Good Music:Why we need it

It's been a depressing day, more like a depressing week even,decided to take a walk and clear my head. Headphones on, playlist starts and Tupac's 'keep your head up' starts playing, a deep sigh escapes my lips and I imagine how one can achieve that in such dire conditions...fast forward twenty minutes later, after series on songs from Nas, Sade and Timi dakolo, the feeling of hope starts brewing. Dmx's 'slipping' comes on and I wonder again, will this ever end? I imagine what Nas was feeling when he wrote the song 'warrior song' sampling our own icon,Fela but alas at the end of the song I can feel his message when he said,'to everybody that lost their mother or father, never give up'..touching words you would say, Inspiring too. Walking back,I felt free and hopeful,energized and influenced by the deep words of intelligent and creative musicians,whose goal is to touch hearts with their music. Music nourishes the mind,is food for the soul and entertains the spirit. Gives us a sense of belief,walks us through difficulties. In the past decade, 9ja music has grown in tremendously across the globe, our artistes are headlining events in Europe and America,their fame and fortune almost immeasurable but....the content, the growth, the spirituality is almost gone. It's a case of financial gains and fame been the driving force for most aspiring musicians. Listening to Fela,Sunny okosun, Onyeka Onwenu, Tupac, Talib kwali, Proverb, Sade, Timi Dakolo,Bez, amongst others, you get the feeling of succour, a feeling that you are not alone in your travails. Ofcos, we like been entertained, loosening up after an hard week, clubbing and just having fun generally, but that should not be our main source of motivation /inspiration...there is a saying that Thoughts becomes actions and actions becomes habits', if our thoughts centres around money,women,drugs,living the fast life,...it makes us lose the core moral values that makes us better people. A musician can entertain and teach,the content shouldn't always have a negative connotation just because Demand brings supply'...we as the audience deserve better than our Nigerian artistes are giving and if we don't speak up, a time will come when everything will be measured about the number of cars,houses and blings a person has,instead of improving our values that should preach love,unity, togetherness and living a life worthy of emulation. Please say no to the bandwagon of material things and be inspired so you can inspire others. Buy their cd's either physically or on one of the companies that stream them, support these 'worthy' musicians, go to their shows. Life is nothing but a journey, and everyone has a stop, lets make it count.

KEN ALU