African rap music has come a long way and when thinking of African rappers, two come to mind – Stanley Enow and Jovi who have managed to stick in the minds of central African music lovers for as long as nine and ten years respectively.
Although Jovi has been in the game consistently as far back as 10 years ago (or more). The coming of Stanley into the industry was unprecedented and unexpected.
This is a coming that didn’t only give hope but equally breed a contemporary beef that doesn’t seem to go away eight years later! Stanley did “put Cameroon on the map”, but that wasn’t only a win, it was the begining of many problems!
Over the years, it’s been rumble upon rumble, between the fan base of both artists and while team A believes that their artist is the “Best”, team B has equally shared the same thoughts but about their artist, which has not only created tension and beef, but has gone on to create fan based “gangs” that support their favorite artist. These “gangs” have also been supportive to the community and the Mboko Gang is dominant in that regard, as well as making other fan bases non-existent!
Apparently, if you picked out ten fans (i.e. five from Stanley’s camp and five from Jovi’s camp), maybe two of them would be able to give you concrete reasons as to why these two (Stanley and Jovi) have been at loggerheads.
Fundamentally, you can’t separate both from their abilities to stay relevant over these years, but you can separate one from the other when talent and reasons for choosing music as an art is concern.
If you asked me, the common thing Jovi and Stanley share in common, I’d say their songs “Hein Pere” and “Don 4 Kwat”. Songs that have been a center of the debate over the years. Besides these songs, I’m afraid i can’t site any more similarities except consistency and hardwork are to be considered.
“‘You can’t compare Jovi to Stanley Enow… You can’t compare Don 4 Kwat to Hein Pere…” – Qualer Fale.
Though the above is a sarcastic post by Cameroonian blogger Qualer Fale, the truth in it is that Jovi and Stanley Enow are only compared on the basis of two songs: #HeinPere and #Don4Kwat. Besides that, there is hardly any other song as both are not in the same trajectory and neither are they chasing the same goals. Jovi believes he’ll sit in Cameroon, make it and why not win a Grammy from home with “Mboko”. Stanley believes in going to the mountain, and so has he…
When Stanley blew up, he did so via Hip-Hop. A breath of fresh air which brought belief to many young rappers. That was the only song similar to the kinda of music Jovi does till date. Stanley has since then switched lanes and engaged more in singing while Jovi has stayed true to the course of hip hop. So howbeit that these two are still in the same Convo?
In a country like Nigeria where we have popular comparisons involving Wizkid, Davido and Burna Boy, it’s easy to factor who’s doing better given that all three have the same kinda genre and audience. They’re all doing Afrobeats and it’s the same kind of music but in Cameroon Jovi and Stanley still getting in the same convo is something that is supposed to be dropped already.
These artists won’t even keep the same kind of legacies nor maintain the same kind of relevance when they’re gone. When both won’t be here no more, it’s obvious whose music would be sampled more. It’s obvious who’s more musically gifted based on academics and practicability.
It’s obvious who has made more contributions to the contemporary industry based on impact. It’s obvious who has international collaborations and more international recognitions and it’s obvious who has a better discography and who has better Public Relations (you can name the rest). When you look at these factors, there might not be a comparison between Jovi and Stanley Enow anymore.
The author of this write-up might not be all correct, but if you were to actually give us similarities between Jovi and Stanley musically, what would you say both share in common?
Jovi revealed that his album is 90% complete. This will be his fifth album. On the other hand, Stanley who is currently in the US just recently released the long official video for his latest song Parapariparo.
