The trained Lawyer-turned all-round entertainer has become a cultural phenomenon.
Falz is a multi-functional, multi-talented creative who has conquered the several industries, including social media and PR.
When a friend, Gbolahan Borokoni first mentioned his name to me circa 2012 as the son of renowned Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and human rights activist, Femi Falana, I was cynical about another rich boy taking the shine.
The moment I played his songs, 'Currency' and 'High Class' there was something about his type of rap and personality — not least his confessed crush on singer, Chidinma circa 2013.
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Who is Falz?
Real name, Folarin Falana was born on October 27, 1990 in Lagos State, Nigeria to Chief Femi Falana and Barrister Funmi Falana, renowned Nigerian Lawyers and people’s rights activists.
While attending Olashore International School, he formed the group, “The School Boys” with his friend, but his professional career began in 2009.
His full name is Falz The Bahd Guy and he is signed under his own record label, Bahd Guys Records.
After his secondary education, he proceeded to the University of Reading, England for his tertiary education in Law, completed in 2011.
In 2012, he was called to the Nigeria Bar after completing the compulsory one-year program at the Nigerian Law School, Lagos and completed his NYSC at the Ministry of Justice, Lagos in 2013.
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Career
Since 2012, he had dropped four albums. The first one, tiled Wazzup Guy dropped in 2014 which had the singles Marry Me and Ello Bae.
Since then, he has dropped Stories That Touch, Chemistry EP — a collaboration album with singer, Simi, and the 2017 project, 27.
While his career started creating a buzz in 2014, when he started making comedy skits for his social media pages and that carved him a different path entirely and led to him acting.
These videos are usually voiced by his alter ego, Broda Taju from Ilawe-Ekiti, Ekiti State. This accent mimics the tongue of the typical Nigerian and his many sound mismatches and h-factor, all for comic effect that landed him accolades in the court of public opinion.
He appeared on Funke Akindele’s acclaimed TV series where he played Segun ‘Shege’, mimicking his Broda Taju alter ego, which perfectly complimented - Akindele's character - Jenifa’s equally terrible accent, perfecting the comedy for audiences.
In a way, the show achieves his usually palpable passion to canvass societally relevant topics; sometimes, sensitive and sometimes, borderline necessary.
The role led to him winning his first Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards in 2016 for Best Actor in a Comedy Movie/Series. He won another Best Supporting Actor gong in 2018 for his role as Quam in Tope Oshin Ogun’s 'New Money'.
His elements
At the root of Falz’s element is a natural multi-functionality that stresses originality, creativity to represent the tenets of our troubled and equally interesting society as a specimen.
Every piece of creativity he finds himself in reflect these tenets and it all seems natural as recreating in different shades; evolving for newness has never been had and he seems to always find a way to remain relevant through all he does.
A 2017 article on Urban Central said, “Falz has managed tko. Make a handful of songs address societal ills, vices, issues and conscious trends with anecdotal essence, destined to resonate with the human mind.”
I can’t help but agree. It is simply a wonderful reality that an artiste has managed to stay relevant of making vertically appealing dance music to all classes of people, while simultaneously talking about socially charged topics.
At the start of his career, his ordinary comedy skits were never just comedy skits. Even the one where he talked about his girlfriend missing her period reflects the pressures on a man to produce in a society packed with negatives.
His movie roles also manage to address these same ills as Segun was the guy who liked Jenifa, but Jenifa was not interested in as he was not ‘cool enough’ until he traveled out of Nigeria.
It is a common societal truth of women missing good men over simple perception of their exterior and what they look like.
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Recently, his songs, 'This Is Nigeria', a refix of American Rapper, Childish Gambino’s song, 'This Is America' addressed the many socio-political and empirical ills of our problematic society where nothing goes for nothing.
His follow up single, off his 27 album, 'Child of the World' basically caused a storm on social media while equally wringing endorsement across board.
The song addresses a young girl, raped by her own uncle, who then becomes a sex addict from the trauma that ensued from her bitter experience.
Sadly, it led her to become HIV positive and that angered the feminist, pushing the song itself. It seems Falz’s creations just move after he sets them in motion and that’s the beauty of it all.
Interestingly, he is also someone you cannot box into a corner as he is equally adept at rapping in pidgin, English, Yoruba, and even French as we recently discovered.
As if that wasn’t enough, Falz managed to create a wonderful roll-out for his new single, 'Sweet Boy' by inaugurating a masculine association and slang for positivity, Sweet Boys Association.
Customarily, the song is also pushing itself on these streets as our women are once again triggered by the very sight of the song, association, and slang as documented by Pulse on September 17, 2018.
Before then, his songs like 'Regards To Your Mumsy', 'Something Light', 'Karishika' and 'Soft Work' have addressed, pedophilia, toxic femininity, ‘spirit wife’ and success respectively
In 2017, his comments about Nigerian singers praising Yahoo Boys while on a red carpet created a storm on social media and in real life.
Falz isn't stopping anytime soon. He recently made a statement that he will continue shaking the tables by creating controversial music and we are happy with that.
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