Logo Benz, panties theft and lyrics gone wrong

Devastating news are increasing about a heinous hunt for women’s panties, allegedly in the name of money rituals. This  has been more common in western and eastern Nigeria. Pant theft and robbery are one of the latest additions to the social menace faced by Nigerians. However, this is not the first time in history that ritualists have ensnared unsuspecting people to kill or harm them in order to get ingredients for fast money. There was a time when people panicked for fear of disappearing whenever they picked money or any attractive item from the ground. Similarly, there were kidnapping sprees and the ‘badoo’ blood hunters in Lagos who attacked people in their homes and carted away handkerchiefs smeared with blood they wiped from their victims.

Causes of painful s3x in women

The ongoing pant episode is coming at a time when most internet fraudsters, popularly called ‘Yahoo boys’, are believed to have graduated from online operations to money rituals. It is believed, with some evidence, that they use ladies and items relating to them as means to acquire and maintain their wealth.

A student of Delta State University recently revealed that she knew of a friend who fell ill afters after losing her pants. As more people are reporting underwear theft from washing lines and even at gun point, women are taking desperate measures to keep themselves out of harm’s way. Many churches now have it in their prayer points and are holding orientation programs on how members can avert victimisation. Some ladies are said to sprinkle their pants with praying oil and some even go out with no underwear.

But just as pant theft is sending jitters across the population and discussions are centering on preventive measures, a controversial song by Nigerian rapper, Lil Kesh, featuring Olamide dropped. The song has received negative comments and reviews for its lyrics considered as endorsing money rituals. This is also not the first time that Nigerian pop artistes have sung about what is considered to be support for a prevalent social ill. When they sang to promote commercial s3x, people reacted, then almost forgot about it. When they promoted drug abuse, there were counter reactions too but they still managed to keep their heads. When they hailed crime and online fraud, fans didn’t divorce them. But when the ex-YBNL and his one-time boss  came out with Logo Benz, it fell on a hard ground, perhaps because it marked the climax of anti-social lyrics that have become the trademark lyrics of Nigerian artistes. Fans and other Nigerians have criticised the lyrics in scathing terms for explicitly approving of fast money by the means of pant theft. But the backlash is understandable. Nigerians have been forgiving of their god singers because the misconduct they promote in their songs are tolerable compared to something as serious and grave as underwear theft which actually has the potential for loss of the victims’ lives. Now, that is no joking matter talk less of what a person with millions of following and respect comes out to stand for rather than preach against.

Deep down in their hearts, fans of Nigerian Afro Pop admit that what most of their music idols sing characteristically lacks lyrical content and depth, that they are rarely socially relevant. But they follow on and listen nevertheless, for the sake of melody and beat towards an entertaining end. Big artistes are also loved for their panache and very appealing lifestyles. Unfortunately, these public figures sometimes take their fans for granted, letting go of the fact that there are boundaries and lines that should not be crossed if an artiste still cares for audience.

Although Olamide has come out to justify what he said in the song, the song seems to speak independently. In defence, he tweeted last Friday, “Logo Benz is for the third party to have a glimpse into the current state of youths in our society. (Runs girls x runs boys) “ I’m not sure if there’s anything like too much awareness, but pardon me if there is. It’s all over the news, it’s always been in movies, don’t box musicians.” But in the song, he sings, “If money no enter, I go do blood money.” Lil Kesh also tweeted in defence, “We no dey promote wetin no dey exist. na awareness we dey do so spread your pata at owner’s risk because won ka pata o.” Whereas in the song, Lil Kesh is heard saying “Ko pata le fun won jo/Bo pata le fun won jo” which is a command for a lady to remove her panties. The lyrics have been interpreted to be a solid approval of those engaged in using women’s pants for money rituals.

The Logo Benz instance is not the first time Olamide Adedeji has been criticised for promoting vices. His 2014 track, Story for the Gods was received as a pro-rape song and ‘Science Student’ as a solidarity gesture for drug abusers. Just a year ago, he faced legal risk for promoting tobacco use with the release of Wo. He had to come out to contextualise the song. There are many other artistes who have made controversial songs. It appears like Olamide and his protégé, Lil Kesh, will somehow be forgiven again, considering the turn out for his December 23 concert and continued online support. Johnson, a student of Ekiti State University, says although he thinks the song’s lyrics are terrible, “he (Olamide) still has my support though.” On Twitter, someone tweeted Dear @olamide_YBNL, most of us…no dey kuku hear wetin u dey sing. Na d beats we dey dance. So no fear, we go just dey dance whatever u sing like that.”

Popular musicians, like other celebrities,  have massive following and are looked up to by millions. Their fame grants them a capacity to lead advocacy for certain just causes in the society. Some of them have towed this line, advocating for girl child education, saying no to election and rape, being ambassadors for brands that promote virtues and values and so on. For some, if these artistes cannot salvage a broken society, they should make conscious efforts to leave it the way it is rather than being agents of demoralisation. The popular interpretation of Logo Benz is the alteration of the three-arm star in Mercedes Benz’s logo into a thong or female pant creatively turned downside up, a silent metaphor to suggest that the secret path to wealth (symbolised by exotic Benz cars) is female pants which allegedly has money making potentials if one goes diabolical. While other find something to condemn in Logo Benz as negative evangelism, Taiwo, a freelance writer and follower of Nigerian hip-hop, told Friday Treat that “Olamide and Lil kesh took advantage of the situation by giving their audience (majority) another topical and timely craft for the views and clicks.” In other words, it was more publicity stunt.

As his own way of explaining the origin of the lyrics, a Twitter user, in his thread analysis, said that both rappers had rough backgrounds in Lagos ghettos. There, according to him, crime is the way out of poverty and people usually look forward to being rich, comparing themselves to the rich around. Even now that they have made fame and money, he continues, they still see themselves in the shadow of bigger artistes like Davido and Wizkid, hence pegging their intent as being informed by greed and lack of contentment with their present status. The outrage that trailed the release of Logo Benz, fatal or not, will likely send warning signals to Nigerian artistes, reminding them that their liberty of diction and topic can and will be checked whenever they go overboard. That should be a lesson from the episode.

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