Naira Marley‘s career is just starting if you ask me. And it’s important he is able to pull hits, early on in his career. That’s the strategy street hop artists have used in the past, to crossover to the mainstream and stay relevant (in some cases) over time. Many hits, quickly.
Olamide who’s the king of the streets started the flooding of a thing and passed it on to his protege, Lil Kesh, who also became a street sensation, within a few months. It worked for Slimcase, CDQ, and a couple of others in the past. It’s working for Zlatan Ibile, the originator of the Zanku movement.
Guess who’s Zlatan Ibile’s closest friend, these days? Naira Marley. (At least, before they were arrested.) It’s only normal they’re doing quite the same thing. The formula is more songs equals more hits, and it doesn’t matter what type of songs, since street music is just looking for anything people can relate with and making it into a song.
What’s the word on the streets now, though? Soapy. It’s just like every other thing doesn’t matter, no other song is penetrating this hard, at the moment. It’s not stopping anytime soon, as the frenzy will only increase, with time. And before the law of diminishing returns plays out on it, it will probably already be one of the biggest hits in 2019.
The problem? Concept. Many times we’ve had songs that talked about kinds of stuff that are damaging to our society. From songs that made it look like cybercrime (or Yahoo) is good for the Youths, to videos that have obscene sexual content, we’ve always had issues with hit songs having damaging and negative contents.
For instance, “Shoki” was highlighted and consequently banned for being a term referring to quickies. Also, “Science Student” got a ban for explicitly describing the acts of drug abuse (although it was later said to be just a mere satire.) They were both hits on the street, and honestly, they didn’t spur irresponsible behavior from people.
But “Soapy” is probably going to be as big as those two hits. And what? We’ll have more people doing crazy Soapy dance videos. Instagram or YouTube won’t understand so they won’t take them down or anything.
Okay, what’s the meaning of soapy? Does the soapy dance mean anything bad or it’s just another Malwedhe? Most likely the former. Because the dance doesn’t only mean, it also demonstrates and glorifies the act of masturbation.
Maybe whether masturbation is bad or not, is subjective, but it’s the same as sex. No one is going to say it’s bad, but one thing we all agree on is that there shouldn’t be mainstream entertainment content, depicting such acts explicitly. And that’s exactly what Naira Marley is doing with “Soapy.” This may be the street, but it’s far from good music, and although many youths are starting to do the soapy dance, it’s not good for the culture!