The Landing Of The Rising Sons
New rap albums from the vet Illbliss and rookie Elveektor touch on Igbo excellence with the Civil War as a backdrop.
“Igbos, we don’t give two f*cks!” - Illbliss
In 1803, a group of Igbos held captive by slave traders took control of the slave ship ‘The Schooner York’. Refusing to submit themselves to a lifetime of slavery, history has it that this group of Igbo people committed mass suicide by walking into the Dunbar Creek, Pennsylvania, America. This incident is known as Igbo Landing.
166 years later, the leader of the secessionist state of Biafra, Odumegwu Ojukwu on November 1st, 1969, gave a rousing speech before the Consultative Assembly in Akokwa in Imo state as the Nigerian Army surrounded the young nation.
Two of these aforementioned historical events find their way on the first track of Nigerian rapper Elveektor’s new body of work ‘Nsibidi 2’.
Titled ‘Igbo Landing’ the song starts with an excerpt of the speech, then kicks into a rousing and thumping track that channels the spirit of those who preferred death than slavery whether from the hands of slave masters or tribal supremacists.
Rappers who hail from the South-Eastern region have been scoring mainstream hits in Nigeria since the days of, 2 Shotz & Big Lo, Dat Nigga RAW and MC Loph. By the start of the second decade of the millennium, Phyno would emerge to become one of the biggest rappers the country has ever witnessed.
However, there is something different about Elveektor and also rap veteran Illbliss.
On their latest projects, they double down on that streak of hustle and dominance that has made the Igbos survive and succeed in post Civil War Nigeria while displaying the scars of their people.
Elveektor who hails from Enugu just like Illbliss speaks to Naija Times on the importance of his new project which was released on a significant day in Igbo history.
“I wanted to address the world on the 30th of May (Biafra Remembrance Day) to reiterate the history, philosophical growth and well-being of being an Igbo man in the divided (post war) Nigeria and how to come right back up” Elveektor tells Naija Times.
For sure, the newbie is writing a blueprint for generational renaissance. His new project is named after “the South-Eastern way of writing long before western civilization.”
You can therefore perceive Nsibidi 2 not only as the sequel of a project in Elveektor’s discography but also a new way for millennial and Gen-Z Igbos to communicate and learn about the pride and resilience of their ethnic group with the Civil War as a haunting backdrop.
The Nigerian Civil War ended five decades ago but millions of Igbos are still tormented by its scars. Those who survived the slaughter have PTSD locked in their DNAs which have passed down to the next generation and generation after.
One of the most harrowing moments of the Biafran War is the ‘Asaba Massacre’.
On the track of the same title, Elveektor speaks about the atrocity that saw thousands of innocent civilians in Asaba slaughtered by the Nigerian army.
2 months after his speech in a dark hall Ojukwu fled the country. Days after Biafra surrendered to Nigeria. In his first radio broadcast after the fall of Biafra, Nigerian Head of State, General Gowon gave a speech titled ‘The Dawn of National Reconciliation’, where he stated that “rehabilitation and reconstruction will follow simultaneously.”
In a rare interview after the war, Ojukwu speaks about how the reconstruction, reintegration, rehabilitation policy by the FG had yet to take effect in the East.
“At the end of the war, a policy of no victor, no vanquished was established but it remains for this to be practiced in real terms” says Ojukwu at the beginning of the track ‘Generations’ off ‘Illy Chapo X’.
Decades after, some say the East has not been fully integrated into Nigeria and that is why the spirit of Biafra still haunts the country in the colours of the Nnamdi Kanu led Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) today.
While the South-Eastern region still bears the brunt for breaking away from the Federal Republic, its people have established themselves as the entrepreneurial and commercial backbone of the country.
“My album celebrates the wins we have achieved since the war. We have tried to recreate ourselves. It's more like awakening and how we survived post-war” Illbliss says.
Bouncing back from the war, the Igbos have rebuilt themselves.
In the 90s, the boom of the home video industry otherwise known as Nollywood was largely to their credit. From Ebinpejo Lane in Idumota, Lagos to Upper Iweka in Onitsha, mostly Igbo marketers bankrolled thousands of movies which established Nollywood’s biggest stars to date.
Alaba and Computer Village in Lagos are household names thanks to the ingenuity of Igbo people who largely built these multi-billion Naira commercial hubs.
On the track ‘Upper Iweka’ by Illbliss featuring Phyno, the frequent collaborators display the resilience, business sense and hustler spirit of the Igbos.
Elveektor and Illbliss have delivered two Igbo-futuristic rap projects by using the collective past of slavery and the civil war to rap about the times we live in and create a road map for the future.
“This is the first time somebody is making a big fuss of how people survived after the war” says Illbliss about he and Elveektor’s projects and why they are unique.
And the two projects have come at the right time when a young generation of not only Igbos but Nigerians are curious about the Civil War.
As the Federal Government plays deaf to incorporating the history of a war that saw 500,000 - 3 million Igbo civilians die of starvation into school syllabuses, millennial and Gen-Z Nigerians are digging up the history themselves.
On the Biafra Remembrance Day, the hashtag #Ọzọemena (another [of event or situation] should not repeat itself or befall us a second time) trended on Twitter as young Igbo-Nigerians tweeted war stories as told to them by their parents.
“I am not a slave. Even though I will constantly be treated like a second citizen. I am Igbo and I stand and make my own decisions” says Elveektor defiantly.
“(This album) is also a reminder to my fellow Eastern guys in the street. Know yourselves”he further charges.
On the last track on Illy Chapo X, Illbliss inserts an infamous excerpt from an Ahmadu Bello interview. In the interview, the then Premier of Northern Nigeria speaks about the dominance of the Igbos in an unflattering way. Illbliss re-purposes this infamous statement to celebrate and glorify the hustle of the Igbo man on ‘40 ft Containers’ featuring Olamide.
Hip-Hop has been the culture for the disenfranchised, the oppressed and the marginalized. African-Americans have used it to speak about the struggles of living as a second class citizen in America, while celebrating black excellence.
The duo of Elveektor and Illbliss are doing the same, promoting Igbo excellence and tackling the injustice that still lurks within the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The Igbos have landed.
*Stream Nsibidi 2 and Illy Chapo X
Great write up, Ayomide
Beautifully written!