Play That Again - Allen Avenue by Weird MC
In 1996, Weird MC defied convention in both her appearance and content to score a rap classic 'Allen Avenue' an ode to a seedy, money driven part of town.
On July 9, 2020, Weird MC celebrated five decades on earth.
In honour of the groundbreaking rebel ‘rapper-tainer’, I take a look at her classic record (no, not ‘Ijoya’) but ‘Allen Avenue’ released in 1996 on the debut edition of ‘Play That Again’, a bonus segment from Naija Times that examines songs that belong in the canon of great contemporary Nigerian songs.
One of the popular streets in Lagos is Allen Avenue. Located in Ikeja, Allen Avenue is one of the streets that makes ‘Gidi (or as the new kids say it ‘la,la’) what it is, a micro nerve centre of transactions whether at night or day.
The money never stops at Allen, whether from foreign exchange hustlers dressed in Jalabiyas rocking gold teeth during the day or ladies of the night pounding the cold pavement in search of that paper.
The hustle is an eternal grind, just ask the patrons of the famous University of Suya at Allen roundabout.
Allen Avenue has changed over the years. The famous Mr. Biggs outlet has vanished maybe due to competition from Dominos Pizza located less than two miles away. The roundabout has been knocked off in a bid to solve the nasty traffic jam during rush hour.
With the changes, Allen Avenue has not lost its soul or lack of one.
A proof of this is Weird MC’s breakout single ‘Allen Avenue’. Released in 1996, the song went on to be a hit for the experimental and androgynous rapper.
The digital footprint of ‘Allen Avenue’ is as scarce as a bush-baby holding its mythical mat. I stumbled on an incomplete version of the classic song on YouTube. I later found the complete version on iTunes.
Unfortunately, the music video is not available on YouTube. I remember watching it online, circa 2010 but my guess is that it has been yanked.
The video was shocking for its time. A bald-head, female rapper dressed in baggys wasn’t a common sight on Nigerian TV then. Weird was definitely an alte pioneer.
When I played the track again after a long time, the first thing that struck me is how timeless this record is. Weird MC says a lot of things that still happen in Allen Avenue and Nigeria presently.
Yeah, the flow is reflective of the rap style of the mid-90s and some references are dated but largely the record still resonates with the times we live in.
Another thing that caught my attention about this song is the record she sampled that boldly comes at the intro.
‘Look and Laugh’ is the Fela Anikulapo-Kuti song she sampled on her ground-breaking single, and this is years ahead of a time when contemporary Nigerian pop acts will channel the rebellious spirit of abami eda for creative and cultural purposes.
“It was shocking. I got the sign that Allen Avenue was going to be a special album after I finished recording. I took it to the Afro beat King, Fela to listen to” recalls Weird MC in a 2014 Vanguard interview. She would later express her disappointment that she did not get Fela in her music video. Imagine that. Baba himself in a Hip-Hop video.
The single was indeed special as it sowed the seeds for Hip-Hop music that Trybesmen, SWAT ROOT and others would water a few years down the line.
The hook of Allen Avenue is catchy with the use of the call and response technique. The simplicity of the chorus almost obscures the descriptive lines in her verses. Don’t let the hook fool you, Weird MC says some heavy stuff on this record.
“It used to be happy. It used to be down/but you can’t take a walk without seeing a frown” spits Weird MC in the first verse. If the mental health of Nigerians was messed up in ‘96, you can only guess how bad it has gotten since then. Also, this was the Abacha years.
From this line “120 Naira to a Pound. When will Nigeria get back on solid ground?” on ‘Allen Avenue’ we can see how far the Naira has fallen literally and figuratively, a disturbing metric and indicator that keeps struggling Nigerians at wake at night.
Some things never change, do they?
The (alleged) Internet fraudster Hushpuppi is dominating headlines right now for his audacious attempt at trying to swindle a Premier League club among other alleged crimes by the FBI.
Internet fraud (also known as Yahoo-Yahoo) is the bastard child of advance fee fraud notoriously known as 4-1-9. Weird MC makes a reference to the notorious scam as well as corruption, violence and transactional relationships with a nifty rhyme scheme when she says “Who’s the bigger nigga/with the bigger figure/with the bigger trigger/egunje-419-gold digger.”
‘Allen Avenue’ has always been a street of hustlers. “Keep your contact intact/and watch your back/‘cos Allen Avenue deals in cocaine and crack” warns the Weird One. Drug abuse in Nigeria has skyrocketed to a national concern as youths get high to escape the traps of surviving in Nigeria.
It's not only drugs you can get on Allen Avenue. You can also get sex, lots of it. Allen Avenue is notorious for being a red light district, although these days it has lost ground to its neighbour Opebi.
It has however made up for this with strip clubs. You can see the neon, blinking lights at night, seducing its next victim. Crack, grass or ass on Allen will get you hooked.
Weird MC is an observer of the flesh trade which she duly dedicates a couple of bars to, “When night time comes you see all types of girls, from black to yellow/from Jerry curls to weavons/am I allowed to stretch long like a condom?/so I carry some to avoid the A-I-D syndrome.”
The last two bars of that sequence about sex work and AIDS would prove to be eerie as Fela would die a year later from complications related to HIV/AIDS.
Oh and speaking of Fela, his home ‘Kalakuta Republic’ is a couple minutes away from Allen Avenue. His son Seun Anikulapo-Kuti now lives close by too.
And here is another fun fact, legendary drummer Tony Allen who was part of Fela’s Afrika ‘70 group, hails from the Allen family that Allen Avenue gets its name from.
Allen Avenue is an ode by Weird MC dedicated to her old stomping grounds. The horns throw us back in time but this dose of nostalgia isn’t about the good ol’ days.
At the time Weird MC wrote this song, Allen Avenue had changed from a place that she once knew, to a fast-paced street made up of hustlers. She is so disoriented and disillusioned by Allen’s transformation that she refuses to chill at spots like Pintos ‘cos of how much the street has changed.
‘Allen Avenue’ is commentary on rapid urbanization that hit Lagos in the 90s.
A lack of urban planning, bad economic policies, a high armed robbery crime rate transformed Lagos from a big city of dreams to a concrete jungle of hustlers rapidly punctured by the sounds of gunshots, car horns and yelling bus conductors.
Listening to ‘Allen Avenue’ in 2020 is bittersweet. Nothing much has changed. The hustle continues. The crime wave is still high with armed robbery making way for street gangs. And the conductors are louder than ever despite numerous attempts by the Lagos state government to get rid of danfos.
“Another end of the week/I wonder how I can sleep/with the sound of the Lexus, the Benzes and the jeeps” says a weary Weird MC.
If you have been on Allen Avenue at 2 a.m, you will know this not a lie. Insomnia is something all Lagosians can relate to.
The threat of One Million Boys storming your estate, getting up at 4 a.m to get to work on time or club goers speeding on empty roads at the witching hour is sure to make you lose precious sleep hours.
If that doesn’t, then the foreign exchange rate of the Naira to a Pound will surely will. £1 = N484
Allen what?!