| Thatcruise

Get full access to THATCRUISE. Use the app

Your Are About To

Share;

Album

The most memorable night in Nigerian Hip-Hop: When MI Abaga Dropped 'MI2: The Movie'
4 years ago

Enter Your New Title ⬇️ Imagelink⬇️
Attachment Type

Or area Leave Blank

keywords (20words!)	Phrase(title!)	Video Download (link!)

Download link (Audio)	YouTube Video link!	box(closed!)	box (closed)
/topic?id=20680-the-most-memorable-night-in-nigerian-hip-hop-when-mi-abaga-dropped-mi2-the-movie

Change to your Rightful category below ⬇️
Enter Your Text’s Here ⬇️

The most memorable night in Nigerian Hip-Hop:
When MI Abaga Dropped 'MI2: The Movie.' [Pulse
Nigera/Chocolate City]
10 years later, the album remains one of the most
important bodies of work, not just for Jude Abaga
but for Nigerian music and Afrobeats.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010, was just like every
other day in Lagos.
25-year-old me woke up in my parents home,
located in Ipaja, Lagos, where I had lived for the
past 16 years, sharing a bed with my young brother.
He was at the University of Benin at the time, and I
was happy to have the room to myself.
<img src="https://ocdn.eu/pulscms-transforms/1/9W2k9kpTURBXy9iM2UwOWUzN2RhYzY1NTZlNDM4NTY4YzlhMGUyNmNhMC5qcGeRkwXNAanM34GhMQA"/>
Osagie Alonge's breakdown: MI Abaga - MI2.
[NHH/HHW/CC]
Just like any other morning, I freshened up and
headed for the door, already planning my day -
studio, cafe, studio, home, cafe for night browsing.
<a>
I worked at a small studio located in Abesan
Estate, a walking distance from my house. The
studio belonged to Edward Awani, known to
everyone as Tycoon - a local rapper who had seen
some popularity in the early days of Hip-Hop in
Nigeria. The legendary Bayo Omisore at
HipHopWorld Magazine , (Nigeria’s version of The
Source Magazine ) had even featured and reviewed
his debut album NEW ERA back in 2005.
<.a>
<img src="https://ocdn.eu/pulscms-transforms/1/ZmAk9kpTURBXy8yMTJiY2E4MjdmMDIwMzZjNDZmNThjZmY3YWZlOWIwZi5qcGeRkwXNAanM34GhMQA_/>
Osagie Alonge's breakdown: MI Abaga - MI2.
[NHH/HHW/CC]
Tycoon’s studio was regularly booked by local
artistes from the Ipaja/Merian/Egbeda axis. He had
mixed my first and only mixtape Tales of a Hustla
back in 2006. Four years later, our relationship had
grown from OG-rookie to a more matured
friendship.
I worked in his studio as a recording engineer and
assisted with the burning of multiple CDs for music
artistes and video producers.
On this day, we along with some other upcoming
artistes had been talking about Nigerian Hip-Hop
and how it had grown from its boom-bap era into a
more appealing genre amongst the Nigerian music
audience. MI, Naeto, Illbliss and Dagrin’s names
came up the most.
 
