Lágbájá arose from Lagos, the same gritty urban commercial capital of 15+ million Nigerians, which gave us Fela Kuti, King Sunny Ade, Oliver DeCoque, Barrister and numerous other seminal African musicians. Like these many predecessors, Lágbájá is a product of that urban environment and the spirit of his times. First emerging in the wake of the annulled Nigerian presidential elections of 1993, which ultimately swept Dictator Sanni Abacha into power, this was a dark time in Nigeria. It was a time where people literally feared to speak their mind in public or private, where killings and disappearances became commonplace and where the common people had no one to take up their cause. Into this darkness came Lágbájá, speaking words of wisdom to the masses. Less confrontational than the words of the late Fela Kuti, and more direct than the metaphorically based messages of King Sunny Ade, Lágbájá posed a model for how to rebuild a better society and to renew Nigeria. The message resonated with the masses, both because of its simple truth and because of the medium. For Lágbájá’s anonymity and elaborate costumes also invoke the ancient tradition of Yoruba Egungun (ancestral) masquerades.
    Lágbájá’s music has many levels of depth and appeal. On the simplest level, the music features catchy refrains and great arrangements with instant appeal. His unique ensemble contains half western instruments and half traditional Yoruba instruments. Wireless guitars, bass, sax and keyboards and samplers are matched by dundun and sacred bata drums, sekere, ogido and many other classical Yoruba instruments for a sound which is at once poppy and ancient. Drawing on a wide range of influences from traditional rhythms to juju, Afrobeat, fuji, pop, jazz, rock and more, the music speaks to a wide audience. Remarkably, in its specificity towards a local audience, Lágbájá’s words and music speak universally about the challenges that face us all.

Lágbájá Speaks…
Lágbájá started his recent European tour in Angouleme, France, with a dynamic performance at the Musiques Metisses Festival. Rakumi’s Jon Kertzer and French journalist Francis Bensignor from Mondomix.org talked with him backstage on June 2nd just before his appearance. Here are some excerpts from their interview:

What’s the Lágbájá concept? What was the music in your head, which combined with the Western musics– to put forward this Lágbájá concept?

Lágbájá itself is a Yoruba word that existed before I borrowed it. And the young kids now don’t know the history– they think that Lágbájá is a brand new word that came from me…so we are gradually starting to change the history of the word itself…the new generation didn’t even know there was a lágbájá before this Lágbájá ….It’s a Yoruba word that means nobody, somebody, anybody, everybody. It depends on the context in which it’s used… I picked that word, because I wanted to depict a concept, a word to communicate the essence, of the millions of people, so–called "masses", the "common man", the people with no voice, that don’t have a face, just one in a million– in our society; you find lots and lots of them back home. I wanted to depict that situation, that was strange– because many years ago, everyone had an identity– not like everyone was a king, or princess– but everyone was a part of a bigger whole. The biggest thing about our society was that we had a sense of community; we took care of each other. Everyone belonged one way or the other. It didn’t have to be myself– to discipline you, everyone took care of your education, informally, your growth, economic needs– we depended so much on each other. That has changed in what we call the modern world of today. So I wanted to depict that facelessness, that sense of not having an identity anymore, of the faceless masses, the voiceless people in Africa. The mask was the perfect thing to communicate that. So after I found that I wanted to use the mask, as the icon, so that after I take off the mask, there’s a face behind the face, it’s a powerful way to communicate that message. Then after I did that, I felt that word– and the right word I felt was the Yoruba word– meaning nobody, somebody, everybody…The music itself played a role, because the whole idea was to send a message to all parts of society. One to the leaders, who control – to talk about the problems of society [and] to the people who are being led themselves, that is, all of us together, to give encouragement [and] essential social, political messages.

What are the main messages that you are singing today, in Lagos, for Nigeria today?

The main message today is community. Essentially I am saying, we should think about ourselves, and place the needs of others before your own needs, as it used be in those days. That is why we call the album. "We Before Me". Let’s place ‘we"– it’s not the perfect English way of putting it– but because the way "we" works when it’s flipped [over] with "me"– it’s the mirror image, it communicates the whole essence of society before individual interests. That’s the main message that we talk about in our music today. The main song we have to press that home [is] called "We Are Family" In Lagos language [pidgin English] it’s called "we be family”. It seems to me everywhere we talk about color, about ethnic differences, [and] conflicts. People who have lived together thousands of years find out now that little things make a difference, start cutting fine lines– but if you come to Lagos, and you talk, you find about three guys …you couldn’t tell who is Yoruba, or who is Ijaw, or who is Fulani– it would seem to you as just, Africans. Same thing with Africans… If I were to meet different people, I wouldn’t know who was from the Sudan, who was Wolof, and who was Mandingo– I would just say they are Africans...but then, if you start to look for differences, you can always find differences. But how about the fact that we have things that hold us together, ties that bind us together? I felt I should push that more– that we be family– that you and I we no be enemy– we are supposed to be family I used this to drive home the point, "we, before me"…

Now, how would you describe the music you are playing?

