YABZ MASTERZ INTRO : The Genesis

This narrative is supposed to be a short one and I hope I do manage to keep it short because (really) the YM story as fledgling as it is, is a very long one and the fact that it is a story that is still unfolding makes it even longer than a season film.

But every story has a beginning and YM’s began around 2007 in UNILAG under a small shed made of bamboo leafs which at the time was situated in front of the Faculty Of Science. It was simply referred to as the ‘’ Bamboo’’. A woman known as Iya Dami sold drinks, snacks and cigarettes there. Later, she would be joined by another woman who sold rice and swallows.

Bamboo was a hangout for students and was always occupied by them except (perhaps) during exams. It was the spot where gist, arguments, gossip etc reigned. It was also where budding singers, rappers and comedians displayed their skills and it became famous for the occasional freestyle battles that always drew out even those students who didn’t like to hang out at the bamboo and students from other faculties.

It was here that the idea for what is now Yabz Masterz was born. Seeing how the freestyle rap battles appealed to a sizable number of students, some friends and I began to toy with the idea of putting together a proper show that would include sound equipments and stage set with cash prizes being awarded to the best emcees etc. We would call it One Mic Freestyle Rap Battle Championship (thinking about it now, it's damn too long!). Our desire to organize such an event was partly fuelled by our love for the art-form + the fact that we saw it as a way to make money as we were convinced that Unilag students wouldn’t mind paying to see such a show.

Long story short, it never happened. Everyone moved on with their lives, each carrying his cross. My own cross? I couldn’t stop believing in the dream. I couldn’t move on or away from it. As the years passed and I grew older, the idea grew with me and the vision became clearer and bigger. And rap battle morphed into comedy battle. One Mic bla bla became Yabz Masterz (keeping long story short).

Now that’s about it for the origin of YM. This is what it is right now + going forward : an event/ t.v programme that aims to showcase and promote an Oral Sport called Yabbing which essentially involves two opposing sides making use of wit, humour and wordplay to compete fiercely against one another until the better Yabber or funnier party emerges.

I like to liken it to a court room argument between prosecuting and defense lawyers or a literary debate. For Yabbing is as much a mental exercise conducted orally as these two, except that it is a lot more fun.

Now, in case the reader has become confused by the interpolation of the words Yabz Masterz with the word Yabbing, I shall explain. Yabbing is the act or activity as described above while Yabz Masterz is the branded platform that showcases and promotes this activity. For example, football is an activity that involves the kicking of a ball while the Nations Cup is a platform where this activity is displayed. Get it?

As we move along with the promotion of this concept into the Nigerian mainstream, several other dimensions that makes it very critical to the Nigerian society particularly at such a time as this will be brought to fore but I shall touch on just one of them for now.

Obviously, this Oral Sport called Yabbing is an extension or expansion of comedy as an art-form. It is basically comedy battle, which simply means a battle between comedians. The logic behind it is simple - comedy appeals to us as Nigerians, it helps us laugh off our sorrows and stressful lives the way most Nigerian music helps us dance off (or away) our troubles. This in return has made comedy a viable business in Nigeria. Now, our aim is to leverage on this and expand the opportunities available in comedy to create more options in this sub-sector of the Nigerian entertainment industry by first of all (s/o to Olamide) recognizing it as a human resource unique to Nigeria, that has the capacity to create wealth and generate employment.

This is in-line with global expert opinion and government’s new thinking that human resource capacity development must be emphasized while mineral resources (which in Nigeria’s case is oil) is de-emphasized for real economic prosperity to be attained.
Nuff said.

Deji.