Nigerians are a very proud people especially when it comes to food and music. Fast rising act Mr Eazi found this out recently. Take for example, the ongoing war about who makes better Jollof rice (its Nigeria by the way). This morning fast rising act Mr Eazi fanned the flames again when he tweeted that Ghanaian music has influenced Nigerian music. Of course Nigerians were not having any of this. Many came out to lambast the singer. But Eazi was not done. He went further to say that even though Nigerian music is enjoyed all over Africa and the rest of the world, Ghanaian music is the new bounce. But despite all this, we have to ask our self if Mr Eazi is saying the truth. Has Ghanaian music influenced Nigeria’s? the answer to this would be yes. The music of Ghanaian musicians like VIP, Fuse ODG, and Sarkodie has directly influenced a lot of Nigerian songs. For simplicity’s sake, listen to Wizkid’s 2012 hit Azonto. That song directly drew from Fuse ODG’s song released months before it. Alkayida a dance step and song of the same name released by Kcee and Timaya cannot deny its Ghanaian elements. Olamide is one musician who regularly fuses Ghanaian slangs and style of music on his songs. Remember the songs First of All and his verse on DJ Neptune’s song Baddest? Most recently Runtown’s hit Mad Over You features Ghanaian lyrics and almost half of the songs released in 2016 had the Nigerian musician use the slangChalea Ghanaian slang for brother. So this fuss is really uncalled for. Instead, we really should be happy that our music is bringing both countries closer. Something diplomacy hasn’t managed to achieve quite as well. As for why Mr Eazi may have just derailed his career, like I said above, Nigerians are a very proud people. We take what we perceive as insults very seriously. This may play out in the way fans react to Mr Eazi’s materials. His songs may be ignored, social media will not be kind to him and when he does get to perform on stage, his act will be met with so much criticism that he’ll wonder what he did wrong for years. All these have happened before. Just ask Eedris Abdulkareem. Posted on 13/01/17