Toyin Falola
Nigeria has one of the richest cultures in the world today. Its culture is vast and diverse. This could be because of its multi-ethnicity. Aside from the variations in every culture, there have always been common grounds where members of the society adopt and use a word uniformly. This shapes the local parlance that only Nigerians can fully understand in communication. The need for certain words to describe situations or pass a message probably stems from the need to describe something exceptionally good in Nigeria, beyond conventional language use. At some point, Nigerians have made English seem inadequate, with various instances of finding a socially acceptable or befitting way to make a point.
In context, the average Nigerian needs no explanation to understand what “omoooo see as lyrics dey cry” and “money na water” mean, among other local parlance. A song can be good, a dancer can be talented, and a man’s spending can be impressive. Still, when the reaction is strong enough, it becomes unbefitting in the Nigerian way to express these feelings using conventional lexicon. The meaning would not hit as it should.
One cannot reiterate how socially acceptable these words have become. Interestingly, expressions like this need no explanation. Its meaning is understood immediately when it is spoken. If somebody says lyrics dey cry, the audience is unlikely to wonder why the performer or songwriter is sobbing. Never would anyone think of this. You understand immediately that what this means is a compliment for the acts beyond what a normal lexicon could convey. It means the act or performance is unique and deserves your attention, even if you have not heard it yet. The same goes for other instances where this expression has been employed.
Take, for example, a friend sends you a song and insists you listen to a particular verse. In a typical scenario, you may have heard the song several times yourself without taking note. And perhaps at that time, your ears caught that part. You paused and listened again. At that point, you understood your friend was right to be that excited.
The phrase is particularly useful because it suggests an enthusiasm beyond what a more measured compliment would have conveyed. Saying a song is good gives your audience information. However, describing how good it is, saying that the lyrics dey cry, lets them hear something more. It is like saying a meal was delicious and insisting the cook be located immediately. Both statements are positive expressions of approval, but only one suggests how good the meal was.
Of course, lyrics are not the only things that can inspire this kind of slang. A dancer can perform a set of movements on stage with flawless grace, and people start paying more attention to the rhythm than the beats. A person can arrive at a social gathering and become the highlight with a level of uniqueness or “drip” that gets people talking long after the event ends. In all scenarios, the subject of interest changed. However, the expression serves the same purpose: to communicate that ordinary praise will do little to convey the impression being made.
To have a balanced perspective is to make a small but necessary distinction in this subject. It is imperative to convey that these expressions do not always mean that something is uniquely excellent according to some universal standard. Sometimes it means that the person relaying the event has been thoroughly impressed. As much as the phrase conveys the extraordinary, it does not always mean the same thing in many cases. A brilliant performance may earn the description because of its unique themes, while extravagant spending may earn it because of the scale. A word flow may mesmerize the audience for reasons beyond logic. This happens a lot. In context, the phrase is not the judging lens. It is a befitting reaction of an audience in love with an act.
This explains why it works across different settings. The restrictions of an agreed definition do not limit the phrase before it can be used. It is a flexible lexicon that expresses a moment’s intensity in natural language understood by its users. It can be employed by people of all categories without restrictions. In all cases, the initial reaction has already been communicated.
This is perhaps one of the advantages of street language: it gives its user a way out to communicate effortlessly outside the confines of conventional word use. A user can express their thoughts, and how strongly they feel them, without needing to be formal. This flexibility allows a calm acknowledgment of the sort of excitement that will be insufficiently expressed through formal words. Local phrases like this work best when “good” is no longer sufficient.
So, when you next hear somebody say lyrics dey cry, or doings dey cry, among other forms of this expression, it is useless to start thinking about who has been reduced to tears. It is rather more appropriate to seek why the speaker chose to abandon ordinary praise for something more expressive. To fully grasp how they feel, you may ask for the song, watch the dance, or see the doings to confirm. But no doubt, before any confirmation, you already know better than to expect something less. Whatever it is, the person, through their choice of words, has already communicated its extraordinary nature.
Acknowledgment: Dr. Yemi Ijaola, a Consultant Cardiologist at Lagos State University Hospital, introduced me to this slogan.
Superb writing