Why I Changed My Rap Style -Reminisce

Popular rapper, Remilekun Abdulkalid Safaru otherwise known as Reminisce, has revealed that he changed his style of rapping from mainly the English language to Yoruba because he wants to make money and at the same time, earn laudable music streaming statistics.

In an interview with Pulse, the Yoruba lingo lyricist said he doesn’t want to be poor as an artiste, and that was why he decided to switch up things having diligently studied the music market, after which he was able to identify an opportunity which he has since been exploiting.

While disclosing that his decision to switch from raping mainly with English to Yoruba influenced his move from legendary producer, ID Cabasa‘s Coded Tunes, he maintained that music is a game of demography and money.

His words; One of the reasons why I left Coded Tunes was because I was rapping in English. The initial ‘Book of Rap Stories’ was being recorded in the mid-2000s, but it never came out. 9ice had to go because he had ‘Little Money’ and I decided to make a change. I was way better than a lot of people, but it will forever be a game of numbers. What would you have me do?

“It was about demography and money. Do you want me to be poor? Sarz also asked me if I was sure about Hip-Hop reps, I was like too hell with that, let’s light it. 10 years later, guess who’s in this motherf*r? [laughs]. I don’t want to be the greatest, but I love money. I do this so people can have opinions, I just want to make money.

“People are better than me in a lot of ways. If I’m better than you somewhere, look for what you do better than me. I’m a ‘lambarist’ and a ‘tungbaist,’ I learned to blend in. It’s like football, there’s nothing like a striker anymore, you gotta be a forward with multiple functionalities. That’s why I have a problem with ‘Hip-Hop’ purists who have never paid one million for a beat.

“You must adjust to what’s going on or you’ll get left behind on 500 streams… You can’t be stagnant and this Hip-Hop isn’t for us… Point me to a Nigerian rapper that was huge in ‘95. You must be able to appeal to your local audience – the grassroot people – like Fuji artists can and ‘lamba limbo.’ You can’t come to Ojota and have people looking at you.

“The Americans you want to impress think you have an accent. It’s okay if you do that, I have no problem with the way people feel comfortable to make their music. Where I have a problem is when you criticize people for making rap music in a different way or a different language… I can probably do what you do better than you and still lamba limbo, you know [laughs].

“And what’s indigenous rapper? Who’s now international? Rap is rap… Don’t take the piss o [laughs].”

Reminisce started as a rapper who was comfortable exploring his talent in English, but as he admitted in the interview, it never worked for him, as no one cared to listen, except for hip-hop heads.

After several attempts to break even, he decided to toe the path of tweaking his style a bit in order to blend with the current trend. He then returned with his 2011 monster hit Kako Bi Chicken.

Judging from one of his verses on Kako Bi Chicken –“oh you rappers… I’ve moved on to greater things; I’ll be back in a jiffy,” it was clear that the music star was obviously stating that he was changing course.

With no less than four albums to his credit, Reminisce has won several awards, and at the same time, made a slew of critically acclaimed tracks to the delight of his fans.