A LEXICO-SEMANTIC ANALYSIS OF EEDRIS ABDULKAREEM'S ‘TELL YOUR PAPA’ AND ‘NIGERIA JAGA JAGA’

Abstract

This study examines the lexico-semantic features employed in the songs, ‘Tell your papa’ (2025) and ‘Nigeria Jaga Jaga’ (2004) by a Nigerian hip-hop artiste, Eedris Abdulkareem. It investigates how Abdulkareem employs lexical choices, semantic fields, Nigerian Pidgin English (NPE), metaphor, irony, and code-switching to construct social criticism and articulate the lived experiences of ordinary Nigerians. Despite the growth of lexico-semantic studies on Nigerian music lyrics, most analyses remain synchronic in focus, examining a single text from a single period. This leaves a significant gap in the diachronic dimension of lyrical language. This paper addresses how lexical meaning and lexical choice evolve across time in response to shifting socio-political realities. Using a qualitative research design, the study adopts Cruse and Stubbs’ lexico-semantic theory, and draws insights from Fairclough and van Dijk’s approaches to Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), in order to identify recurring lexical patterns that encode themes of political corruption, economic hardship, insecurity, and institutional failure. The study reveals that across two decades, Abdulkareem's lyrical language reflects a consistent ideology that foregrounds the suffering of the Nigerian people, and holds political leadership accountable. The findings show that Abdulkareem's use of Pidgin English, lexical parallelism, and semantic intensification serves not merely as aesthetic choices but as deliberate discursive strategies for political activism. The study concludes that protest music constitutes a significant site of linguistic and ideological resistance in Nigeria, and that diachronic lexico semantic analysis offers a productive framework for understanding how artists sustain, adapt, and sharpen their critical voice across time and across changing political landscape.