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If there is
anything Akeem Lasisi’s latest musical poetry album, ‘Wonderland’ has
done, it is to reinforce the ‘journartists’ (journalist and artist)
place among Nigeria’s talented performance poets. The third of such
efforts, this album featuring the equally gifted up and coming Edaoto
and actor/singer, Ropo Ewenla, delights.

There is no throwaway among the six tracks on the album which genre of music oscillates between juju and highlife.

The opening track,
‘Eleleture’ sees the poet professing his love in sweet verse in an
attempt to woo Eleleture. “Although I’m a gold fish/ I’ve finally found
a hiding place/ When Bin Laden seeks succour in bellies of rocks/And
Egbesu brothers seek alternative nations in serpentine creeks/ I
meander my way into the bunker of your heart /Where love breaks all
arrows/ And even bullets dissolve into liquid,” says the poet in his
quest for the lady’s heart. The chorus, like the poem, is interesting.
Edaoto and the female backups spice it with their voices and one cannot
but be impressed with their punning on names to aid Lasisi’s cause.
“Munira meets Muniru/ Habiba meets Habibu/ Sherifi meets Sherifa/
Rasheeda meets Rasheed/ Salawa meets Salawu…” The musical instruments
cohere and the exclamation by the girl when the toasting eventually
gets to her, does not detract from the track.

If the first track
makes the listener feel good, the second, ‘Wonderland’, reminds of the
abnormalities Nigerians have accepted as the norm. “My eyes have seen a
mystery dog/ gorgeously dressed in aso oke/Pleasure bag in its
hand/Swinging its hips as it walks down the village square,” Lasisi,
author of the award winning ‘Iremoje, Ritual Poetry for Ken Saro-Wiwa’
and ‘Night of my Flight’ notes in the accompanying poem. The lead
female vocalist gives life to the track with her vocal strength and
succeeds in stirring one into thinking about the strange things
happening in Nigeria with her haunting tones of lamentation.

‘Asabi Alakara’
(Heroine) is a feel-good track in the Highlife tradition. It is
conversational, with the male lead trying to lure the female into
visiting him at home. But the equally crafty lady does not fall for the
trick. “The tortoise is out with its cunning spell/Floating a feast for
innocent flies/Let the chick tie its thinking cap/Because the hawk is
here with its hungry eyes,” says Lasisi. Much as one enjoys the track,
which requires just swaying and shuffling one’s feet, the funny side
talk by Lasisi and others is not clear in places.

‘Pareke’ featuring
Ropo Ewenla is also in this mould and makes one recall the London-based
maestro, Tunji Oyelana – the instrumentation isn’t unlike some of the
tracks of ‘Uncle Tunji’. Lasisi and his Songbirds take a swipe at
thieving politicians and ill-conceived policies governments foists on
citizens in the entertaining track.

The poet and
academic, Niyi Osundare, has been celebrated several times in writing
but this is perhaps the first time he will be celebrated with music and
poetry. ‘Omo aa bo’ in Ekiti dialect is dedicated to the bard who hails
from Ikere Ekiti. He is praised, celebrated and prayed for in popular
Ekiti choruses. “We a joko le, otita t’ abinu eni kosile to ni ki o wa
jokole, we a joko le” (May you not sit on a stool rejected by your
detractor). The performance poet also puns on the titles of Osundare’s
poetry collections, declaring he will follow the poet, also a notable
performance poet, to Ekiti.

Lasisi revisits the
unresolved murder of former Attorney General and Minister of Justice,
Bola Ige, in ‘Erin Karele’. He recalls how the Cicero was tricked into
serving the People’s Democratic Party and his eventual murder
metaphorically with the Yoruba story of the elephant tricked into death
by the tortoise with an offer of kingship. Again, Edaoto’s unique voice
lifts the track as it rises and falls while entreating the elephant to
return home and become king. The poet also alludes to the alleged
complicity of Iyiola Omisore in the murder of Ige and his eventual
reward with a senatorial seat with the chorus “Igbin pa abuke osin,
gbangudu gban/ Oba da igbin lola…” Like the others, it isn’t a bad
track. The iremoje chant usually reserved for hunters and warriors at
the end is a fitting tribute to the inimitable politician. Nonetheless,
the track has a glitch which affects the sound quality as it draws to a
close.

Though an excellent album, Lasisi needn’t have placed much
inflection on words like ‘world’ and ‘bird’ in the album. It’s not an
oral English class but, who knows? Perhaps he is merely showing his
background as a former teacher of English.