SEUNMANUEL FALEYE
In 2016, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, published a report which posited that professionals in the Arts (Entertainment), Recreation and Hospitality Industries have the most records, as drug abusers and consumers of excessive alcohol in the country.
According to the report, professionals may abuse depressants such as alcohol, or marijuana to relieve stress or take stimulants such as cocaine or amphetamines to stay awake during their long work hours.
Entertainers, sport athletes and media practitioners have high-stress jobs, and many people who operate in these industries turn to drugs as a coping mechanism for the daily rigour of their occupation. The fame, wealth and demanding schedules compel people within these areas of endeavor to indulge in substances which even when not illegal are used in immoderate doses. These professionals are all the same supposed to be role models to the younger and more impressionable generations.
Just a few days back, rave of the moment, Afropop sensation, and “Soapy” crooner, Azeez Fashola a.k.a Naira Marley, shared a picture of himself on Instagram. He was lighting a king size marijuana; about the sizes that late Legendary Fela Anikulapo-Kuti was renowned for smoking in his days.
He captioned the photo thus; “HighLife, InsideLife Do What I Want Cos It’s My Life. #HappyMarlian.”
This post triggered a backlash in some quarters, especially by those perceived to be “conservative” members of the public, who think that Naira Marley and his Afropop contemporaries are a wrong influence on Nigerian youths. For this reason, they encouraged a boycott of their songs.
Drugs as Creativity Enhancer
Studio Engineer and Music Producer, Abu Vincent, with the signature name “Smoke on tha beats”, shared his experience with drugs and alcohol, and his foray into the music industry with eelive.ng in a recent interview. According to Vincent, he started music, as a sound engineer and guitarist in church about 12 years ago, and since he embraced secular music in 2006/07, he does not think it is possible for him to be creatively optimal while working as a producer without first getting high on weed.
“You see, a job that makes you use your brain a lot will drain you. And it can be boring sometimes as a producer, when you must sit down long hours in the studio, cooking up beats and producing for artistes who have recording sessions. I will not lie to you. It is not possible to do this kind of work without that inspiration. I can tell you, the most favorite beats I ever created, were done when I was in cloud nine, (laughs), I mean when I was high.”
For fast rising producer and recording artiste, Nnaemeka Frank Junior, known by the stage name Emino, who worked and lived in the same house with brothers and former music duo Psquare, admitted to the use of alcohol and Arizona when he has work in the studio in a chat with eelive.ng.
“I smoke Arizona, sometimes, but that is only when I am working as a producer. Smoking helps me concentrate on my work as a producer. For me, smoking does not necessarily help me be more creative, it just helps me concentrate better in the studio. But when I need to go into the booth to record music, I don’t smoke. This is because, I need my voice to be as clear as possible, and smoking will leave some blockages in the throat that will not make you project very well. Although, I know some artistes that drugs work, they don’t work for me. These people do drugs like Tramadol, Codeine, Pacaline, Gentamacin (280mg) and so on.
“They don’t work for me, so I don’t use them. I tried one of them once, it made me itch through out that day. If I take it, I cannot do anything productive throughout that day. I will just be happy and playing around. And afterwards, I will sleep, until I’m normal.”
He refuted claims that all performing artistes need to get high on drugs in order to give energetic performances before a crowd; explaining that growing up as a pastor’s child and playing the instruments in church prepared him for facing a crowd.
“I have performed in front of a live audience of up to five thousand, and I’ll pull it through without needing to be high or something. It’s a normal thing for someone like me. My dad is a pastor, so I’m used to it.”Emino told eelive.ng
For Lagos-based DJ, “DJ Nothing Dey Happen”, who admitted to have consumed cocaine intravenously, he disclosed that he stopped using almost immediately he got introduced to it by his friend over five years now. However, he is still hooked on Marijuana.
According to Nothing Dey Happen, smoking before a show helps him become the life of the party, charging the crowd properly and enhancing a balanced mood throughout a show, as against his normal mood swings when he is off marijuana.
He told our correspondent:
“I won’t lie, I have taken coke (cocaine) with my guys before. But that was not in Naija. I was in South Africa then. And that is like, 8 years ago. I stopped all that. I was a DJ at a club in Grahamstad City, in the eastern cape province. Now, I just do normal weed to help me normalize my mood. Because, I usually think a lot, and it gives me mood swings very much. But to be able to ginger the crowd at shows, once I’m high, I’m good to go”.
