M.I Abaga Delivers The Greatest Performance Of His Life

“I want to say I have performed with two of the people I watched growing up. I have lived the dream”, M.I Abaga declared happily, through his set. This of course is true, but smacks of needless modesty. While Abaga still likes to project an image of himself as a humble star who’s just rolling through the motions and receiving gifts of fortune, the truth is you don’t become the best rapper on the African continent without working your butt off.

At Buckwyld N Breathless concert, M.I Abaga keeps his 60-minute performance under deceptively tight control, working his ass off to get every detail right, while making it all appear like some casual stroll through his music, which spans 3 albums and 3 mixtapes that have revolutionised the nation’s Hip-hop.

M.I Abaga became a legend when he democratized Hip-hop, and brought the rap game closer to the masses. With three studio albums, one compilation album, and 3 Mixtapes, he has stood tall on the mic. Off the mic, he is currently tasked with leading a new generation of talent into superstardom from Chocolate City. A task that currently occupies his waking moments, he has already brought on Koker – aka ‘Mr Do Something’ – who is climbing up the ladder fast.

He is one of the two headlining acts of Buckwylld N Breathless: The Disruption’, a concert organized by a team led by veteran showman, Helen Abutu, which seeks to create a concert that will epitomize the works of Nigeria’s modern craftsmen put in in a time capsule, and preserved for generations to come. Carefully conceptualized, scripted and executed, the concert prides itself as being the biggest of 2016.

A typical M.I Abaga performance isn’t what was required here. Having watched M.I perform on countless stages, one gets a hang of how his show works. He connects via preaching, tells a story of his humble beginning and his celebrity, before interspersing that tale-time with some music. This was different though; the story was not just a story, but it all came alive with performances tied into the back stories. All the characters in the M.I Abaga ‘Book of Hustle Stories’ appearing in the flesh to keep things alive and animate.

This was M.I Abaga as the orchestrator of a TV show, the lead character in a movie, and the hero of the night. There were women all over the place, dancers and lap-dancers, actresses and extras. M.I got a lap dance, had women swarm all over him, and changed costumes, brought on Kelly Handsome to make mockery of a beef that had existed between the two.

This was the vintage M.I Abaga; one who had over the years become less confrontational and pursued industry peace, while preaching messages of love and cohesion. He also did bring on Ruggedman, payed tribute to Eedris Abdulkareem, and Modenine. He switched between fun and emotion, thrilling the fans and connecting with their every mood. He brought on his family, starting with Djinee for ‘Safe’, then Ice Prince and Jesse Jagz for ‘Overkilling it (remix), before Jesse Jagz and Ice Prince both had their performances of ‘Wetin dey’ and ‘Oleku’, and then some more, with Nosa joining in for a rendition of brother.

Waje took the baton with some vocal acrobatics on ‘I wish’. She collaborated with M.I Abaga on ‘One Naira’, before he ran through his singles, and bowed out with the soundtrack to popular TV show, Game Of Thrones’. This was a display that had all that M.I had to offer, inclusive of his backstories and his celebrity. This was the best M.I performance ever, reeking of endless practice sessions and effort. He executed perfectly, every turn, dance, extra and collaborators falling in place.

All of these point to the organisation of the event, who put in the time and effort, and budget too, to make that dream work, and connect to everything the phenomenon that is M.I Abaga. His best performance of his career has been achieved, coming so late into his career of many highs and a few lows. Up next is Chocolate City, where he is back to steering the ship to greatness, and making sure all of those stories that were enacted on stage aren’t the best of what he has left. Perhaps in 5 years, we will celebrate another chapter of M.I’s successes, one in which the major players will not be him, but the stars birthed by his guidance.

But for now, that was an amazing Abaga outing, one that never will be forgotten.