Survival Guilt is an original song, created from the 100 Beat Project. Inspiration meets creativity and a powerful sound was born.
During a recording camp, Sokybeat played the instrumental, then took some time to reminisce and realized, that every journey can only be understood looking backwards. Although, in his words, “but you can always hope and make plans for the future.”
In his reminiscence, he also realized that he had survived a lot of experiences he never expected to survive. That’s how the idea for the song started cooking, he even came up with the name “Survival Guilt” that same day. Immediately it clicked, and he hit up MTDA and EGPT to make the record.
MTDA liked the vibe of the instrumental at first listen, and gradually created some melody around the name “Survival Guilt”. In his words, “when I started working on the song, I was getting that Nas and Damian Marley on ‘Patience’ vibes. And in trying to create a song with that much depth, in tune with Survival Guilt, I came up with my entire part of the song”. He recorded his part and the original idea began to come to life.
When EGPT began working on the song, ‘Survival Guilt’ brought back flashes of the events that took place in the aftermath of the ENDSARS protests, that rocked Nigeria in 2020, and the absolute breakdown of law and order. He says, “It was a period when I felt complete hopelessness and didn’t even know who to fear more, the thugs or the authorities.
And with all the chaos around me, I just wanted to be invisible…hence the Chorus, Ti a ko ri (which means invisible being)” He channelled that inspiration and emotion into his part of the song. He recorded his part, and it was instantly obvious he had completed the masterpiece. The hook of the song(survivor’s guilt) was inspired by the events that took place in the aftermath of the end SARS protest and the absolute breakdown of law and order. It was a period where I felt complete hopelessness and didn’t even know who to fear more, the thugs or the authorities.
And with all the chaos around me, I just wanted to be invisible..hence the Chorus Ti a ko ri (which means invisible being)
With powerful lyrics packed with emotion, to the afrofusion instrumentation, Survival Guilt is a piece of genius you can’t miss out on.
