Play That Again - Don't Dull by Wizkid
An essay on the record 'Don't Dull' that helped usher in a new gen of Afrobeats acts that would take the genre global.
From boy wonder to bad man. This best describes Wizkid’s transition from teen pop sensation to bad man of the streets. All it took was three singles for the Surulere upstart to take his place as the voice of a generation that had just come of age.
The single that helped achieve this was ‘Don’t Dull’, the Samklef-produced club banger that set the streets on fire.
In Wizkid’s packed discography, ‘Don’t Dull’ represents the moment the pop star would flip the script and embrace a bigger destiny. Here is how ‘Don’t Dull’ not only changed the trajectory of Wizkid’s career but the Afrobeats game forever.
2010 was a tense year for Nigeria. It was a time of political uncertainty. Nigeria had returned to democracy a decade ago but was now at a crossroad.
On November 23, 2009, President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, left the country for Saudi Arabia where he was to receive treatment for his illness that had plagued him for most of his presidency.
His ill health and absence would be volatile as rumours of a shadow government (known in Nigerian parlance as ‘The Cabal’) was threatening to hijack the presidency. The tension in the country was palpable. After pressure and protests, the rule of law was followed and the powers of the president were transferred to Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan on February 10, 2010.
Jonathan served as Acting President until May 5, 2010 when Yar’Adua passed away at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa. On May 6, 2010, GEJ was sworn in as the substantive President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
These chain of events were unpredictable. For the first time in Nigeria’s history, a politician from the oil-rich Nigeria Delta region was the number one man in the country, a position that had been allocated and reserved for the powerful Northern elite bloc for presumably 8 years.
It was a transition from the old guard to the new guard.
In the music scene, there was also a changing of guard, as an old generation did not see a new gen coming.
Wande Coal was the hottest ticket in the music business since he joined Mo’ Hits circa 2006. His input in the Mo’ Hits All Stars album officially titled ‘Curriculum Vitae’ and D’banj’s ‘Entertainer’ album established him as the most talented act since the emergence of 2face Idibia in the mainstream scene in the late 90s.
Wande Coal’s debut album ‘Mushin 2 Mo’ Hits’ in 2009 surpassed expectations becoming an instant classic and creating a new template for contemporary Nigerian pop music. Wande Coal was the king of the new school sound and was expected to take the torch from 2baba and lead a new generation into a new decade. Little did we know it won’t play out like that.
Mo’ Hits failed to capitalize on Wande Coal’s genius and the label’s ambitions to conquer the world years before the Afrobeats wave went global would see WCeezy take the back burner.
Wizkid at this period was no stranger to the music industry. A co-sign from the hot new rapper on the block M.I Abaga and later being signed to the EME label by Banky W would see his stock rise.
His first two singles ‘Holla At Your Boy’ and ‘Tease Me/Bad Guys’ were soundtracks of the new gen, theme music for mid-teens and the late teens who wanted to feed on a new sound different from the pop songs their older brothers and sisters listened to.
Wizkid was that guy. He was fresh, cool and held a lot of promise.
‘Holla At Your Boy’ is unabashedly teen pop, a puppy love tune while ‘Tease Me/Bad Guys’ can be best described as a late male teen’s attempt at bagging an older woman. It has heart but not the balls to pull through with his bragging.
When he mentions the names of popular acts in the second half of the song, he is trying to prove to be his prospective lover that he is now in the league of men. His line’s are more seductive than the grab-your-throat tactics of Future’s brand of toxic masculinity (“She called me her God, the way I floated in her ocean”). I mean, Wizkid was begging for affection on the said track. He was old enough to go to a strip club but not get into the VIP for more risque action.
Then, 26 days before the end of a decade (and 26 days to the Abuja bombing), Wizkid’s third single dropped- albeit not an official one in the strict sense.
On December 5, 2010, ‘Don’t Dull’ was released via blogs. At first I didn’t know what to make of it. I asked myself why Wizkid had abandoned his melodies for a rap-sung approach and brash delivery. A song like this was meant for Durella and not Nigeria’s anointed next pop sensation.
It didn’t help matters that the beat is straight out weird - one of the oddest contraptions from producer Samklef’s hard drive. The truth is that the beat borrows heavily from Ron Browz’s ‘I Promise' featuring Busta Rhymes released in 2009.
This does not diminish the genius of Samklef. The Ron Browz instrumental isn’t as commanding, then the Auto-tune overkill of Browz’s vocals makes it feel cheesy.
Samklef’s version is more menacing, packs more heat and lays the ground for the entrance of an anti-hero into the V.I.P section of a nightclub.
