Does Mode 9's Candid View on the Nigerian Rap Crown Deserve Slaps or Hugs?

For some time now, i have been digging through my archive and will be doing so for some time to come. Well, i just came across a short chat where Nigerian rap star, Mode 9 (born Segun Babatunde Adewale) got very frank about the rap crown and who deserves to wear it. Carefully gauge his words and tell us if he deserves slaps or hugs...

Here was what he had to say about the Nigerian rap crown:

"I’ve heard one or two Hip Hop acts claiming the rap crown but na who dey give crown? Which crown. People are just running after the invisible golden fleece. I won’t blame any artiste for coming out to say he’s the king brcause if you’re into hip hop and you don’t think you’re the king, then you shouldn’t even be rapping. First and foremost, you have to believe in yourself but about the crown, I don’t know. People like us are just trying to live good and make good music for our fans and people who believe in us. What I’m concerned with is to continue pleasing them. I’m not bothered by who wears what crown. Is there even a crown?"

Of course, he also spoke about himself and how his rap story began:


Mode 9 is just a lyricist; no short cuts, no complex- just a lyricist-someone who takes lyricism very seriously.
I didn’t really stand out to say I want to be an artiste. It just sort of happened. One thing led to another and here we are. It started with my love fir hip hop. I was just rapping on a small level in school then all of a sudden, I met Solo D and he was just talking about a label. I didn’t really take it seriously at that point in time but I considered it some ting to do while in school. Little by little, we started doing things and all of a sudden, drooped a video. From then I decided to take it a little bit further so after the pay back time records stint, I dropped a mix tape. From there, I moved over to Lagos and it did pretty well. I eventually signed with Question Mark and I released Pentium IX and things rolled oj from there. It’s not as if I ever wanted to be an artiste from the scratch because I was studying to be be a site engineer by studying Building Technology and I finished that with flying colours in Bida Poly.