Afro-fusion recording artist and songwriter from popular Nigerian collective, Chop Life Crew, Tena Tenpo, released his new single titled Benefit Boyz. It is his first on London and Johannesburg-based label Outer South. Syncing with the fast-paced ascendancy of drill music in Nigeria, he delivers a gritty flow on this drill cut. The single taps London-based rapper Jawzs, who delivers a hard-hitting intro to the song.
Like most drillers, the track touches on socio-economic issues like drug use; echoing lyrics like “Feeling blue like 542 x 10.” Despite the song’s menacing surface, the duo take snarky shots at the cheap thrills of ‘Benefit Boys’, police harassment & corruption with bars like “They say I do yahoo but man like Jawzs ain’t not benefit boy!” following up with “Officer free all my friends, man I can’t pay 20 but ama pay 10.”
Tena Tenpo moves in for the kill by dissing ‘Benefit boys’ flexing for the public without handling family business; “Doing shit for show like a centrepiece…Benefit boy wey him family no fit benefit from … bum!” Pairing with even more scathing lines like, “Screaming fuck the world now the world dey fuck you with zero condom, raw!”
Full of clever wordplay, ‘Benefit Boyz’ is Tena Tenpo’s follow-up to his recent EP, ‘Pre-game’. As an experimental artist, delving into Afrobeats, rap, and even RnB, Tena says “music is way bigger than a genre. It’s more like sounds of different emotions and times. I just make good music.” The Lagos-based artist has dropped several projects including ‘Slave II Society’, a joint EP with the talented KD, FLOTFR (For The Ladies On The Runway), and a catalogue of versatile tracks.
Currently working on his next EP, ‘Vibes Alive’, the single ‘Benefit Boyz’ is set to be an unforgettable anthem for the Lagos summer.
Listen here: