as producer.
In a recent chat, the two brothers, who could be mistaken
for twins, said remixing Lawson’s track ‘Iworiwo’ was their own way of paying tribute iconic Ijaw
musician who loomed large during their growing up years as their father always
woke them up every morning with his music. It, therefore, made huge impression
on the young minds and that remixing it was partly to ensure its iconic status
and to say that traditional ways of life should be given a place of pride among
youths.
According to them, “Our music is a fusion of traditional and
contemporary – trado-contemporary music. In the music as we have rendered it,
there is fusion of English, Yoruba and Ijaw languages. While growing up as
kids, our dad used to wake us up with Lawson’s music every morning. So, this is
a flashback to those good old days we hear so much about”.
Izon is not new to the music scene. They had their first
outing in 1999, as ‘School Boys’ trio, with a song, ‘Edeise’, which means ‘most cherished, love for a woman’; for
them women made enormous contributions to the world and that they needed to be
praised for that. Christian Dior was marketer and promoter at the time. They
also used to perform at DTD Lekki Sunsplash.
However, they could not sustain the tempo because of what
they regarded as poor management, which they said “did allow them to explore
back then. The challenge was not being able to go back to the studio. But the
passion persisted in us. We started performing early; we did a song about
Ajegunle. But like we said, we had terrible loopholes in terms of management.
Now, we’re back to restructure our style”.
Michael and James described life back in the slums of
Ajegunle as “‘tedious’ but ‘interesting’ growing up in the ghetto; but we
couldn’t beat them so we fled from it but the ghetto experience was pleasurable
to us. If you could cope in Ajegunle, then you can cope anywhere else. But it
can suck you up if you have no proper parenting”.
The duo had also had a spell in movies; they featured in Silver
Spoon and described it as a brilliant
experience
Their manager, Shodayo Olorunsogo, is passionate about the
Afro-centric approach his artists, Izon, have taken to music, noting, “We want
to revive the real Nigerian music; we’re looking back at our own roots. As much
as we’re enriching global culture, we want to reaffirm the real culture of
Nigeria through the music we play.
Olorunsogo said Izon’s remaking of Lawson’s Iworiwo was going back to the roots, adding, “People do music
to make money, but we want our music to be evergreen. We don’t want it to fade
away so easily. We’re doing music for music sake but with the hope that we will
also reap from it. That is why we’re doing music in the trado-contemporary way
– highlife”.
The duo also has a socially-conscious mindset that yearns to
reach out to socially-disadvantaged persons in society. According to them, “Our
plan is to reach the needy in society, those who are homeless. Most of our
concerts will be charity-based so we can help the needy, the less privileged in
society”.
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