Billing culture: Nigerian rapper eLDee takes on modern dating in I Wish You Well

If there was any doubt that “ billing ” has become central to Nigerian conversations about dating, money and gender, eLDee the Don has supplied a new soundtrack with the song I Wish You Well .

I study the intersection of popular music and politics in Nigeria. eLDee’s 2011 youth mobilisation campaign The Politics of Our Time was central to my analysis of electoral consciousness in the music of democratic Nigeria.

The rapper, singer, producer and label boss hasn’t released much music in the past decade.

This time his subject is not electoral politics or poor governance, but the hot topic of billing: the expectation that a man who expresses romantic interest should also finance a woman’s needs and lifestyle. eLDee has gravitas.

He occupies an important place in the history of popular music in democratic Nigeria.

Through the Trybesmen and the broader Da Trybe movement, he helped shape Nigerian hip-hop in the late 1990s and 2000s.

Songs like Plenty Nonsense , I Go Yarn , Bosi Gbangba , Big Boy and One Day combined entertainment with sharp observations about social aspiration, politics and everyday life. eLDee’s musical and political legacies formed the core of my chapter’s argument in The Politics of Laughter in the Social Media Age.

I Wish You Well continues that tradition through humour.

Assisted by comedian Lasisi Elenu , eLDee narrates an encounter with a woman he has barely met.

She first asks for a loan, saying her car has been towed and that rent is due.

The requests soon expand to travel, designer goods and other markers of luxury consumption. eLDee recognises the script and wittily declines the role assigned to him: I ain’t the one.

I wish you well.

The song has further popularised the discussion about the relationship between romance, consumption and gender in Nigeria.

Its use online is also extending to a wider conversation about having to financially support others, including relatives .