M.I Abaga’s second album was dropping that night,
and it was a topic amongst the boys at the studio.
What did M.I have in store for us this time around?
Would the album be soft like his debut Talk About
It ? Would he respond to Iceberg Slim’s jab on the
Bronx, NY native’s diss song “ Am I better”?
I got a text from Faz…
Obinna Ifechi-Fred aka Fazillion was in East London
at the time. It was strange for him to text me, he’d
usually send me a Skype message. He had
probably figured out why I wasn’t responding. I was
broke and had run out of data.
“Bro, M.I just gave us the rights to sell the album
on the website”, his text read.
My eyes lit up.
You see, Faz and M.I had recently settled their
differences. Faz, best described as a real-life
walking encyclopedia of Nigerian music and the
Short Black Boy had issues from their past to
straighten out, and they had recently chopped it up.
But it was still a shock to me that M could allow us
to sell his album on our website.
Our website was called NigerianHipHop.net . Now
defunct, NHH was a one-stop platform that carefully
curated Hip-Hop music, released by Nigerians from
anywhere in the world. We also paid a lot of
attention to what the average music listener will
describe as “the underground”. It was founded by a
Nigerian, Huey, based in Europe and run by himself
alongside Faz, Shade (who stayed in the US) and
myself.
I did a lot of groundwork for the website, being the
only one in Nigeria at the time. We launched our
store 9 months earlier, and it was my responsibility
to get as many Hip-Hop artistes to sell their
albums on the website.
I had closed deals with rappers Terry Tha Rapman,
Overdose, Vector and producers Jamix as well as
Tha Suspect .
Selling M.I Abaga’s highly anticipated second
album would do a lot of good for NHH in terms of
exposure and would also one-up NotjustOK.com,
Nigeria’s biggest music blog at the time.
So we got the rights to sell the album, but there
was one problem, M.I (who is notoriously known
for ghosting conversations) was not responding to
Faz’s messages after he confirmed NHH could sell
the album - hey, I can’t blame him, he had an
album dropping that night. But in other to sell an
album, you need to have an actual copy of the
album. NJO would have it available at midnight, and
all the traffic would go their way.
At 4 PM, with no word from Mr Abaga, I told Faz
I’d be heading to Alaba International Market to get
the album. You see, back in 2010, physical sales of
albums were still a thing, and Alaba, located in Ojo,
Lagos was the mecca of commercialization music.
One of the biggest music CD distributors, Mr Abhu ,
CEO of ABHU Ventures is rumoured to have slept
over at M.I’s place in Palmgroove just to safeguard
and secure the master copy of the album and take
it to Alaba to cut copies that would go to every city
in the country that night.
I got to Alaba my 6 PM and didn’t even need to get
the ABHU Ventures store as the album had already
hit the shelves in Alaba. It was selling fast! I bought
a copy for N45 Naira (don’t even bother converting
to Dollars) and headed back to Ipaja. I was super
excited; first to listen to the album first then to
upload to Faz who would set it up in the store for
sale that night.
<br,>
I got home at 10 PM, quietly 'borrowed' my sister’s
laptop at the time and headed to the cyber cafe. I
ripped the CD with my iTunes player at the highest
quality MP3 bitrate, 320 kbps and sent to Faz.<img src="https://ocdn.eu/pulscms-transforms/1/Mt5k9kpTURBXy9lN2E0Nzk1ZTYxNzc2YTE2OTNhZjM2NzJmYzIyY2JkMC5wbmeRkwXNAanM34GhMQA"/>
.
Osagie Alonge's breakdown: MI Abaga - MI2.
[NHH/HHW/CC]

The time was 11 PM, we put out the album; Nigeria
Twitter went nuts, insane. RTs went through the
roof. There was pandemonium everywhere. The
numbers at the backend were doubling in real-time.
People were buying the album and literally tweeting
the lyrics seconds later.
I was proud of Nigerian Hip-Hop that night and will
always look at it as the first moment Nigerian
music truly trended organically, worldwide through
social media.
<img src="https://ocdn.eu/pulscms-transforms/1/_drk9kpTURBXy85MzQyNWJhMzc2MDdhNjcxNzkzZGJmMmNiNDY1MzBjOS5wbmeRkwXNAanM34GhMQA"/>

Osagie Alonge's breakdown: MI Abaga - MI2.
[NHH/HHW/CC]

NotjustOK who had a huge countdown timer with
one hour left had to scrap their plans and release
the album almost immediately. I honestly relished
the chaos we caused them that night (love you
Demola and Ovie )!
MI2:The Movie is the best Hip-Hop album to
released in 2010. You give it even more accolades
when you realise the other Hip-Hop artistes that
released albums that year include Modenine , Jesse
Jagz, Terry Tha Rapman, Overdose, Sauce Kid,
Ikechukwu, 2Shotz, Vector , Cartier, Pherowshuz,
and A-Q.
10 years later, the album remains one of the most
important bodies of work, not just for Jude Abaga
but for Nigerian music and Afrobeats. The
message, composition, production and effrontery to
blend so many local sounds with Hip-Hop and still
make it appeal to both ends of the genre’s
spectrum should be studied in schools for decades.
On December 29, 2010, I published a review of
' MI2: The Movie' on NigerianHipHop.net, but it now
resides on Nigeriansounds.com. You can read it
below;

ALBUM REVIEW By Osagie Alonge
ARTISTE : M.I
 
ALBUM: MI2 The Movie
 
RECORD LABEL: Chocolate City Records

DISTRIBUTED BY: AHBU Ventures

Jude Abaga appeared on the music scene a couple
of years ago with a single called “Crowd Mentality”
which was filled with conscious but witty lyrics. A
few years passed by then he released his debut
album, Talk about It which pretty much towed along
with the style of his first single.
The success of the album paved way for a new
style of Nigerian rap; easy on the words heavy on
the style and delivery, a formula which M.I quickly
found out to woo his audience to a fixed state.
So, after a successful album, numerous cameos,
multiple awards and even a BET feature and
nomination , why not stick to a winning formula? At
best one could even increase the dose or better yet
alter it to produce a more potent force since the
public ear will take anything from the rising champ.
Hence, MI2 The Movie: A spin off of the popular
Tom Cruise movie ‘ Mission Impossible ’ which
perfectly fits into M.I’s musical context. And so, the
album concept is that M.I plays a character of the
protagonist and every artiste feature is a co-starring
role. Let’s go in…..
From an intro which best befits the concept but is
rather too long, M.I establishes his character which
will go all the way throughout the album.

