Veteran hip hop artiste, Mode 9, detests being put in a box. Call him a rap artiste and he is quick to correct you that he is a lyricist and a versatile one at that. With four albums to his credit, the artiste, who recently put out two new singles — Street Runner and Paris Freestyle— off his forthcoming album, is not relenting in his wit in wordplay, catchy rhymes and punch lines.He’s been around for a while, plying his music trade and mentoring a crop of new up and coming singers. However, in the last one year, the artiste , who once had a spat with rapper Rugged Man, failed to put out any album or single and this in turn led to rumours that he had gone bankrupt and was no longer relevant. With many Nigerian artistes generating a bulk of their income from shows and gigs, just how did the artiste who survives solely on music get by?
