ON SAMVSTHEKIDS’ SUICIDE AND VALID DREAMS
We live in a third world country, Nigeria, where almost nothing seems to function properly, the systems in place are generally dysfunctional and inefficient, policies are mostly regressive, the economy is stagnant, corruption eats into the very fibre of the country. Basically, it’s a cold world out here. However, in spite of all the turmoil and adversity, one beacon that truly unites us and lets us all forget our troubles, at least momentarily, is the music. The music is groovy, it’s catchy, it’s witty, it’s gritty, it’s diverse. It’s everything you want and much more. However, because of the aforementioned tragic state of the country, a career path in music and entertainment, in general, is not encouraged, particularly by the older generation. Everybody wants security, especially as nothing is truly assured in this country, well except Davido exceptionally finding pockets of spaces on songs to gracefully deliver that “Shekpe!” ad-lib that we all love. The unforgiving and unstable nature of the country makes it hard for one to pursue a career path where there’s no form of security or guarantee of relative success especially because there are no structures put in place to ensure this. We play the probability game. People would generally advise that you pursue a career where you have a higher chance of succeeding, a more probable choice. However, in spite of this conundrum, there are quite a number of talented and creative artists out there who choose to look past the probabilities and chase their dreams. Dreams that are on the wrong side of the probability game but are just as valid.
I was on my usual hunt for new and exciting music on the internet when I came across this rapper called Samvsthekids. His name seemed a bit odd at the time. Who are the kids and why is he going against them? This oddity prompted me to check out his music. Like most people, I went for his more popular songs first where I stumbled on this track called Suicide.
Suicide is hard-hitting, it is sincere, confessional and highly enthralling. The first two lines literarily draw you in as Samvsthekids spits “See my mama never liked this music shit/ she’s like Samuel my child, when will you be quitting it?” in his hoarse yet emotive voice. On Suicide, Samvsthekids has dreams, big ones. He wants to make some dollars, he wants to make his family proud, he wants to make his family large all “with this music shit”. His dreams, however, are on the wrong side of the probability game. The lines “Now my father looks at me, all he sees is wasted time/ Now my mother looks at me, she believes the devil’s won” clearly shows what others, his parents in this case, think about dreams like his. The constant invalidation of his dreams as Samvsthekids puts it is “killing him”. The second verse opens up just like the first, with vigour and candour. However, it’s in reply to the first as he aggressively spits “Father I’m sorry, I’m not a doctor/I’m not accomplished, I’m not my brother/I don’t like church, I don’t like things/I just want love, I just want peace/ How is that wrong, just let me live/ I wanna live”. Samvsthekids doesn’t want to fit into the stereotypical boxes. He has dreams completely different from what people expect from him and he wants you to know they are completely valid. The song climaxes on the hook when he sings “All you want is sacrifice/ all you want is giving up, all the things that give me life/ All you want to take away, all the things that make me proud/ Mama can’t you see/ All you want is suicide.” Samvsthekids seeks emancipation on this record as well as validation.
Suicide is reminiscent of rap duo Show Dem Camp’s Once Upon A Time, an album cut from their debut offering, The Dreamer Project. On Once Up A Time, the deep-voiced wordsmith, Ghost carefully explains the pushback he received when he first had dreams of becoming a rapper over classic DJ scratches and a boom-bap beat. The lines “…then he found rap, I wanna be a hip hoper/ he said, she said, they said you gotta be realistic, look at the statistic” clearly shows the probability game being played. He ended his brilliant verse with the words “Wish me luck ma I’m going for mine”. That was in 2011. Nine years down the line and Show Dem Camp is one of the premier rap names in Nigeria today.
In 2014, popular Kenyan-Mexican actress, Lupita Nyong’o received the prestigious Academy Award for her role in the Steve McQueen directed 12 Years a Slave. After delivering a fairly lengthy speech, she ended the speech with the famous words “When I look at the golden statue, may it remind me and every little child that no matter where you’re from, your dreams are valid.” Sometimes these words might sound highfalutin or out of touch, however, they are completely true. The conditions would not always be palatable, the odds would not always be in your favour, however, your dreams would always remain completely valid and you have every right to chase them.