Starting with a very energetic tune with new R&B kid
Brymo 'Action film' has got you swaying from side
to side as M.I declares his accomplishments and
grand return with lines like “ back with a banger/for
the hood for the streets for the zanga/the return of
the microphone handler/came back to set a new
standard," his delivery stays intact as Brymo laces
the hook with laudable vocals.
M.I moves onto something more subtle with 'Slow
Down,' characterizing and beautifying a faceless
female.
As the album goes on, M.I slows down the tempo
with songs like 'Number 1' where he brilliantly
blends his hip-hop style with the highlife genre sung
by Flavour. Also on 'Anybody' M.I calls on Timaya
and Loose kaynon to air out their views on the
‘hate’ the ‘fame’ acquires.
With lines like “ some people love me, some people
jealous me/some people wanna put poison in my
Hennessey…./…I’m just spitting my flow, I’m just
trying to grow/life is bi-sexual, anybody can blow”,
coupled with excellent verse from Timaya and even
Loose, it’s quite clear that the Short Black Boy isn’t
entirely happy with the way he has been treated ever
since his new found fame arrived.
This story continues with ' Nobody' a duet with
Tuface Idibia where M.I tows the same line of the
previous track overemphasizing the subject but
Tuface’s vocals make it a must listen.
They say if a goat is pushed to the wall and has
nowhere to go, it’ll fight back. That’s what M.I does
immediately as he goes in hard on ' Beef' but
instead of boisterously dropping lines, M.I playfully
takes down any opponent that has been tearing
scratches at him, dropping lines like “ See them see
them they wanna beef me/ now that they see BET
on my CV/now that I’m frequently on the TV…”

Finally, he responds to his ‘frenemy’ Iceberg Slim
while ridiculing his ever present pest, Kelly
Hansome when he spits “…they know using my
name will help them sell some, so Iceberg it’s
alright you’re welcome/but I’m not In their league
help me tell them, the Super Eagles don’t play
against the Falcons/ see wor-wor pikin (Ugly child)
dey form handsome, Kelechukwu clap for yourself
welldone ”.
The album takes on another path as 'Wild Wild
West ' portrays the ills and sudden unrest in Judo’s
hometown Jos. 'Craze' also depicts the current
deforming situation of the country, as M.I relates
his disgust for corruption. The song would have
done better on a subtle beat and less incoherent
chorus.
But M.I bounces back with the very melodious 'My
Head My Belle' still sticking to the everyday norms
of the society, a high point of the album this is.
All through the album, M.I makes it clear that he’s
sticking to his musical side with use of local drum
loop patterns and congas mixed with melodious
strings inviting other genres into the hip-hop theme.
A song like 'Epic' perfectly describes this as the
crescendo increases while the song moves steadily
as Praise ups the tempo with blissful chants.
Moving on, 'Undisputed ' shows the Short Black Boy
show off his self acclaimed title, describing his
present reign as untouchable. “One Naira” without a
doubt brings a softer side of M.I as he assures a
companion with lines like “ hey princess, I’m so into
you/ ‘cause you see pass what my revenue is/ and
love me for me, clever you/leave you that is
something I’ll never do…” while Waje brilliantly
croons out the chorus.

And to wrap it up 'Represent' with Choc Comrades;
Jesse Jagz and Iceprince and newbie Brymo has
M.I easily taking out the first two with energetic
vibes as Jesse and Iceprince fail to deliver.
Conclusively, M.I might not be the most lyrically
dexterous Nigerian rapper out there; the words
might not always come strong (with lines like “ …
cause I’m Championship like Inter ”, “ i’ll follow you
like three blind mices”) but the strong attitude and
musical concept of MI2 stays intact from start to
finish. 
Production 4/5 
Lyrics: 3/5 
Originality: 5/5 
ALBUM RATING: 4/5 
You can follow;
Osagie Alonge on at platforms @osagz
MI Abaga on all platforms @MI_Abaga
Osagie Alonge's podcast on all platforms
@amusicintime

name= name=