Before now it was ‘Pon Pon’ sound then things got a little boring and a new wave came along ‘shaku shaku’. Unlike the former, ‘shaku shaku’ came with it’s own set of dance steps to make things a lot more fun. Moving your legs rhythmically making an incomplete leg over move, hand slightly crossed like your wearing handcuffs and the other freestyle involved. Soon ‘Pon Pon’ phased out, artistes were not trying to make quick hits again with it.
Thanks to then relatively unknown music stars, Slimcase – Oshozondi, Idowest – Omo shepeteri, not forgetting Mr Real – Legbegbe, Olamide – Wo, ‘shaku shaku’ was fully established as the new rave. Next time everyone in the industry is on the wave trying to make a new hit.
Apparently at the moment we have moved on from the energetic ‘shaku shaku’ and have started exploring other musical arrangements. Three music heavyweights have been able to make that type of music unattractive mostly by making hits from something else.
The fall of ‘shaku shaku’ could be said to begin with Duncan Mighty’s collaboration with Wizkid ‘Fake Love’. While everyone was hopping on the raving industry sound Duncan Mighty came out of his hiatus to make a song with the Starboy. ‘Fake Love’ was nothing close to the prevailing music of choice.
‘Fake Love’ as it were became an instant hit entirely different from anything that caught the fancy music lovers. In response the music market gradually shifted in a new direction favouring Duncan Mighty. The Port Harcourt first son became a hot stuff as his verse came under heavy demand. Probably there should be a name for the Duncan Mighty sound. The Port Harcourt breed singer helped kill Shaku shaku.
2Baba has been quite instrumental in the eradication of shaku shaku music. The legendary singer isn’t one who jumps on all industry trends grasping for a hit song. It’s 2018 and the Hypertek boss is still churning out hit songs. 2Baba is best remembered in this year for his song ‘Amaka’ which featured Peruzzi of DMW. ‘Amaka’ arguably one of the biggest songs in Nigeria this year doesn’t use the shaku shaku template. At this point shaku shaku was again mortally wounded.
Olamide is well respected for starting viral trends in the music industry. The YBNL boss is clearly one of those who popularized ‘shaku shaku’ especially with that song ‘Wo’. Nonetheless, he has inevitably fast tracked the demise of the music trend. His latest music releases are made out of another recipe especially with ‘Motigbana’. Olamide has shown he has moved on from ‘shaku shaku’ to something else called ‘Kpakujemu’ as seen in ‘Motigbana’ video – a new type of dance involving shaking your head vigorously while simultaneously trying to make an incomplete uppercut blow with staggering steps. This was the final nail in the coffin for shaku shaku.
Besides these three prominent listed artistes, everyone else seems to have moved on finally from the craze. However, the dance itself lingers on as it awaits a successor.
Apparently, Nigerian artistes are rather plugging into the Latin America or Caribbean type of sound or some really unique Afrobeat stuff. DM Records new act King Perryyhas a new song ‘Eastern Baby’ which basically echoes the Caribbean vibe and it’s really catching on. Another artiste worth mentioning is Harrysong whose latest song ‘Tekero’ embodies the same Caribbean and Salsa-esque sound.
By December, there wouldn’t be anyone trying to make a shaku shaku song.
Leave a Reply