On August 3, 2021, Nigerian Twitter users once again clashed in their simplistic battle of 'either or,' where only one person can survive while the other dies in a gunfight of stan culture and bias. The artists on offer were 9ice, the erstwhile superstar with his skinny frame and Flavour, Ijele nwanne with all the muscles.
Nigerians discussed their greatness and forced people to pick a side. Here are the best tweets from the debate;
Who is greater between the two?
First off, all debates don't have to end in an oversimplified battle of 'either or' with no grey areas and no metrics. In music, greatness is a summation of talent, ability, application of talent and ability for hits, acclaim, awards, impact, discography and mileage over a period of time.
Sometimes, greatness also digresses into conversations around what the artists turned the music into. That's why Olamide's ability to create and sustain YBNL or Kanye West's ability to create G.O.O.D Music and Yeezy or Jay Z's ability to create Roc-a-fella, lead Def Jam, sign Rihanna, found Roc Nation and buy/sell TIDAL or Rihanna's ability to turn superstardom into a billion-dollar brand will matter when inevitable conversations around ranked greatness are being had.
Sometimes, greatness also goes into celebrity moments - both the positive and the negative controversy, as regards impact. These things determine the power, mileage and leverage of stardom. So with 9ice vs. Flavour, the problem with everybody is their inability to get their tribe, bias and preference out of the conversation.
Our bias and preference doesn’t always equate bigger or greater. As a generation, the problem we have is oversimplification. That's why we just want to jumble everything up and make a hasty judgment. Most things aren't that simple.
The conversation isn’t simple, but let’s have it.
Stardom
While 9ice is slightly older than Flavour, both of them launched around the same time. Flavour released Nabania, his debut album in 2005 while 9ice released Certificate, his debut album in 2007. ‘Nabania’ never had nationwide success but ‘Certificate' had moderate success. Singles like ‘Little Money’ and ‘Ganja Man’ grew into smash hits - especially the latter.
9ice went on to enjoy success at the highest level of superstardom - he was top 3-5 at some point. He was only behind Tuface, D’Banj and P Square. He must have even been above Tuface in 2008. Tuface wobbled with Unstoppable while 9ice triumphed with Gongo Aso, P Square triumphed with Game Over and D’Banj with The Entertainer.
9ice got the nationwide/continental awards/hits/albums to prove it. However, his reign was short-lived.
On the other hand, Flavour never had 9ice's superstardom, he has never been top 3-5 but he has been able to use evergreen content, a fantastic brand, great stage presence and his natural musical acumen to stand the test of time. He has created his own world, never fought with anyone and lived by his own rules.
The country/the continent has been forced to notice and respect him overtime.
Basically, he's like the male Yemi Alade with better music, higher number of hits in Nigeria and a more attractive brand. A lot of people argue that Flavour is huge in the South-East, but regional stardom will never truly measure against stardom in the bigger markets. Bigger markets have the bigger coverage, the bigger funding and the bigger exposure.
Things that blow up in big markets also have a way of trickling down to smaller markets. Music markets follows a top-down approach more than a bottom-up approach. At least until social media started creating opportunities and outliers.
9ice was 9ice after a short time at the top, but Flavour has had to grow into Flavour; the one you can’t not notice and the one you can’t not respect. He crafted timeless records and surpassed the ‘hot and cold’ tendencies of Duncan Mighty or the non-hit-having tendencies of Yemi Alade into becoming a star at African level because people love his artistry, his unique sonic blend of genres and his stage craft.
Discography
Flavour has released six albums while 9ice has released 10. However, that doesn’t mean 9ice has the greater discography. It’s a little more dicey than that. Both artists have a trifecta.
What is a trifecta?
Also known as ‘The Perfect Three,’ it is three consecutive top quality, universally acclaimed and/or commercially successful albums by one act.
9ice's trifecta was Gongo Aso, Tradition and Basorun Gaa while Flavour’s was Uplifted, Blessed and Thankful. While 9ice's trifecta had greater reception and the higher number of hits at the time of release, songs from Flavour's trifecta have slightly aged better with better use cases.
A lot of people argue that Flavour’s inability to make hits is because of tribalism in Lagos. While that might be plausible, acts like P Square, J Martins, Timaya, Duncan Mighty, Nigga Raw, iLLBliss, 2shotz, Phyno, Bracket and more blew up with bigger smash hits in Lagos than Flavour at the time, so it’s not a thing of tribalism.
It’s just a thing of Flavour’s smart understanding of his brand and how to use it.
That said, Flavour doesn't have 'Gongo Aso' in his discography by any stretch of the imagination. Anybody who says otherwise is either ignorant or has a bias.
Gongo Aso
By 'Gongo Aso,' I mean both the song and the album.
The song was arguably the biggest Nigerian song of 2008. Flavour has never had a top 3-5 record of the year in Nigeria. His songs just find their place in the zeitgeist with time. However, most artists will take that over reigning at the time of release and only being good enough for nostalgia after three years.
As for 'Gongo Aso' the album, you can't top one of the four horsemen that defined the modern era of Nigerian pop music. The others are Wande Coal’s Mushin 2 Mo'hits, D’Banj’s 'The Entertainer’ and 'True Story' by Timaya. Everything we hear today can be traced back to those four albums. They're the sonic blueprint, even though M2M might be the outright progeny.
It's like Jay Z and Nas. Hov is arguably the greatest rapper ever, but if someone were to say Hov doesn't have 'Illmatic' in his discography, you can't argue against that except you're ignorant.
It's 'Illmatic.' You might not like it, you might not agree with it, but if you're smart enough, you won't argue.
Brand
Ijele has one of the most resonant brands in modern Nigerian music. Even though he's not been making hits over the past few years, Ijele is still getting bags. When you call him, you know you're getting serenaded and everybody will be blessed.
Whereas, when 9ice stopped making hits, his career was effectively over.
Artistry
Flavour has been able to navigate Gospel to some success while 9ice's flirtation with Fuji/Folk acts didn't quite produce similar results. Flavour is also a better vocalist and all-round musician, 9ice has the better delivery and has the ability to find pockets like a rapper.
Celebrity, leverage and diversification
Flavour has created businesses and managed his life slightly on the low while 9ice had a major marriage scandal and turned his stardom into an unsuccessful run for office. That marriage also scandal birthed a major cultural moment around celebrity marriage and infidelity and birthed two timeless records. It also aided Ruggedman in part.
But arguably, 9ice produced the last hit between the two, 'Living Things.'
Awards
9ice has won a MOBO for Best African Act and has won a MAMA for Best Hip-Hop. He also won big at the 2009 Headies with four awards and another two awards at the 2008 edition.
On the other hand, Flavour has won two Headies, both for songs by Sound Sultan and MI Abaga. However, his album Blessed was nominated for Album of the Year. He has also won one Channel O Music Award.
Longevity
Flavour easily wins this. He’s been able to grow into himself by running his own race. Most people will take a career like Flavour’s than a career like 9ice’s. Both are great and they have both been successful, but most people will take long term impact and reverence.
When you weigh it all, Flavour takes the win because you can't look down on longevity and long-term impact on a number of fronts.