The Nigerian music space was on fire during the weekend with the rap war between M.I Abaga and the “lafiagi” crooner Vector. Vector had released a diss track titled ‘The purge’ on 20 September 2019, in which he featured Vader and Paper Corleone. Barely 7 days after the release of ‘The purge’, Vector released another apparent diss track titled ‘tetracycling’.
Unable to hold it any longer, M.I released ‘The Viper’ a comprehensive reply to Vector’s diss tracks. The Viper which he, M.I personally directed served as an expository of some sort to the genesis of the bad blood between them as well as a clapback to Vector’s two diss singles The Purge and Tetracycling.
With many Nigerians hailing the Jos-born rapper for schooling the Lafiagi crooner on the social media space, one can guess Vector’s mood at the moment. In the 5 minutes Viper track which the 38 year-old rapper claimed to be an advice to Vector instead of a diss, he rated Vector below the top 5 rappers from Yoruba land and goes further to make a shout out to indigenous rappers like Olamide and CDQ for making farbetter impacts in the industry than Vector has ever done.
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Rap battles – the origins
Rivalry in the Rap genre of music is not a new thing as it has always been in the scene. It is even worse in America, where one can rightly say rap originated from. It has also been alleged that it was the remote cause of the untimely death of legendary American rappers, 2pac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G both of who engaged each other significantly during their lifetime.
There have also been rap rivalries between the pairs of Jay Z & Nas and T.Pain & Gucci Mane. And more recently, between the Carribean rap queens, Nicki Minaj and Cardi B.
Coming back to Nigeria, what many may not remember, is that M.I Abaga is not new in rap rivalry in Nigeria. He has gained notoriety with the vice years before Vector even came to limelight. Years ago, M.I had battled it out with Kelly Handsome. This time, he was the first to provoke the verbal war. He lyrically got the attention of Kelly Handsome with the following lines;
Kelly Handsome is handsome
i don’t need you to tell me
….short black back dude
Says he is sitting on top
Sitting on top Naija Hip Pop
…But i am the ladder to the Top
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This obviously infuriated Kelly handsome who replied and later released his own diss track against M.I, titled ‘Finish you Boy’.
In 2009, an American based Nigerian rapper by the name, Iceberg Slim also involved M.I in his song titled ‘am i better?’ with lyrics that implies M.I already knew who was better between them. As was expected, it did not go down well with the American trained economist cum rapper, M.I Abaga, who released a clap back single titled ‘Somebody Wants To Die’, featuring Chocolate City mate, Ice Prince.
Finally, expectations are high with regards to what is coming next. Will they makeup or continue this diss saga that has already pulled a lot of attention? Is Vector going to be the mature party this time and not think of releasing another diss single? Only time will tell! Meanwhile, Vector is currently busy working with Davido on a new song.
Just when M.I must have taken a deep breath for putting Vector in his place, it seems, that feeling of accomplishment has been cut short as Vector has vowed to throw the last punch. Determined not to be ‘the vanquished’ in this war of rap superiority, Vector has released another diss track titled ‘Judas The Rat’ dedicated to M.I Abaga.
In the 4:03 seconds track, Vector unleashed unexpected blows on M.I. In the audio track he posted on YouTube in the wee hours of Friday, 11 October 2019, he calls M.I a rat and enlightened the 38 year-old rapper on the reason he, Vector is not his son (recall, that M.I had called vector his son in his track titled ‘The Viper’).
What is indeed interesting in this latest track is that, Vector did not only mention M.I but also mentioned M.I’s younger brother Jesse Jagz. He raps that M.I claims to be helping people but have not helped his own blood brother Jesse Jagz. With this latest track, one may conclude that they are still far from calling a ceasefire.
Who do you think has the last laugh? Let us know in the comment below.
