Album review: Olamide – YBNL

Album review: Olamide – YBNL (YAHOO BOY NO LAPTOP)

     Interestingly, Olamide did not forget the exact route that led him to the current stardom he is enjoying, following the same concept as his debut; Rapsodi on his sophomore album YBNL. In the features he’s had earlier this year, he displayed a diverse energy on songs with the introduction of drastic aggressiveness in his delivery. Despite the fact that he seems to be concentrated on the amount of cash flow and number of shows call-up he is earning, YBNL is a subtle pointer to the fact that he’s not really paying attention to what ought to be revitalising at this point in his career: His lyrical prowess.

     The album kicks-off on a nice note with a nicely synchronised Wale’ Ambition on Money giving a lucid explanation of his daily routine as a hustler on the street which some what sounds like a skit, nevertheless it was enough to provide an apposite transmission to the laid back brag-infused fucking with the devil where he rapped with a Reminisce alter-ego.

Olamide continued with his alter-ego sampling this time around with a lively delivery. The various imageries he tried portraying on the Buckwylla assisted lights in the air were all elementary as they virtually seemed too be grandiose compared to it’s intended meaning. Buckwylla on the other hand had an energetic verse and hook, handling both with utmost dexterity giving it a pleasant reggae feel.

While he continued to tell stories on street love, owotabua picture, and the anthemic jale, they are all a variations on a theme, besides some guest on the YBNL maintained a guest status all through, while some others acted like they were the host. The likes of Davido and Tiwa Savage were really not at their best, Kay Switch brought life to the tape when everything seems to be monotonous bringing a dance hall vigour to Remember.

He outwitted himself on ewo idi were he chose to sing and rap, while a little production error on Fuji House which had Dammy Krane doing the same thing he did on Overdose’ I Like Your Way ruined what would have turned a very nice party rocker, though the combination of strings and other elements were all okay, but the ineffective bass line destabilized the song.

     Teaming with controversial rapper, Reminisce and Baseone on industreet has him dragged into the protracted Reminisce-Vector on-going beef. He brought out the beast in himself as well as in the other two, but not without stepping on the toes of Vector.

Perchance the only thing that changed in him aftermath Rapsodi is the aggressiveness and a little compromise in his lyrics. Avid listeners probably might have noticed those changes as it added cohesion into a basically attenuated style he started with, even though he didn’t completely exploit it to the optimum despite having a lethal track arrangement.

“they call me five star general/hustler I’m martian/emi oun form diva/ shey mojo Kim Kardashian/gogbo show ti mo ti lo I killed ‘em with passion/” – “it is well I got back up plan/galagala/in the name of the father, son and of the holy spirit/omo oro legbe church/I pray to God that I make it to heaven for going through hell/ let my success shame the devil” ­­–Jesu O Kola

DOWNLOAD LIGHTS IN THE AIR 

DOWNLOAD STREET LOVE 

Thots (tha wordsmith)

Tha Watcha

"As E dey Go" by Tweezy (Tha Bohemian)

"As E dey Go" by Tweezy (Tha Bohemian)   

      Guess what Gospel (Producer of Davido's 'All of you') said to Tweezy after they worked on 'As E dey go'?
      He said "Hope you realise you've just recorded a hit?"
     After listening to the song about a hundred times back to back on receiving it, I'm under the astute impression that Gospel is a really sincere guy.
     From the stables of Shockwaves Entertainment, 'As e dey go' is Tweezy's second official single, sequel to 'More than ever' which blew up the blogosphere with mad and exciting reviews (Word has it that the video to that song is already in post production). 'As e dey go' is a harmonious merger  between simple but tasteful lyrics by a singer who i daresay knows his craft, a quick-tempo, feel good beat, and the awesome production skills of one of the finest in the game. Ladies and gents; Please brace yourself...It is clear we've got another classic on our hands!




To read Tweezy's complete bio, please follow this link:    

 Introducing Tweezy (Tha Bohemian)

To download his new hit single, 'As e dey go', please follow this link:

'As E dey Go' by Tweezy 

Thanks!

