In The Beginning...

In the beginning was the word, and it changed the world. It changed everything: "Let there be light, let there be life, let there be love." And that is how it all started: With words. Those mystical building blocks which, put together in different permutations and combinations, can convey a beautifully resplendent variety of messages to the reader.
Now, it might seem rather superfluous to be talking about the awesomeness of words in a blog. after all, everybody 'loves' to read, right? Wrong. Everyone might love Ray Romano, but not everyone likes reading (the verb, not the town!).
So, armed with that knowledge, I'd have to make my blogs (are they my 'blogs' or my 'posts'?) as short as my (lack of) commonsense and my (cheap @ss) blackberry curve 8520 (or is it 8250?) battery life would allow. I do feel kinda powerful, you know. With just a basic phone, a wonderful application (shout out to Bolt... em, something), and an internet connection, I can be a 'blogger'. I mean, some people do this for a living, man! Blogging! All I need is a few folk to 'like' my blog on facebook and, Boom! I would add the esteemed job description 'blogger' to my already variegated occupations (and that's when the big bucks start rolling in! lol).
And that is the direction that the world is headed, in my opinion. We are all being empowered. To have ideas, to have dreams, to have a voice and to have a dream of voicing our ideas! That is sooo wonderful, isn't it? A world with limitless information, opportunity and supply. So much that one might feel trapped in it. A worldwide web, so to speak.
Well, in my (now humble) opinion, with all of these voices and opinions being aired, EVERYBODY seems to be talking and no one seems to be listening (or, in this case, everyone writing and nobody reading)! A cacophony of disjointed ideas, repeated cliche-d aphorisms and vindictive polemics aimed at no one in particular. Making it harder for the skilled blogger who really, really has something worthwhile to say (y'know, someone like me) to be truly heard and understood.
And the truth is, the 21st century human being does not want to watch and pray. He wants to prey and be watched. He wants to be in the spotlight. At the very least, he wants to be in the spotlight for putting someone else in the spotlight!
And that kinda describes me. Not satisfied with the ecstatic pleasure derived by treating the unwell and the un-well off, (trust me, poverty IS a disease) I have been making music on the side for the past 12 years. I mean, in medical school, I spent a lot more time writing rhymes than writing dissertations, dissecting albums than dissecting cadavers, and being on stage than being in the theatre (you would think they were the same thing, right?) Honestly, I spent more time 'schooling these rappers' than I spent actually schooling. Although in my defense, I did invest a considerable amount of time and energy in the enthusiastic study of both beats (although it was without the use of a stethoscope) and the immediate post pubertal female breast (a very important part of the human anatomy, if you ask me!)
So after 8 long years in medical school... (If you spend 4 years in University, you get a Bachelor's degree, right? Well, I graduated a Bachelor of Medicine AND a Bachelor of Surgery. Two Bachelor degrees, please do the Math!) ...Well, like I was saying, I knew exactly what I was gonna leave university with when I graduate: A double Bachelors Degree Certificate, and a music video!
I had it all planned out. I knew that University would probably be the last time I would ever get so many young, attractive girls in the same place at the same time (especially as I had no plans of going to an Usher Raymond concert anytime in the, as-at-then, immediately forseeable future).
So I went on the prowl, recruiting as many 'video vixens' as my expert oratory (and meager funds) would allow (believe me, very few), visualizing and planning what my music video would be like, and counting my pennies (and my elder brother's), earmarking them for the history-in-the-making event. And as my final examinations neared, I only had one intention: To make a video that would get me airplay on the (then) newly founded MTV Base Africa. (And, well, it would be nice to actually pass my final examinations too, but first things first.)
So I had made my beat (myself), recorded my song (myself), mixed the song (myself, but did not have it mastered; I didnt know how to, and couldnt afford to have a professional do it), I had given it to the (then) fantastic and highly influential Cosmo FM in Enugu who immediately put the song on heavy rotation. As a medical student-slash-rapper-slash producer, I had a top ten song! I immediately started envisioning myself as a Label owner. Fly Fellow Records! Yes sir! And the title described me exactly (if you did not take my looks, my wardrobe or my finances into consideration). It was 2006, and I had conquered Enugu state. All I needed was to make a video that would get me on MTV Base, move back to Lagos, and wait. Because, like I had learnt from my Enugu experience, Talent wins in the end!
Dream on!
Well, I succeeded in making a video that would (really) get me on MTV Base (I am serious, they played my video), I succeeded in moving back to Lagos, I even succeeded in waiting (what has it been, 4 years now???) What I never, however, succeeded in doing, was actually succeeding. Because, you see, this was Lagos, not Enugu. And Talent doesn't win around here, money does.
And so my nightmare began.
But its 2011 and I am waking up, people! This blog is titled the 'best next thing' because, as far as Nigeria and Hiphop goes, that is what I am. And everyone following this blog will be my companions as I achieve that dream. I also might use this as a medium to vent every once in a while, but not to worry, we are together in this. I will share with you all my plans, my schemes, my aims and my dreams. I will even throw in a free song or two here and there (just not today, lol). So feel free to leave a comment and remember to tweet this and to tell your friends and to 'like' it on facebook ('cos remember, that's when the big bucks start rolling in!)
It's your Boy,
LACE!
Fly Fella, y'all!