I was ten or so. That time, Mom was very strict about the kind of music I listen to. I was pretty much a church girl. We lived in a rundown place then and I didn’t mind. Mom made sure I lacked nothing.

Image is mine

I was invited to a birthday party. I had to beg Mom to let me attend to which she gave me one hour. The party started by 6pm. I had no idea it was an adult party then. The sibling of the celebrant had invited me and I wanted to honour that invitation. I left before 7pm mostly because Mom wanted it so and partly because things got a little too heated for my childish eyes.

Listening to this song takes me back. I can still see the sandy street with potholes, the slippery mud when it would rain, my walks to school under my cute pink umbrella. The friend I lost at a very young age.

I can still smell the smoke and constant pollution, the walls of the algae covered bathroom. With this song, I am drawn back to the time I would fry a lot of yams and make egg sauce to eat. I and Mom would watch Teresa and The One Who Couldn’t Love with our Box TV. It can be overwhelming…

Davido – Aye

This was around the time I was thirteen or so. We had just moved to a place way worse than where we were living previously. It was one room [literally] and we had a neighbour on the other side of the door. Each morning she began with Zoro’s Mabuzo song and then this would come in and it would be on repeat.

Listening to this song now, I can still smell the room. The stench and the room freshener we would throw in constantly. I can still see the lump of clothes and the cemented floor. The wooden TV stand and unmistakable odour of the wet ceiling.

I can feel the light breeze in the hot season when we would all crowd outside [my neighbours] on our mats to escape the burning heat at night. The laughter and claps against mosquitoes. The giddy feeling I’d have when he would come around.

The tarred roads and reading my first smut… yep. I recall it all. It comes like a flood and I can hardly separate one thought from the other but it is one memory in a cluster of boxed cabinets.

Brandy – Piano Man

I had just started exploring international songs. I had no idea what genres were and even today, I still get confused. Grunge? Shoelace? Seriously, AfroDepression? Who would not be confused?

Anyway, my first boyfriend made us a playlist and this song was top. That and Baby by Justin Bieber. But this song was always on repeat. At night, I would lay on my pillow and dream of a world where I was in a beautiful white dress and danced to the Piano Man’s song.

Marble floors, a ballroom, the grand piano and I…just lost and away from the nightmare that was my life. I was lured away to a brighter place and once or twice, I would open my eyes and let a tear slip because my dreams were so real it hurt to come back to reality.

I didn't have the ballroom. I had a small one room, cluttered and unkempt. Still, I'd make a little space and dance to the Piano Man. I would throw in as much energy as I could muster and I would be sweating at the end. Look where we are now. No ballroom yet but a big, fluffing living room with enough space to house my chicken dancing.

Hehehe. I believe music is more than just rhythm and blues. It is more than pop. Each strum, note and key; every bass is strung to something. I don’t know for others but that is how it is with me.

Hope you enjoyed these tunes. Until next time…