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FLOWERS FOR YOU by Segun 'Owcee' Israel

     Before we rummage into this piece proper and swing by its poetic tendrils as real literati should, i think it might interest you to know how i came about this poem, or more aptly, writer. It might surprise you to know that Segun was my bunkie some 10 - 12 years ago in Federal Government College Lagos. He sent me a Facebook message a couple of months back asking if i remember the poem i wrote for him while we were just some bloody Jajarians in check blue shirts and brown Nylon trousers. Paranoid homophobics, keep calm. God forbid that i should write a love poem for a 3 legged creature like myself. If i remember correctly, there was this chick he was trying to 'toast' and he felt a poem might just do the trick.
Naturally, i immediately asked him to send me some lines from the poem if he still had it. surprisingly, he did. When i read it i thought to myself: Hmm..Not bad, for 14 year old me. He quickly went on to add that he has done some closet writing over the years himself but wasnt even sure what to do with them. Naturally, the opportunist in me wouldn't let such info just ride on by into the sunset. After much mental arm-twisting, i finally got this one out of him. This one is strictly for the ladies... Muaah!




FLOWERS FOR YOU    by Segun 'Owcee' Israel
once,
these roses stood alone
in faraway lands.
Lonelier than us who think we're alone,yet filled with pride.
Their beauty springs as day with no witnesses around.
I have come a long way,
back to the place i call home,
the place where you are.
I do not have much to give
but i have come with these flowers,
and with the crafts i have learnt in this long coming
i have woven a basket with the daffodils, hycinths and shamrocks of many lands.
I have bounded the roses with stripes of gold
and laid them in the little basket,
and in my weaker arm i stretch out the posy
as a fraction of my heart.
Please home if you're still coming home,
come now, come at once
Lest these flowers wither,
lest my body hungers further
for the warm embrace of ur breasts.

Shout-out to everyone else who's ever jotted down a creative line or two. Isn't it time someone other than your diary read your works? It just might surprise you how good it really is, and who knows where things would go from there. Please feel free to send same to laylow1388@yahoo.com to get published on this blog and showcased to the world.
I do this 'cos i believe there is a giant on the insides of each of us. It's high time you let yours out...

Album Review: D’Prince – Frenzy

Album Review: D’Prince – Frenzy 

 In some recesses of D’Prince’s mind, I bet all praise and adoration goes to Don Jazzy as far as his musical career is concerned. Nonetheless, I maintain that their relationship is a symbiotic one as the hit single ‘Omoba’ didn’t hurt their financial coffers at all!

Don Baba J definitely brought his A-game to the table of Frenzy, the long over-due debut of this Mavin stalwart who we cannot help but remember to have started off as a rapper. Da Prince does a good enough job with his singing- perhaps, he’s not your typical vocalist, but truth be told, who listens to the high notes these days? All the people seem to want is to be entertained! Regardless of becoming famous for his sub par rhymes on songs like; wad up, Ooze, molowo and omoba, he had no qualms repeating those same calibre of lines on Frenzy on occasions where he tried rapping, but the fact that producers such as: Spellz, Baby Fresh and Josh Beats enlisted on this project helped to mask those shortcomings. The inspirational Journey of a Thousand Miles had Wande Coal delivering a very sonorous and memorable hook with Don Jazzy providing an adequate back up vocal to an already energetic song where listeners were encouraged to never give up on their dreams. Another good one was ‘Bad girls’

Undoubtedly the album started on a promising note with his focus on the afro pop genre. Getting the party started comes easily with Goody Bag while the Dr Sid assisted Amina maintains the tempo already earmarked by the former.

The comfort he showed while singing is glaring on tracks like: the standout Africa Zumba, believe, and call police which continue with the party trends already laid from the start. He was left at a crossroad which left him in a conundrum on whether to completely rap or sing somewhere along the line.

These contributed to his shortcomings on Real G which has him spitting trademarked dope rhymes that lack depth as well as being to be too soft to satiate the deep yearnings of the real hip hop heads. Although they are primarily not his target audience, the fact that MI was at his all time worse also tarnished the song. Painting the town red saw him doing the wrong thing at the right time as he delivered a lethargic hook. He tried to recover on his verses, but in the end it was Wizkid that brought the song to life. Makes you wonder if it was a wise choice doing that collabo in the first place as no one really loves to be out-shined.

A genuine mainstream album with much concentration on entertaining audiences, Frenzy did not fall flat on this with its efficient blend of contemporary African music with Pop. However, the fact that it made mockery of the rap genre on songs like: Overdose and Jonzing, Shower, and No more sleeping on ‘em and Wiz kid also not helping matters in what looks like an improvised delivery, might raise listeners eyebrows against Omoba’s song writing skills.

