Falz: ‘I don’t fear death; I’d rather perish defending the truth.’

Falz, a well-known hip-hop performer from Nigeria, has explained why he makes confrontational music.

Falz stressed that life in Nigeria is meaningless in a recent interview with Arise TV when he said he was not scared of dying.

The multi-talented entertainer made an appearance on the program “Music as a Socio-political Tool” shortly after releasing “Yakubu,” a song he co-wrote with Vector and named after Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the head of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

In the song, the rappers criticized INEC, its chairman, and other political parties for supposedly engaging in electoral fraud during the recently concluded general elections.

Falz asserts that he would rather die battling for justice than remain silent and perish as a result of the nation’s broken system.

The rapper, who joined the programme via Skype from the United Kingdom, explained that he was not abroad because he was afraid of confrontation from state actors over the controversial song.

He said, “I knew that was going to come up when you announced that I was doing this from London. Like I said earlier on, this is not the first time, this is not the second time, this is not the third time.

“I have released tons of records that are very confrontational. And I was on ground. I’m always on ground when I released these records.

“It is not to say that I’m running anywhere. Absolutely not. Everyone know where to find me. If anyone wants to find me. But I have no reason to fear anything. And I always say this when people ask me ‘how do you do these things without any fear of consequences?’

“I’m not trying to hide anywhere, though. No, not at all. My location is known to everyone. I can be located if anyone needs to. I don’t, however, have any cause for concern. And I always answer this when someone asks me, “How do you do these things without any fear of consequences?”

“And the response I always give is the same: the kind of existence we are currently leading is one in which we are already largely fading away. What we experience as a nation in Nigeria is not a fulfilling existence.

“What’s the worst that could happen? It’s death. I don’t fear death. I would rather go down fighting for a just cause. I would rather be remembered as someone that lived a life that was meaningful rather than someone that for example was walking down the road and got run over by a danfo [bus] because he was driving recklessly.

“Or, someone that got a heart disease and could not save himself because there are no hospitals capable of saving him in Nigeria,” Falz added.