Men Are Crazy: Simi & Tiwa Savage's Sassy Rendition of the Love Paradox

Nigerian artistes have finally jumped on the wagon of collaboration and the result can only be positive. Across the board, the followers of Nigerian music are beginning to see the products of newly widespread artistic chemistry. In a rare one, nightingale-voiced Simi features the ever-present and incredibly talented Tiwa Savage in a song that tells the hearts of probably every woman on earth.

See, men are crazy! And we know we are. But there's the part to living that leaves the apt description of oneself in the experiences of partners and friends. Don't blow your own trumpet. Also, don't reveal your proclivities. When women are especially concerned, they will tell and these artistes, two of Nigeria and Africa’s finest did some justice to that.

There's nothing that sells the sound of good music like it being relatable. When every note tells the tale of the heart untold by many but captured in few words and lyrics found so close to being, and existential in every form.

Simi chose the perfect title and I'll guess it’s a natural invitation to women folks especially. What's she saying? Does she feel the same way every woman feels about men?

Oh no! She didn't say that about us! The reactions aren't expected to be the same but the basis of those reactions will be inspiringly similar.

Bringing Tiwa Savage on ‘Men Are Crazy’ sold the completeness of the artistry of these sassy women. Its videography, the delivery of those lyrics, and the choice of stylistics are some of the finest pieces of creativity I've seen of any Nigerian song in recent times.

Simi waltzes into a bar and challenges the bartender to what he’s all about, expressing her core Yoruba richness in her lyricism and mannerism but doesn't fail to mark the paradoxical nature of her stance. The perfection in her introduction is near stratospheric and builds for a taste that will leave tongues - I mean ears savouring more.

Pink, another high-flying creative on the music scene shot the video and being a woman herself, made a soft work of what she's expected to deliver. Women know what women think about men and Pink exemplifies this excellently in how detailed she captures every moment - raised eyebrows, twitched noses, ran fingers, bitten lips and more. For what it's worth, this is one song men would be forced to believe what is said just by how it's said.

“Men are crazy,” Simi sang. What follows will be the everyday conversations women have. If you've ever spent a day with women as a man, you can tell the admiration they feel for men folk but each word of praise is also laced with the realisation of the apparent craziness of men. Nigeria’s pop culture is one of the most socially vocal in the world and statements like ‘men are scum’ are not uncommon to describe male folks. However, women love to have one in their beds and according to Simi, ‘one in their heads’.

The paradox is found in her simple yet heavy words, also typically seen of women in their rage and rampage, with burning sensations of men’s well-detailed and much-publicised unscrupulousness. She says ‘If left to me, love is dead to me’. Aren't men just some necessary evil? Well, Simi in those lyrics pushes a man away but draws him closer in one fell swoop and that marks her genius and perhaps, the genius of the woman’s heart.

The paradox love is makes every feeling worthwhile and every experience close and invigorating. This song fully reflects that reality.

Tiwa Savage salvages the hush, dead moment in beats for a living but in Men Are Crazy, she doesn't have to do that. Continuing from where Simi stopped, she expressed her heart about what she feels about men. She employs some of Nigerian women’s most common street lingos and delivers them with aplomb. ‘Man go dirty your white, man go Kala your cruise’ she warns. Almost unsurprisingly, despite her forewarnings, she doesn't end without pulling a man closer lyrically when she admits the sweetness of love, and how she misses the ‘crazy’ man and his craziness when the nights are cold and lonely.

Simi isn't done. She went into the booth and came out with a slapping end to her lyrical mastery. In an apparent, albeit swift turnaround, she reveals ‘but then again’… and goes on to explain how this man tells her the things she likes to hear.

‘You say what you say and I do what I do’ tells the perfection of the love-hate relationship between men and women. Women and men in love can be so dear and daring and will revel or roll in the wonder or disgust of each action and feeling.

‘I can't be without and I can't be with you’ is the perfect paradox that sells this beautiful song… and love. It underlines its completeness and everything it means to that subject. ‘I hate that I love how I hate loving you’ explains the part of a woman’s love men passionately detest. That cold silence and numbness. It's irksome and seemingly wanton yet is usually a response to men’s craziness. Who's to be blamed?

When she sings ‘wetin you too go do… put yourself in my shoes… all the bull I been through, me no want dejavu… men dey crazy’, she explains not wanting a repeat of her heartbreak or that feeling but again, aren't men these necessary evil?

Simi agrees when she closes with “although you make me sing falsetto… and I submit cause I like head o… sometimes I too Dey forget o”. She uses that to embellish the importance of lust to love and the message is clear. ‘Although you're driving me crazy, I still call you baby’ tells it all.

Maybe we just can't do without each other and we love the necessity of the unwanted. Maybe, just maybe, men are crazy, but women love men all the same.

Adekunle Gold has revealed he's preparing a response for men. Let's wait for what he has on his sleeves but his first warning as it appears is, ‘Beware of women, may God be with you.’

It’s a consistent warning nobody seems to listen to. Men and women just seem finished, when in love.