Mode Nine is the most prolific MC in Nigerian hip-hop history.
His one decade and a half long discography, now has 16 music projects (17 if you add his unofficial debut album, 2002’s The IX Files) and Insulin is his most recent one.
But Insulin isn’t just “another” Mode Nine project, the revered lyricist says this will be his final solo project, “solo” being the key word. So with a relaxed smile and a two-finger salute on its cover, it does look like the African rap legend is half signing out, even though the music doesn’t sound like he is.
To commemorate the release of his landmark project, I’ll break with my favored style of doing album reviews, the brief one-piece prose, for the more modern song-by-song review. I learnt the one-piece summary review style from studying dozens of old Source and XXL magazines back in the day – who says it’s only Mode Nine that gets stuck in his 90’s hip-hop ways sometimes?
1. Insulin: A polymath is someone who knows a lot about a lot of things, Modo has been running with this moniker for years but even before he’d began to, it was abundantly clear that this bookish MC fits that description to a tee. The album’s chorus-less intro “Insulin” has references from a wide range of topics from football to mixed martial arts to Ricky Tarfa’s corruption case and even the Letter of Lentulus (an epistle that gave a contentious physical and personal description of Jesus).
DJ Jimmy Jatt, Mode Nine
The inspiration for the sound of the music is the same as most of the MC’s music – 90’s hip-hop from New York. Mode Nine claims he’s “bringing hip-hop back” as he links up with cool DJ Jimmy Jatt on a record yet again. “Stylee” was the first time and that was released 9 years ago. There have been a couple of records since then, thankfully Mode’s rhymes have stayed rust-free on every one.
2. Open Ur Eyes (ft. Jeremiah Gyang): Mode features two artistes on this album who seem to make music when they want to these days, one is Jeremiah Gyang, the other is Uchie. More on Uchie later. This song is storytelling Mode, the template is one story about 2 brothers who split after experiencing hard times in Lagos and went on to have very different lives in the UK and Asia. The one in Asia got caught up in the drug game and went to jail, the story of what happened next is approached from 2 angles spread over 2 verses. There’s still no one better at the art of storytelling in the business. Jeremiah links it all together with a soulful, Hausa-sung chorus. I hear Jeremiah has some more music coming. This is one of the six songs on the project that Black Intelligence produced, it has Jos written all over.
3. My Country (ft. Amuta and RockStar): Now Uchie or Uchie the African Rockstar or just RockStar. The elusive singer shares chorus duties with Amuta on the patriotic wail that is “My Country” but it’s no surprise that the song hasn’t caught on since it was released as a single since early April. If there are two sideswipes that Mode Nine hasn’t been able to shake off in his career, it’s –
i. The single selection outcomes for his projects often don’t reflect the quality of the actual project,
ii. His focus is so heavy on intuitive bars and dope samples that a memorable chorus and a matching melody are often an afterthought.
Number ii works when making a random song that you hide on the project but not on singles. “My Country’s” chorus is so painful to listen to, it’s like hearing someone scrape a whiteboard with their fingernails.
4. Chapter Four: I’m surprised Mode Nine doesn’t get a million and one of those ridiculous Illuminati allegations an hour with the depth his music goes at times. This song interpolates recitals from the fourth chapter of astronomer Carl Segen’s book Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space, a book that questions whether human beings and are a unique species and poses some difficult theories that’ll make you uncomfortable if you believe what most Holy books tell you. Chapter four of the book is titled “A Universe Not Made for Us”.
Carl Segen
But this song is not all about religion, astronomy and intellectual heavy-lifting, Mode actually touches on lighter subjects, he seems to aim fire at unnamed MC’s beneath him.
Read between the lines, it’s not a diss but if you think it is /
So be it, you can sub Mode, I ain’t listening /
5. Tha Sound: Another criticism of Mode is that songs like “Chapter Four” tend to rap “down” at the listener in a similar way that Patrick Obahiagbon talks down at his. On this record though, he absolves himself of any wrongdoing, placing all the blame for his rhymes being misunderstood at the door of the country’s ailing educational system instead. Whether you get his intricate rhymes and well-thought out themes or not, Mode reminds us that it doesn’t really matter, his core fans is all he cares about. He’s made peace with the fact that this is his sound – “sounding like another man is like wearing his boxers”.
6. Same Girl: Mode tried to position this as a continuation of one of his biggest records “Nigerian Girls” (2007) but I think this song has a lot more layers to it. Mode gets a deja vu moment every time he meets a new girl – he’s heard those talking points before, those demands sound familiar. If I’m being honest, Modo’s complaints about the women who make demands of him sounds somewhat juvenile at times but I don’t think anyone was realistically expecting the gritty MC to make a wedding song or anything remotely mushy, so hey.
7. Bye Felicia (ft. Amuta): There are 2 slangs from the 90’s that have gotten regurgitated in today’s pop culture but their originators often don’t get credited. One’s “Deez nuts” – Dr. Dre and Snoop and two’s “Bye Felicia” – Ice Cube. If there’s anyone you’d expect to know all about 90’s references, we’re listening to him rhyme. Amuta redeems herself with a more inspired chorus as Mode tells a story of how he found out his girl had an affair with a wack MC. That was the last straw in her long list of transgressions, she had to go. If you were going to sleep with another rapper, let him be better than Mode at least.
8. Don’t Cross That Line (Rmx): Last year, Mode released a throwaway track titled “Don’t Cross That Line” and he revisits the song on this album. Produced by Malawian producer Dominant One who produced 3 songs in total on the album.