Alcohol and Smoking for Socialization
On a seemingly milder stance, some entertainers, who admitted to both smoking and drinking, claimed that it was neither an addiction nor a performance enhancer.
One of such is Bandaki Obafemi, a.k.a Young Blud, a performing artiste signed to Chrismoney Music. Blud told us in an interview:
“For me personally, there is no correlation between my music and smoking. I don’t do drugs, but I smoke cigarettes. Smoking cigarettes started for me back in school. I and my friends. Usually, when we need to stay up at night to read, we just keep cigarettes by the side to help us stay awake. That was what we used it for back then. Overtime, it became a habit and it stuck. Now, I only smoke to socialize. So it is does not help with being creative. As for alcohol, the kind of job we do, we spend most times, doing the nightlife. You know you cannot be hanging out in the club, or you’re having a performance somewhere, and there would be no alcohol around you. You don’t go to the club to drink water, isn’t? So, alcohol is just for socialization for me. I hear some artistes do music and drugs, but I don’t personally,”He said.
Nigerian Artistes and Songs that Promote Drugs
In the book, Musical Communication, authors, Dorothy Miell, Raymond MacDonald and David J. Hargreaves explained how music can be used as tool to communicate emotions, as well as the cognitive, biological and cultural underlie behind such communications.
Some of Nigeria’s young musical artistes have continually used their music to tell their fans that they fancy a lifestyle that is characterised by drug abuse and addiction. As a result, so many Nigerian musicians and their music have been mentioned with remarkable frequency in same sentence with drugs and the budding issue of its abuse.
Although he appears to have reduced his social media brandishing of marijuana and cigarette smoking, indigenous rapper, Olamide a.k.a Baddo, however has left suggestions about his romance with these substances through his music. In 2018 for instance, he released his instant street hit, titled; Science Student. A song whose lyrics glorifies the inordinate mixture of chemicals (drugs) for consumption.
Likewise, the second verse of his August 2018 hit; Motigbana follows his usual figurative style of brandishing of substances: The lyrics goes; “…O den bere lowo mi shey mo wa okay, o ti joja, o ti wa’n ke shey powder niyen ni’mu e ni abi cocaine eh! “. This means; “You are asking if I’m okay, you are apparently getting high on substance, is that powder on your nose or cocaine eh!.”
In March 2018, Olamide’s brother, DJ Enimoney dropped (Codeine) Diet, a collaboration with popular Hypeman, Slimcase, Tiwa Savage, and Reminisce. Despite being an instant hit, and a good party groove, the song was greeted by criticisms and indeed, sparked a national debate about how entertainers celebrate drug abuse in their songs.
Other artistes who have also released songs about their unapologetic embrace for substances include: Burna Boy, in his 2013 single. Ice Prince also glorified weed in his 2013 single featured Yung L, Olamide and Burna Boy, in the album, Fire of Zamani. All of these show the liberal Nigerian pop culture, which permits the glorification of drugs as companions and creative enhancers, as well as a way of life for many musicians in Nigeria.
But this is not exactly a new trend.
Tracking the history of the Nigerian music industry, Legendary Afro Beat creator, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti and Kennery King, late Dr Orlando Owoh were two musicians who made no secret of their love for marijuana and how much inspired creativity. And it does indeed appear that Fela has a huge influence on the fast-paced younger generation of new crops of millennial coming into the music industry.
Negative Consequences of Abuse of Drugs
Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, Mojisola Adeyeye, said drug abuse could lead to arrhythmia – irregular heartbeat –, cramp, and death. Death could come because of overdose.
And here, the mysterious death of three friends of David Adedeji Adeleke, the Afropop artiste otherwise known as Davido comes to mind. The young men known as Tagbo, DJ Olu, and Chime were all Davido’s friends who passed on in 2017, within one week.
Tagbo was reported to have been with Davido and his crew at a nightclub on October 4, 2017, before they allegedly decided to play a drinking game with a winning prize of an iPhone8 and N200,000 cash, where he allegedly guzzled 10 cups of tequila. Speculations say that the game went awry as news broke that his corpse had been dumped at the Lagos General Hospital.
