FOR REAL!!! How Radio Station Rejected 9ice For ‘Singing Like Babalawo’

Popular Nigerian indigenous rapper, Remilekun Abdulkalid Safaru better known as Reminisce, has recalled the “first major” rejection he and colleague, 9ice got in the industry.

Reminisce said a popular sports radio station in Lagos turned down the two of them when they took their demo CDs to play their songs.

He said the radio presenter told him to go and learn rap from Ruggedman, while they criticized 9ice for singing like a babalawo (herbalist).

In his words:

“My first major rejection was with 9ice on the Island at a radio station where we went to submit our music CDs for airplay, and the feedback we got was that we would never make it.

“They said 9ice was singing like Babalawo [native doctor] cos he sings in Yoruba. The other guy told me: ‘why am I rapping like a buffoon, can’t I see Ruggedman?

“He said that we should both go back and look for something to do with our lives and be better. That was my first major rejection. I will never forget it, even 9ice I’m sure he hasn’t forgotten it.”