That anti-hero would be Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun now with a street-wise entourage dripped head to toe in Prada and D&G. Wizkid is menacing on this record as he mocks the wall huggers in the club for sitting instead of celebrating life. He is confrontational as he wonders why these people are in the club and choose not to dance, “See you sitting in the corner (don’t dull), wearing Dolce & Gabbana (don’t dull).”
Then he goes on to declare that he and his crew have gotten paid big time. His use of the words ‘our boys don hammer’ is a nod to Olu Maintain's classic record ‘Yahoozee’, where the former Maintain frontman infamously sang “If I hammer, first thing na hummer, 1 million dollars, Elo lo ma je ti n ba se si Naira”.
‘Yahooze’ apart from being a smash hit in 2007 was criticized for its celebration of the overtly-materialistic lifestyle of Internet fraudsters.
Unlike on ‘Tease Me/Bad Guys’ where he is boasting that he knows senior men in the game, Wizkid is telling you to ask his parents, signifying a notoriety that has crossed the age barrier and entered almost myth-like status like Shina Rambo or Anini.
“Oya oya ask your mommy (Awon eleyi)
(Awon eleyi won bad gon)
Oya ask your daddy (Awon eleyi)
(Awon eleyi won bad gon)
Mo ni ko ask your mommy (Awon eleyi)
(Awon eleyi won bad gon)
Oya ask your daddy (Awon eleyi)
(Awon eleyi won bad gon)”
In the first verse, he delivers a rap-sung verse that is dedicated to bragging about the cash he has, how bad he is, his producer Samklef and his associate Piper. It’s simple and direct almost to a fault but it works.
Flaunting his new status, Wizkid doesn’t try to seduce the babe in his corner like he did on ‘Tease Me/Bad Guys’ (Please me, tease me, tease me, tease me, baby). On ‘Don’t Dull’ he orders the babe to dance for him. The boy of yesterday is no longer begging for grinds in the club.
In the second verse, Wizkid still talks about money but it seems this time around he is more brash about his financial status. This verse can be interpreted as him telling an old timer that his time is up. Not only does he have more money but all the girls are all over him.
The song continues in its blistering form and ends with Wizkid asking for a hookup.
‘Don’t Dull’ was made for the streets and the club. The meaning of the phrase is for you not to let a good opportunity slip reflecting a hustler’s mentality. The structure, mood and themes of the song were designed for people to sweat it out on the dancefloors or nod to it in expensive rides only Yahoo boys could afford. It was created to be ingrained in the nightclub scene.
‘Don’t Dull’ does not have a video but its imagery is visceral. Think strobe lights, Naira notes falling in slow mo, clouds of white smoke hovering in the air, rattling speakers, ‘bad guys’ in the club holding bottles of Henny, nodding almost absent-mindedly as sexy young women grind on them.
Culturally, the song represents the coming out of a generation who had started going out to the happening clubs in Lagos and had money to spend. It represents the independence of a new generation that would partake in the journey of Afrobeats from London to Lagos and other parts of the world some years later. The song challenged the status quo culturally and musically.
‘Don’t Dull’ was part of the movement where the new gen- pop singers started integrating themselves into the street culture with arrogant, bullish songs like ‘Don’t Dull’, ‘All of You’ (Davido), ‘The Matter’ (Maleek Berry x Wizkid), ‘Run My Race’ (Burna Boy) and others.
By channeling the ambition, chutzpah and mentality of rappers, the new school pop acts would start to edge out the space held by Nigerian rappers who rapped in English.
Also, indigenous rappers would also encroach in this space and a couple of years after M.I’s debut classic which featured Wizkid, the new gen of pop stars and indigenous Hip-Hop acts would monopolize the streets, the core constituency of rap music.
‘Don’t Dull’ definitely helped in pushing the ‘bad man’ element in Afrobeats, the bad man lurking in the corner up to no good with him and his crew.
In 2015, Goodluck Jonathan lost out on his bid for a second presidential term after a less than impressive performance during his time in Aso Rock. He was entrusted to take Nigeria into a new era but lost to a retired General who has now taken Nigeria back to the dark days.
Luckily, Afrobeats did not mirror the political scene.
On July 11, 2015, 43 days after GEJ handed over power to President Muhammadu Buhari, Wizkid released the remix of his smash hit ‘Ojuelegba’ featuring the rejuvenated Skepta and the Canadian megastar Drake.
Afrobeats was about to start its global wave and Wizkid was going to be a part of it. He fulfilled a generation’s potential.
He did not dull.
I like how you portray the zeitgeist of the times in review. Wonderful job AOT2
Salud! your writing is very informative