STREETMONKS “Street Life” was everything music is suppose to be
Words by Sesan Adeniji
I woke up this morning humming ‘Street Life’; only a few songs in this hip-hop era could have held me that spellbound.
For those privileged to witness this single debuted as an audio and also saw the video when it made landfall in 2004, it was everything music is suppose to be. The group Streetmonks made up of Ruffman and T-base delivered on this debut single.
I remembered traveling with the duo to South Africa to attend the 2006 Channel O Music Video awards; the rate at which fans gravitate towards them was unbelievable. This was at the height of the Question Mark Records dynasty in the Nigerian music industry with the likes of Asa, Mode 9, Silver Saddih and producer Cobhams Asuquo all in their book. Despite the malheur end to their record deal, In trying to relive the great moments Streetmonks shared with the industry, I recently had a conversation with Ruffman, to take me through how the group was formed and all they achieved.
“It all started when I was signed on to Question mark in 2004. While working on my project with the whole record label team, I introduced to them T-Base who was originally a very talented member of my crew. Realizing we had a great chemistry together performing on stage and working on songs that transcended into making dope records, Question Mark jumped on the opportunity and merged us together in the group Streetmonks.
Gbenga Sokefun who was then Vice President of the label and also my personal manager, reoriented us on what the label wanted in-terms of sound and songs. We yielded to the advice, incorporated our ideas into it and we hit the studio almost immediately with the multi talented Cohbams. The first major music we released was “Street Life”; although the reason why it later came out on the imprint of Questionmark Allstars, is a story for another day. That song introduced us to the world and topped charts making it to the number 3 spot on MTV Base ‘World Charts Express’.
The sophomore track “I salute “which earned us a nomination for “ Best Reggae/dancehall” at the Channel O Spirit of Africa Music Video Awards along side legends like the late lucky Dube (RIP). With production credits from Cohbams, Dr Bernstein and Paul play, we released a 20 track album titled “Ghetto philosophy “which propelled us to unimaginable heights. It were among the great moments in my life”.
Nice write up street monks. Please come back fully
I was right there in Orile Iganmu where some part of the video was shot. The duo was a great team. The song was a blast. If only the platform didn’t collapse later on…Ruffman is a rare breed,blessed with lyrics and great performances. God bless him and Tbase
Naija wasn’t ready for this kind of music back then. It was real, raw and uncut.
I don’t know if some else has mentioned this.
The name STREETMONK was originally the personal name of R.U.F.F.M.A.N. This great artiste, who is an addict of good music, especially reggae(both root and dancehall), rap and soul music sees music as a weapon and through profound lyrics has inspired a lot of peeps(me inclusive). Atimes he can be as lyrically deep as NAS, rhythmic as JUNIOR GONG MARLEY, and as soulful as NINA SIMONE ( these are some of his favourite artistes including ERYKAH BADU, BUJU BANTIN, THE FUJEES, SADE ADU, etc.), yet has his own unique sound… he did a collaboration with T.BASE (who is one of those singers I personally wonder where they are and why they ain’t topping charts presently because he is very good both lyrically and rhythmically), and that song did so well and “someone” saw the need for them to remain a group cos they sound well together. Hence, street monk was adopted as the duo’s name. They were a great inspiration to up and coming artistes in their locale(Orile Iganmu), where they had friends and colleagues like SOSO SOBEREKAN, CAPTAIN, etc. They were amongst the first Nigerain artistes to have a world standard music video under Q.M record label. I was privileged to have appeared in the video of “street life”. I think I have to stop here now, I said enough. Lol.
NICE