74. Mohbad: A Brief Blessed Legacy

On Mohbad's EP, Blessed

Two years ago today, Mohbad released his second and final Extended Play album, Blessed. The cover art of the album was a striking portrait rendered in red. Mohbad wears a mustard-coloured shirt, his eyes closed. His profile misty as though he is behind a barrier. His left hand is raised; fingers fanned out.

Mohbad died less than three months after this album was released. The art direction then acquired an eerie interpretation. What seemed like a surreal Hitchcockian iconography became a prescient nod to the spectacle that awaited Mohbad, his music and his body.

As we speak, Mohbad’s remains have not been buried. His father recently filed another unclear case in court. Since his son’s corpse was uninterred, Daddy Mohbad has been a regular fixture in the media space. He has granted countless interviews, adopted several conspiracy theories regarding his son’s death, including accusing his son’s wife. He has released a tribute album. He has racked up numbers on social media to the extent that he has become a minor influencer. He has crowdsourced thousands of dollars to fulfil the agenda of the hashtag #JusticeforMohbad. He has done everything he can to taunt and taint the artistic legacy of his late son. He has behaved in a manner unbecoming of a grieving father in Yoruba culture.

It can be said that Mohbad publicised his relationship with his father. Mohbad’s first EP, Light, opens with these words, This kind life e tire me/Daddy no get Salary. The song is the juju-influenced tune, ‘Sorry’, a belated apology to a father, told from the viewpoint of a prodigal son from a broken working-class home. Mohbad’s words are understated in their searing declaration of facts. Ten years I no see mummy/ Stepmother no care/Landlord e dey worry/My brothers are hungry.

Although Light’s lyrical concerns pivoted into hedonism, ‘Sorry’ set the tone and standard to which Mohbad would aspire. Blessed opens similarly, with ‘Beast & Peace’, his take on the duality between good and evil. This opening salvo was charged with anger, commentary and stories about what was going on in his musical career. He and Marlian Records had parted acrimoniously in the previous year. There were allegations of threats and coercion to use psychoactive drugs. Mohbad’s mental health was fragile, with reported suicidal ideations.

Blessed was supposed to be his comeback album, his victory lap. Deep into ‘Beast & Peace’ he shoots ‘fake niggas’ by making mouth machine gun noises, then salutes his friends, many of whom would be persons of interests after his sudden death.

I have struggled to beautifully render the opening lines of ‘Sabi’, my favourite Mohbad song. Woni ki wa baba to sabi/Kowa weori me ko to sasi. Here again, I have been warned to seek the counsel of Babalowo to fortify my head against evil spells. You may ask, what is the business of a genre known for sexual dalliances in dancehalls with this kind of paranoia? I have asked that question too, what was Mohbad articulating when he sang, Ki lode o jere mo ma jaye me ko to fun fere? Was he aware of an ending in sight?

Blessed is not all paranoia. ‘Account Balance’ brags about financial prosperity. Featuring Zlatan, Mohbad’s opening quatrain was easily the hardest bars dropped in 2023. He had mastered deploying the still silence of declarative sentences for delivering effortless puns with deadpan humour. In his love song ‘Omo Mi’, he chronicles a turbulent romantic relationship. It is a tender tune, with some ambiguous messaging suggestive of consensual non-monogamy. In the aftermath of his death, Mohbad’s lyrics have been mobilised to suggest infidelity by his wife.

The title song, ‘Blessed’, is close to gospel but not without some declarative and deadpan facts. In fact, Mohbad leads with it.

Hear,

Doctor want you sick

Lawyer want you in trouble

Na only thief dey pray make you dey successful

On the irreverently onomatopeic tune, ‘La Pio Pio’, 90s tune ‘Lakukulala’ by Fuji maestro General Kollington Ayinla is inverted for a playful commentary on fairweather relationships. Perhaps his best lyrical work, ‘Ask About Me’, brings to full focus all of Mohbad’s musical influences and troubled biography. It is a triumphant tune about running his detractors out of town. Sadly, he died within four months of releasing this song.

His cause of death remains fuzzy. The autopsy reports are not conclusive. As a medical doctor, this is not unexpected given the circumstances. The best guess was that he reacted fatally to an injection given by a quack nurse. He needed the injection in the first instance for physical injuries sustained at his last concert in Ikorodu.

With an incredibly slim body of work and controversial life history, Mohbad’s story continues to capture our consciousness in the way tragic stories do. This piece is to refocus us on his music, its irreverence and prescience. I pray for the repose of his soul. And I pray for those who pursue justice on his behalf and their behalf. Here is a word from the Holy Book, “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill.”