“Drake and Falz, two HipHop acts that have been almost rejected by the HipHop community and who also seem to have more hits than most rappers in the game”
Music is relative, touching different people in different ways and artists over the years have sought to do just two things; making super sticking hits and thrilling their fans. American mainstream music and Nigeria’s music space have shared certain not-so-significant similarities especially back in the early 2000s when HipHop was struggling to become an actual thing in the country’s music space and we had a truckload of copycats on the streets but this pairup has very significant similarities; Drake and Falz, two HipHop acts that have been almost rejected by the hip-hop community and who also seem to have more hits than most rappers in the game.
Bursting into the scene in 2014, Falz came through with the awesomely comic hit single ‘Marry Me’ which featured Yemi Alade and Poe, that would mark the beginning of commercial success for the rapper, this came up after the release of his debut studio album ‘Wazzup Guy’ in 2014 which was kind of like a sequel to his 2009 ‘Shakara’ mixtape.
One peculiar thing about Falz the Bahd Guy in 2015 was the fact that he would go on to come through with top mainstream hits every single year which is similar to the Toosie Slide superstar Drake. In the same year Falz came through with ‘Ello Bae’ which earned him his very first Headies nomination as the ‘Best Street Hop Artiste of the Year’ which was particularly not so cool seeing as the song was more of a pop hit than a street hit but nevertheless he would go on to release his sophomore album ‘Stories That Touch’ which would come through with hard hitting hits like ‘Karashika’, ‘Soldier’, ‘Soft Work’, ‘Chardonnay Music’, ‘Clap’, and ‘Celebrity Girlfriend’. Yes! Six hits from a rap album in a country that doesn’t really appreciate rap, it’s major success.
Drake initially started off as an actor in the series Degrassi which aired in the early 2000s; after a brief run with the show he left in 2007 to pursue a career in music with release of his debut mixtape ‘Room for Improvement’ after which he signed with Lil Wayne’s Young Money Entertainment in 2009. In 2010 he came through with his debut studio album ‘Thank Me Later’ which peaked at No. 1 on BillBoard 200 charts and came through with hits like ‘Find Your Love’, ‘Fancy’, ‘Over’, and ‘Miss Me’. Drizzy went on achieve more chart-topping success with albums like ‘Scorpion’, ‘If you are reading this it’s too late’, Views which gave him very first No. 1 hit ‘One Dance’ featuring Nigerian pop star Wizkid and Filipino singer Kyla.
Over the years Drake has been credited to be the rapper who always comes through with more pop hits than hardcore HipHop hits; songs like ‘Hotline Bling’, ‘Passion Fruit’, ‘God’s Plan’, ‘One Dance’, ‘Toosie Slide’ and a host of other chart-topping hits have given the HipHop community more reason to see him as less of a rapper and more of a pop act. Now what you want to know is why Falz is Nigeria’s own Drake’, it’s pretty clear but I’d like to make it clearer.
ANNUAL HARD HITTING HITS
If you are super observant you’d notice that Falz and Drake have been coming through with hit songs every year from the very first year of their respective careers. Falz’s first major hit ‘Marry Me’ popped up in 2014 alongside ‘Karashika’ and ‘Ello Bae’. In 2015 he had ‘Celebrity Girlfriend’ featuring Reekado Banks, ‘Soldier’ featuring Simi and ‘Clap’ featuring Reminisce, 2016 gave us ‘Something Light’ featuring Ycee, ‘Baby Boy’, ‘Wehdone Sir’ , ‘Jeje’ and ‘Bahd, Baddo, Bahdest’ featuring Olamide and Falz, 2017 came through with ‘Something Light’ featuring Ycee and ‘La Fete’, in 2018 we had ‘Sweet Boy’, ‘Talk’, ‘Hypocrite’ featuring Demmie Vee and the controversially conscious ‘This Is Nigeria’, 2019 came through with soft hits like Alakori featuring Dice Ailes and Girls featuring Patoranking, Currently in 2020 he’s got a hot hit ‘Bop Daddy’ featuring Ms Banks which is a total vibe on TikTok at the moment.
Drizzy Drake gave us ‘Find your Love’ in 2009, ‘Fancy’ featuring TI and Swizz Beatz in 2010, ‘Take Care’ featuring Rihanna in 2011, ‘Started From The Bottom’ in 2012, ‘Pound Cake’ featuring Jay Z in 2013, ‘Hotline Bling’ in 2014, ‘One Dance’ featuring Wizkid and Kyla in 2015, ‘Passion Fruit’ in 2016, ‘God’s Plan’ in 2017, ‘In My Feelings’ in 2018, ‘Money In The Grave’ featuring Rick Ross in 2019 and the smash TikTok hit ‘Toosie Slide’ in 2020. I’m sure this is enough proof!
ACCEPTANCE BY THE HIPHOP COMMUNITY
Falz is one of the few rappers in Nigeria with a distinct comic rap style which has endeared him to a lot of people. HipHop is characterized by larger than life lyricism and ‘braggadociosly’ dramatic beefs and Falz so far in his career has been able to distance himself from dramatic beefs; that has inadvertently made him to be completely recognized as a rapper in the MI and Vector categories especially because of his large catalogue of top notch pop hits.
Drake on the other hand has attached himself to a handful of beefs but has not been completely accepted as a member of the HipHop community due to the fact that a lot of people believe he doesn’t write his raps. Ghostwriting is a total turn-off in the HipHop circle as it is believed that as a rapper you should be able to write your own verses but it still hasn’t been proven, you know, the ghostwriting allegation against Drizzy
HOLLYWOOD/NOLLYWOOD MOMENTS
Another thing they have in common is their respective movie moments; Drake in the early 2000s featured in the popular series ‘Degrassi: The Next Generation’ and other films like ‘Anchorman: The Legend Continues’, ‘Ice Age: The Continental Drift’, ‘Charlie Bartlett’ and ‘Mookie’s Law’.
Falz began acting in the later years of his career with films like ‘Chief Daddy’, ‘Jenifa’s Diary’, Merry Men: The Yoruba Demons (1&2)’ and a couple of other films, he has also gone on to win ‘Best Actor in Tv series’ at the Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards twice in his career. Cool right?
At this point it’s pretty clear that Falz is truly our own version of Drake; back-to-back hit songs every year, not being too HipHop and also having a thing for the lights, camera and action.