“Night would come, but day must break/ nobody above mistake/ see for this life na give and take/that’s why I’m grateful for every breathe I take/you don’t have to be told wetin you go do/you just got to decode wetin you go do/don’t be waiting to be told/ there’s a story to be told”.

Arguably, this 21 tracker is a bit too lengthy and some of the songs weren't worthy to make it there in the first place. If all you're after is mainstream entertainment, then you'd most likely love Frenzy, but if you're a sucker for artistic ingenuity and intellectual depth, i'm afraid you might not find that here. Better still, form your opinions by listening to some of the tracks. Please download below.
Ciao!

Download Goody Bag 

Download Real G 

As always, these are just our own humble views on the matter, let the world know what you feel by dropping comments below. Thanks!

MY OWN

MY OWN

My pain is my own

I know it intimately

It is with me all day

like a member of my body.

The world smiles at me in desperate oblivion

I, too, a weak smile must now return

“Let sleeping dogs lie” I say

because at the end of the day

it is an unwritten agreement

that my pain after all, is my own

and I must know it intimately

My dreams are my own

that I struggle hard to achieve

I’m in my head all day

scheming, strategizing…

Everybody looks at me in scornful derision

“Me and my castles in the air”, they say

Well, when it’s all been said and done

like it applies to everyone

my dreams after all, are my own

that I struggle hard to achieve.

Withered Orchid

       It's funny i once won a writing competition back in College for writing a piece i titled 'When less is more' (http://thawatcha.blogspot.com/2012/01/when-less-is-more.html) but when i read this beautiful piece, dredged up from the frontal lobes of the enigmatic David 'Davinici Da Bohemian' Iruoje, i got even deeper insights into that school of thought. This is not the type you gloss over hurriedly. Let the words sink in, syllable by syllable. Each conjuring emotions so strong, so heartfelt, you sometimes need to close your eyes so it touches the right spot. Take this one like the physician's potions...dose by dose...

Withered Orchid

        

    "...and then she died". 

     She always loved eye-shadows of different shades. I used to find them gaudy. She wore a different colour every other day. 

     "D, what do you think of my..."   "...whatever", I would retort, "we are already late for the outing". 

     That was five years ago in Kaduna. I remember walking along Kano road, Kasua when an old man offered me an odd looking albeit beautiful plant. "They bring good luck, but they do not last long" he said to me in hausa. I ignored the man and his plant.          

     She took ill one day and began to fade. The moment I set my eyes on her, I knew. Intuitively, I knew. The doctors gave me a medical treatise on her illness. "she is responding, isn't she looking healthier today?". Empty tests and meds. Bottom line; her illness confounded them. A month at most, they deduced. But she endured three months. 

     She always wore those eyeshadows even then. She lost her power for speech, but I could see the pain emblazoned in her eyes. I was broken. I was with her one of those days, looking at her weak form when I noticed the eyeshadow. It was Jade-green. "beautiful", I thought aloud. There was a queer look in her eyes, and then she smiled weakly. She handed me an envelope from under her pillow. A small note. "hey D, I'm glad you like them, I have been 'dying' to hear you say they are beautiful. Love, Jessy". I smiled sadly, I think I laughed, laughed at the grim humour, and I wept because I understood...>

....And then she died. 

That evening, it was a friday, April 7. I have always wondered how the dead manage to look so timeless in death, but she was better, you never saw a more beautiful corpse. The day she was buried, the heavens wept. I walked away from the graveside like a drugged idiot. Someone was speaking to me, "did you see, the corpse?, I've never seen eyeshadows more beautiful on the living".

 I looked up at the grey sky and said "yes, they are indeed beautiful..."

      Please drop comments below by clicking on the 'post a comment' button. Tell us your take on this piece, we'd seriously love to hear from you! If you don't have a gmail/google account, just scroll down and click on 'anonymous' or 'name/url' and input your name where requested. 

     Perhaps you're also something of an underground wordsmith yourself and feel like coming out of the closet, well, no better place to start than on this blog. just send in your write-ups to laylow1388@yahoo.com Connect with 'tha watcha' on Facebook by clicking on the 'like' button to the right of this post.

Thanks and God bless!

Tha Watcha.