MTV Base at the Vault - Lagos –

As I’m mostly in PH during my stay – a trip to Lagos for the weekend was a welcome break. I ended up at the MTV base party at a club called the vault.

It had a host of local stars from Two Face, Pie Squares (who had more moves than Usher) to the headline act which was Pras from the Fugees. At which point we left.

I still have vivid memories of the first time I saw the Fugees at the Wolverhampton Civic Centre back in 95 and how blown’ away I was…even with the suspect Pras. I wanted that memory to endure, but even as I waited for the car to come round– I could hear Pras singing his most famous Ghetto Superstar.

MTV know how to max a venue to its true potential and I kinda liked the vibe of the Vault, even though people kept telling me it was happening a few years back. Nijas!!!!

The highlight of the night was a completely underrated performance by Ayesha, a Nigeria born singer from the school of Billy Holiday, Ms Badu etc who’s living in France and made the hairs on the back of my end stand up. Maybe I’m getting old, and the fact that I can’t be bothered to dance any more or wave my hands at the command of the performer – but I would have done anything she asked.

However when I enquired if she had any cd’s for sale – she shrugged in such a nonchalant way, as though she were saying to me, ‘.. a cd, what’s that – I just came to sing!’

Definitely music to fly too.

Litter 7: A familar saying explained

The saying "it's raining cats and dogs" came from a time when houses had thatched roofing. As hot air rises, cats and dogs would climb up to the top of the house to sleep. When it rained, the water would come through the roof, wet the animals and they would jump down from the roof.

Hence the saying raining cats and dogs.

Thank u ES.

Postcard from Lagos

I’ve been in Nigeria 11 days and things are good. It's been raining a lot, and hard! Then the sun comes out. I guess the best part of it is spending time with family, especially my younger bro. It’s good to be here for a purpose, as opposed to the usaual holiday visit, the feeling of working, doing something I guess adds another dimension to the days. Things can get monotonous, if all you’re doing is waiting for the next party and watching dvd’s, not to mention how much weight you’re bound to put on.

Ramadan started a few days back…there’s such a good feeling of camaraderie amongst friends, family etc during the period here.

Missing the usual peeps and my girl – but, we all know how London is.

Lagos on the other hand is just layered in contradictions, met some seriously talented creatives doing some cool stuff, I’m so excited…it’s amazing the opportunity that technologies enables, because it allows people to be totally independent, but I guess the cultural sophistication is still lacking…or maybe the one I’ve become accustomed to in the west, is what i mean.

More and more…it feel like time….