9. No Matter What (ft. Maka): Teckzilla produced 2 songs on Insulin and brought his protégé Maka along. “No Matter What ” features the edgy soul singer but the song was produced by Black Intelligence. He provides a laid back sound bed for Mode to rib on everyone from fickle fans on social media to brands who want to leverage his brand but don’t want to pay for the leverage and industry folks who still don’t get him after all these years.
10. Blind Man’s Symphony (ft. Amuta Stones): Arguably the pick of the 3 songs that Amuta and Mode did together. Mode is unlooking at the haters, Ray Charles to their negative opinions.
11. MMA Bars: This is a brief lyrical take-down of his enemies with metaphors from mixed martial arts littered over a sample loop from Gotyre’s “Somebody that I used to know”. Dope juxtaposition.
12. Real MC: Floss rap but the Mode version. It’s not often you hear an MC talk cloth talk about his way of life but with such sophistication. Only Mode can talk about making it rain in the club and then turn around to talk about mathematical equations on the same verse.
13: Warriorz (Worry Us) ft. RockStar: Uchie the RockStar too redeems himself when he’s given a chorus all alone. The song is chilled, even though Mode isn’t – criticism of people with smartphones and an opinion and industry promoters who don’t respect him are recurrent themes on this project. The incomparable Mode explains his disdain for all of them on this track. “While you’re blogging your girl is taking care of me”. Okay then, it’s time to take a break from this review and give my madam a call to find out what she’s up to, for no reason.
RockStar
14. Police: A song about police brutality with a twist, rather than talking about the atrocities of his local police force, Mode talks about being given a hard time by the cops in other countries when he visited – in the UK (his country of birth) and South Africa. Dope stories, please refer to song 3 point ii to understand why it doesn’t work as a complete song.
15 & 16. Nibo and International Emcees: No, it’s not. Around the 15/16 track point, most MC’s will be rounding up their project – they’ve put in a good shift for one LP but not Mode. “Nibo” is the most musical record on the project with Mike Aremu’s saxophone adding a touch of class as Mode laments about the goings-on in the world. On the other hand, “Internationale Emcees” is a return to hardcore rap. The song was produced by longtime collaborator Jonah the Monarch but South African DJ, DJ Raiko (another one he’s worked with in the past) makes a return to scratch on the turntables, while Togolese rapper Elom 20ce gave a chorus in French to emphasize the global appeal.
17. Corny Lil’ Rappers: Mode took a portion of an interview Julius Agwu gave Emma Ugolee recently, explaining the dip in his comedic and music career, perhaps to contextualize the dip in his. The chorus samples Masta Ace’s epic “one-dimensional rappers is dead as chivalry” line that was allegedly fired off at Fat Joe when rumors spread in the 90’s that Joe had ghostwriters.
Back to Insulin though, this is probably Mode Nine at his angriest, he’s berating lesser skilled rappers too just as Masta Ace did – his delivery is quickened, his tone more intense. There are no names mentioned though, he signs the song off with “If you can get with this, then you know your onions, it’s not for everybody.”
18. Some Typah Way: What’s Mode Nine going to do when he stops putting out solo albums? I have a hunch that he’ll keep releasing collaborative projects going forward, I just can’t imagine him doing anything else. Wait, he was once an OAP, so I take that back. A number of rappers-turned producers are on this album though, from Blaise to Dominant One to Phero. Phero oversaw the mixing and mastering of most of the project and produced this song in particular. Mode boasts, “at least I’m still loving off my hobby without the Bentley”. It’s an admission that even though his career hasn’t reached the heights he’d hoped, he’s content with what he has and happy that he didn’t compromise himself at any point.
19. Rap Killahs ft. Holstar: There’s only one rapper that was allowed to lay a whole verse, that’s Zambia’s Holstar. He holds his own as they take turns to thump their chests.
20. Bird Scheme: You’ve never heard a rapper fit so many clever bird references into one song. The discipline to remain on topic without coming off as boring and the consistency to not let a single bar go to waste, it’s like National Geographic on wax.
The birds, he got ‘em tweeting like it’s they’re only mission /
I’m old-school, I send the message through a homing pigeon /
Then I tell them to watch the birdie /
This is the wack rapper roast, Thanksgiving turkey
21. Underground King (Remix): Mode Nine is the leader of the underground. At this point, you’ve heard this same message over and over on Insulin, in fact on all Modo’s projects. Mode is the illest, he’ll destroy other MC’s with his rhymes. Sometimes he does it with such dexterity that he doesn’t sound repetitive but over the course of a grueling one hour, seventeen minute listen, you just feel like he’s belabored the point – we get it, bruv. Don’t get me wrong, each song is different and unique, they’re all over different (mostly) boom bap beats, they have different samples, are delivered in different rap patterns and have different choruses. It’s just that sometimes you wonder whether he’s actually pushing himself as hard as he seemed to on, say, Above Ground Level or whether he’s just churning out the kind of records that he can write in his sleep.
Phew! That was something. If you read the review up until this point, congratulations! Chances are, you’re probably a Mode Nine fan or you really care for raw, gritty, sample-driven hip-hop music like I do. This album was made for you then or for us but there isn’t a lot for new fans to get jiggy with.
Personally though, LP’s with 20, 20+ tracks give me an instant headache from the 90’s that only Panadol made in the 5 boroughs of New York can cure – some things are just outdated.
Insulin doesn’t have the tonality and approach of a valedictory project, it still feels like Mode has more solo albums in him, he still has a lot to say. But if indeed it is, then his epitaph should read “he came, he rapped, he conquered”. And he managed to do it all his own way, the whole time.
Peace, rap god.