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BN Hot Topic: Olamide’s “Science Student,” Drug Abuse & the Role of a Creative in Societal Issues
Olamide
Nigerian rapper Olamide has a penchant for making songs, dance moves and street slangs go viral. The trending dance move at the moment is Shaku Shaku and it has somewhat boosted the popularity of what Nigerians call “street jamz”.
After his hit single “WO,” Olamide dropped another song – Science Student – that can be termed as perfect for the shaku shaku dance. The song discusses the rising rate (or should we say growing popularity?) of drug abuse in the society.
Nigeria’s drug abuse situation is growing and the youth (mainly) now take a variety of hard drugs in large quantities, sometimes mixing most of them (where the “science students” title came from) together. We recently talked about an impending drug abuse crisis. Read it here.
Olamide, regarded as “King of the Streets” for his songs that depicts what’s going one in the ghetto, has had his fair share of criticism concerning his lyrics over the years.
Olamide rapped his verses and sang the chorus for Science Student in mostly Yoruba and majority of Nigerians couldn’t get the meaning, but the beat is great, the skits on Instagram are fun to watch, and the shaku shaku dance must be learned, with this song.
However, the song is sparking major discussions online and offline. On the one side, people are saying it is promoting drug abuse and on the other side, is the group saying tt is passing the message on the effects of drug abuse. Another set of people feel he’s playing his role as a creative in starting a conversation.
Without mentioning names or songs, actress Kemi Lala Akindoju spoke on “the encouragement and promotion to use hard drugs and get ‘high’ under the influence in the name of song and dance,” saying “it is disturbing”.
Music executive also shared his thoughts on the issue:
But first of all, see this translation of the song:
A comedian @Oluwadolarz also made a skit, singing (some parts of) the song. Watch below:
So, BellaNaijarians, what are your thoughts? Have you listened to the song? Do you understand the lyrics? Does it promote (or songs like it promotes) drug abuse? Do you think the song is spotlighting an important issue in the society and starting an important conversation? Please share your thoughts.
Photo Credit: Instagram – @elziavibestudio