On October 8, DJ Olu and Chime who were also friends of the music star were likewise, found dead in DJ Olu’s car.
These deaths have not been unconnected from a drug overdose, as reports suggest that Olu and Chime vomited blood and bled from their noses. Samples of hard drugs were also recovered from the car they were found dead in.
But beyond the possible adverse health or even fatal consequences that may attend the use of drugs and excessive alcohol, there is the very frightening cognitive and behavioral shift this abuse could impose on people.
Observers trace one incident in which the multiple award-winning artiste, Olamide behaved out of tune and exchanged heated words with fellow artistes as a loss of comportment while under the influence.
At the 2016 Headies Awards, Olamide made himself a public spectacle and subject of debate when he broke a bottle, destroyed the Headies Greenroom, and allegedly punched a younger colleague, while protesting the coveted “Next Rated” Award given to Reekado Banks, of Supreme Mavin Dynasty at that time, over his artiste, and protégé, Lil Kesh.
To express his dissatisfaction, Olamide holding a red cup, presumably used to consume the liquor that fueled his untoward behavior, escorted his artiste, Adekunle Gold to receive the award for Best Alternative Song. While on stage, Lil Keshlay prostrate for Olamide, who without any acknowledgement of the courtesy snatched the microphone and snapped: “Let’s be honest, this award belongs to Lil Kesh, because Lil Kesh is our own Next Rated artist. F**k that shit…The streets ti take over. Every f**king single was a hit back to back. From lyrically to Shoki to Efejoku. Ko ni dafun Iya anybody,” after when he dropped the mic and walked off the stage.
Drugs, Drugs, Everywhere
Sadly, access to these substances is largely uncontrolled in Nigeria. Those who spoke to eelive.ng explained to us that there are peddlers of weed and all other types of substances in every neighborhood in Nigeria. This abundance of supply leaves youths battling with unemployment, educational issues and poverty to take solace in what is glorified by their music idols.
Speaking about on the prevalence of drug abuse among youths in the country; actress and beauty entrepreneur, Annie Idibia once told HIP TV that while it was worrisome enough that young adults were abusing drugs, it is even more frightening that these drugs are relatively cheap and easily assessable.
Investigations by eelive.ng indicate that aside from drugs such as cocaine, heroin and amphetamines, abused by the elite and high net worth individuals, the most abused substance in the country is cannabis (Indian hemp). This is said to be taken by 10.6 million Nigerians, out of the 14.3 million that were reported to have used it last year. This makes cannabis, perhaps next to alcohol, by far the most commonly abused substance in the country. But, also popular among the youths, probably due to their affordability, are some prescription drugs such as Tramadol and Codeine.
An investigative report by BBC reveals that “up to 3 million bottles of the addictive syrup are drunk every day in just two northern states of the country Taken in excess, codeine can cause psychosis and organ failure.” A report that forced that Nigerian Government to place a ban on the substance 24hours after the report was made public.
Gross Implications for Careers
Speaking from the vantage point of his 30 years of experience as a live band performer, Sir Olive told eelive.ng matter of factly that drug use can only lead artistes to an unpleasant end.
His words:
“Is there life in that? I tell you, living on drugs is a big waste of life. It will not make you have savings as a musician. Once you become addicted, forget it. That person’s life has been stolen from him. Look at the life of Majek Fashek. That guy was a legend in his days. But drug retired him before he was ready. I heard he just got out of a rehab recently. I hope young artistes coming up today, learn from we their parents. But, I think they want to make their own mistakes, and hopefully learn from it.”
Dancehall King Edward Inyang otherwise known as Blackky spoke in similar light during a recent interview with eelive.ng.
“I used to tell my brothers and sisters (in music) back then that you don’t have to smoke or carry brandy or whiskey before you perform or because you are going on stage. So that’s the misconception that all artistes smoke, womanize, and are unserious. If I must do that I probably would not be sitting before you today the drugs would have wrecked me.”
From a fresher point of view, multi-award winning, RnB, Afropop sensation; Tubaba, in an interview with Hip TV, advised that while it is good to have fun, it is also important to keep one’s head straight, understanding that a lot more is at stake, such as health and a career.