It’s mostly influenced by my traditional Yoruba background. I spend along time in a major Yoruba city– Ibadan. And also, one has heard, coming from the Western world, mostly jazz, and the funk of the 70’s..but the biggest influence is the Yoruba drums. What I am trying to day– the most important thing, because nowadays I find that many people, drums are just sounds, that… but the essential thing, is what you do with the drums. So I want to say to people that don’t know about African drumming, that I would like to help you liberate your dancing spirit–because I find that many cultures, if you consider the background of their musical experience– they really can’t relate directly to what the drums are saying. At times, the drums back home are talking– they are not just banging away, but they are saying something, they are essentially communicating a groove. So can we, Get you to feel that groove, and move to that groove.. how do the drums work together, how we make it possible for you to understand. At the same time, not just look at it as exotic music…because when you hear some of these rhythms back home– your feet just want to dance. It’s not a matter of tempo, or a matter of sound– but a matter of groove. So we are searching for that essential groove, which will communicate to you– the normal African audience will hear and know that "this is the groove of Africa". Like tonight, you will see how we talk onstage with the people, how to communicate with the people, and start with simple dance movements, because mostly it has to do with hearing the groove. Because of the background of the harmonically developed sound that they hear, like from classical music, and many things like that at the same time– people who are listening to the music, are hearing many things at the same time. But you got to focus on the center of the moving groove– the center, if you can hear it. So the first thing is to help the audience to hear that simple groove– that is the basic thing.

To follow up on that– I hear you use bata drums in your group, as well as the talking drums. You are one of the few popular groups in Nigeria doing this– can you talk about why you decided to do that?

Basically back home, and in lots of Africa, American popular music is very popular– you can turn on a radio station, and think you were back in New York.. But there are great grooves, great rhythms from back home, from sacred drums, which are normally used for particular occasions.
    But even the traditional drum families have started to use them in contemporary ceremonies. And because I grew up with those sounds, and I love them so very much, I grew up hearing the thunderous sound of bata, there is just no way that I could play music without incorporating those rhythms. And essentially, the definitive thing about my music– if you check out the harmonic structures, and the arrangements of the chords, the progressions.. you could easily think that it could pass for Western influences. But the most essential thing is the groove, and the rhythm that comes with these drums. That why we put the bata drums there, to give it that groove and that rhythm.

When you are talking about the groove, obviously we are thinking about Afro–beat, about Fela. And today, Afro–beat is getting a wide trend– and mixed with techno and electronic music– what do you think about that– and are you following this new trend?

Fela is one of my influences too, because Fela was very influential for everybody of my generation. Not just his music, but his powerful messages about Africans, history and everything. So there is no way I can dodge this influence. And I love Afro–beat very much. But my music is a lot different from that, because I have incorporated more of the drums, because I am particularly more interested in this groove thing. I talk to people and they say, "What really moves you about music? Can you describe what moves you?" And I found essentially there is no way to tell exactly why it’s exciting, or its a sound sweet, or it sounds nice, or it makes you dance... you can’t really tell what moves you about music, it’s a spiritual thing.

I saw a movie a few years ago about a project you did around Africa– you traveled to various countries with other musicians, Youssou N’Dour was involved– can you tell us more about that?

The International Committee of Red Cross wanted to communicate with the youth of Africa, the essential thing about tolerance. At that point in time, and even until today, there’s plenty of conflicts, wars, and a lot of time you fight it’s the youth at the forefront, with their energy... and it’s even the under–aged people who are given guns. At times, they don’t even know what the war is about... It’s just they have learned, over time, to take sides – “this is my side, and this is my enemy”...usually it’s religious or ethnic and they pass it on from generation to generation. The ICRC felt that the musical figures in Africa could help, if they could come together and do a project that could be marketed to the youth to get them to see, and listen to what these musical figures, or heroes they know, have to say about such situations. It involved Papa Wemba, from Congo Youssou N’Dour, from Senegal; Lucky Dube and Jabu Khanyile from South Africa; Lourdes [Van–Dunem] from Angola, and my humble self. They wanted us to see with our eyes and experience the situations in, these conflict zones. So we went to Liberia, and we went to Angola, it was right in the heat of the conflict. We also went to north Kenya to the border with south Sudan– to see war victims and victims of conflicts on both sides, and went into prison to talk with them. It was a very deep experience, because there was no way that television could communicate what we experienced. All of this affected our thinking, and afterward we came together and made a CD, and a documentary that was broadcast throughout Africa. Also they wanted to show this in the Western world, what was going on, and that was the whole thing. It was mostly a message for the youth of Africa– how to propagate peace, and to avoid conflict situations.

I think we are out of time– thank you very much Lágbájá ....

-Jon Kertzer and Francis Bensignor