Good day, everyone, and welcome to Hive Music Festival, Week 213.
I'm singing a freestyle. Title: Zafi by BOC.
BOC is a rapper from the northern side of Nigeria. In this song, he mixes both English and Hausa, his native language, and it goes pretty well.
I love the song a lot. He has a way of rhyming the words together. For instance, when he said, "Wannan shi ne dalilin da ya sa mu ke da zafi." Then he said, "I go higher every day. Shiya sa nake da dada, is natural, but rukun ubangiji ake agada. Na tasuwa bai da kyau a maye na da sada."
You can see the "da, da, da" rhyming there. What he literally means is that this is the reason we are hot. And I go higher every day. That's why I have dreadlocks on my head. It's natural. You beg God just to have one. The one in the market is not good, but it's expensive.
It's so incredible how he puts those words together.
Then he said, "Ba asa ni dole idan nece zanyi, ko a birni musku, zai iya wankan daruwa, sanyi."
What he meant was that I'm never forced. If I said I would do it, I would do it. Even in the city of Moscow, I would bathe with cold water.
Then he goes on to say, "Fans everywhere, … I love you, all my people, …"
He was now talking about his past when he said that, "From a weak man, you transform into a jàrì mi." That's a strong person. "Mogẹna mi, me ní kíran ọmọ mi."
The song is actually very good. It has very creative lyrics, and the way he combines his native language with English is very interesting.
