From a musical perspective, multi-genre recording artist Adebayo Daramola, professionally known as Green Baker, may be one of Nigeria’s finest gems waiting to be unearthed. Born in Ibadan, Baker’s sound has an urgent ring to it. He knows the nuances of body movement and revelry on a windy Friday night in any of the city’s bustling lounges and nightclubs, but he also regards himself as a griot of sorts, so he’s always eager to deploy his art as social commentary.
On his debut EP Mr. Right, Baker, currently signed to HighLight Music, beautifully combines elements of Amapiano, Afrobeats, Synth Wave and Funk to serve up a body of work that is as melodic as it is artistically compelling. Jo Be, the lead single off the record, seamlessly manipulates South Africa’s biggest genre export in concocting an uber-groovy dance anthem, with colorful visuals to boot. The House-influenced Beautiful People deploys his silky vocals to match the earnestness of South African vocalist Rethabile Khumalo. The title track, reminiscent of Fela’s saxophone-laden tunes, is a socially-conscious track that infuses an interpolation of Maleke’s sleeper hit Miniminiwanawana.
I caught up with Baker via a Google Meet call on a Thursday afternoon in late October, the iciness of my London apartment contrasting with the bright and sunny atmosphere of his location in mainland Lagos. He seemed to be in the middle of a recording session, but he was more than happy to talk about his artistic journey.
Baker tells me that it all began in infancy, when he was exposed to the music of Jimmy Cliff, Boney M, Michael Jackson, King Sunny Ade and Ebenezer Obey. By the time he turned six, he had begun to nurse dreams of selling out concerts.
“My dad would buy me VHS tapes back then containing visuals of Michael Jackson’s songs. On her part, my mother liked buying Boney M vinyl (records) for me”, he says.
For a brief period, Baker had intentions to sing for the Lord, and in pursuit of this desire, signed up to the choir of his local Deeper Life Bible Church parish during his first year in secondary school. However, with the advent of puberty, he bade farewell to gospel music after only three years.
Baker reveals that his foray into music production began one night in 2008 while experimenting with the Fruity Loops software in the middle of his shift as an attendant at a cybercafe, where he earned less than N10,000.
“I had seen someone use it (Fruity Loops) in a studio where I went with my friend, and I had seen a church keyboardist use it, but that night I downloaded the software, copied it into a flash drive, installed it and started practicing with it. It was the free version though, and this was challenging at the time: if there was a power cut, I would have to start working on the beats all over again. In 2009, I actively started making beats for artistes. I started out with a friend who went by the name Ti Cream; these days he calls himself Kingstar.”
Aware of the onerous process of breaking into Nigeria’s mainstream music scene, Baker decided to focus on ghostwriting for other acts and conjure his magic in the booth, shying away from centre stage, until one fortuitous meeting changed everything.
“I ventured into songwriting, penning songs for producers and DJs around the world”, he recalls. “Most notably, I wrote a song for (Australian producer) Watermelon Boy, and the official video for that song was shot in Ghana. Sometimes I would hand in my vocals, and other times the songs I’d written would be vocalized by other artistes before release.
It was in the process of doing all this that I met a South African musician and media strategist who goes by the name Kebidoo. She wanted us to make music together, so I produced three tracks for her. Not too long after that, HighLight Music contacted me to write songs for their artistes. I wrote about 13 tracks, they were pleased by what they heard, and they decided to sign me instead.”
For Baker, lyricism is influenced by the “spiritual” direction of whatever instrumentals he chooses to toy with in his little studio on a given day. But that doesn’t mean he is averse to drawing inspiration from the events around him. He explains this while answering my questions about the creative process behind the new record.
“While playing with the instrumentals, the idea for making socially-conscious songs suddenly came to me”, he notes. “As I was writing the songs, the scenes from the October 2020 #EndSARS protests flashed in my head, and I decided to incorporate those events into the lyrics. Politicians renege on their promises, they neglect the masses, and I wanted to capture all of that.
In crafting this EP, I primarily explored three genres: Amapiano, Afrobeats, and Synth Wave. I allow the instrumentals drive the direction of the lyrics. For instance, some of the lyrics in the song “Balance” were inspired by an old flame.”
In recent times, Nigerian music-makers have been called out for “running with the Amapiano sound.” This assertion is not lost on Baker, who is of the opinion that South Africans have every right to gatekeep the genre, even if he feels that accusing Nigerians of appropriation is a reach.
“I think we should gatekeep. It helps us control the narrative, and properly curate the history and evolution of African music across several genres. It’s necessary to point out where a particular sound comes from, as well as the pioneers of said sound. That being said, I think that Nigerians are bringing a new flavour to the (Amapiano) genre, not necessarily appropriating it.”
Mr. Right, which premiered on November 4, 2022, is now available on all streaming platforms.
Jerry Chiemeke is a writer, music journalist, film critic and lawyer. His works have appeared in The Africa Report, Berlinale, The Republic, Africine, Netng and The Lagos Review, among others. He lives in London, United Kingdom, from where he writes on Nollywood, African literature, and Nigerian music.
