Since that pivotal episode of Pulse Nigeria’s Loose Talk podcast that pit Osagie Alonge and Ayo Thompson against hip-hop veteran M.I Abaga, there’s been a significant spike the attention that classic hip-hop’s getting in the Nigerian music industry. Hearing both sides of the coin go in passionately about the context, craft and blood, sweat and tears that go into every great hip-hop song helped many millennial listeners understand and perhaps finally start to appreciate the rappers who have ignored the lure of popular music and stayed the cause, offering socially conscious, excellent crafted songs. Rapper Boogey is at the forefront of this movement with a handful of critically acclaimed songs and a well received mixtape/EP with equally repped PayBac.

Boogey has always been interested in laying bare the psyche of his generation and the influences that have shaped the values they hold there and how the trauma they experience and never quite process shape those influences. His new single “No Country For Dreamers” released to follow Nigeria’s 57th Independence day direct addresses Nigeria and exposes her for the fraud she is. He steps away from his usual point of view as a detached observer and takes on the perspective of the average citizen. He dissects the Nigerian dream, exposing its shallowness, highlighting the sufferings that have become normalized to us. With synth percussions and production work that reminds of Kanye West’s “Love Lock Down” and relentless, earnest punchlines that draw from the minutiae of Nigerian life that can only be appreciated for its abnormality only with sufficient distance, it is easy to empathize with Boogey’s message and feel his frustration.

Boogey says “No Country for Dreamers” is for the person for whom the sound of generators has become reality, and there is no better analogy for how the dream is actually a nightmare.

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Listen to Boogey pay his respect to Chester Bennington on a new “Numb” cover.