I am interviewing rappers for an article I'm doing about the electricity problems, or 'lite' as they call it, in Lagos.

"NEPA office got no lite how them wan take dash me?" (Even NEPA, the National Electric Power Authority, has no electricity in its office, so how are they going to supply me with any?) raps Terry tha Rap Man, a young rapper who I met in the mall this afternoon.

Terry tha Rap Man is easy to get to know: his first name is easy to decipher (Terry) and I have no cause to call him by his surname (Mr Tha Rap Man). Harder is Modenine, or Mode, as I forced myself to call him yesterday. Even worse is Six Foot + who I am meeting tomorrow. Do I call him Six? "Nice to meet you Six"? Or does he go by Joseph, Fred or Adesinya? How does one ask without sounding a pratt?

The meeting I am really dreading is with a hard-sounding woman, who shows up on my iPod as Weird MC.