Monday, May 11, 2015

Brymo's Lines

Person wey dey take time, e go fit make time ...
Omo o, s'e ti gbo ohun mo so, ofo l'aye o, ofo l'aye o, ofo l'aye o, ofo.

I like to eat my cake and have it.
I sexed my girl, she liked it.

Ijapa o ni'bi t'o nlo...
Ko gba'gidi.  O ro bii A, B, D.
Eni a yin'ni, aa yin'ni.  Eni o ni yin'ni, ko ni yin'ni...

The poor man wants his space / The rich man wants the place ...
Everyone gets to die.

And those are just the subtle ones. 
There are many more,
like the chorus from the Yoruba 'Ara mbe ti mo fe da.  K'araye ma pa kadara da, o nbe, o mbe!' that always has me jumping. 
'Prick no get shoulder' which is of course, well, yeah, you could check your prick, no shoulder, right? 
http://lifelib.blogspot.com/2014/03/my-latest-pastime-is-laptopera.html
The Son of a Kapenta;
click on the images always :)

The whole Se B'Otimo song (Ijapa o nibi to nlo...) is pure gold, and to be honest the entire MDS album.
Son of A Kapenta is his first 'popular' album (but really his second album, he says), and it's great but not mindblowing at first, the talents - songwriting, singing, storytelling - are a little smoothed out, then in my case getting used to his music in later albums made that first album shine more brightly. 
http://lifelib.blogspot.com/2014/10/midnight-playlist-sweetest-albums.html
Tracklist: Merchants, Dealers, and Slaves
Everybody says Tabula Rasa is a wonderful album, which it is, it's amazing, but Merchants, Dealers, and Slaves is beyond!  O guitar.  O voice.  O that sick transition from track 1 to track 2.  O wisdom, in English and Yoruba, in comedy and tragedy.  O that voice - owo owo owo owo o, on Money (I dey think about money...if Adenuga come go broke).  O how pure this album is - very light on production, very perfect.  
http://lifelib.blogspot.com/2015/02/valentines-day-tekiti-easy.html
Tabula Rasa (the Gift)
The last Brymo concert, I asked my parents out to see it.  (Nice! Lucky to have parents, you know.)  I told them he was kind of a modern-day Jimi Solanke storyteller-singer.  It was a cosy 'unplugged' session plus a keyboardist, guitarist, and conga drummer.

Another post, some other day, on how incredible it felt to be at Jazzhole learning the meaning of everything then dancing a bit, digging his weird arm-pumping dance that he does while singing, and his little life story that tells and shines; he does great with serenades and love (Good morning omoge, tell me how d'you do, or this beauty: Se o le se'be Pound kan, ayanfe mi gan gan, ... mo ni'fe re ni gan an) but I'm not joking when I say in one evening - in one minute - I learned the meaning of it all, of life, of 'energy', Jesus and Mohammed.  But I'm not telling you.

Mum loved the outing and everything.  Dad liked the music, he loves Brymo's most popular music, he loves a lot of stuff (Yaaay, daddy is 60 - so fast!) but what we found at the end of the evening - dad had chosen to believe that the guy on stage was some dude doing covers of other great people's songs because no way that simple young boy in jeans wrote Ara, sang Oleku, wrote the nice love songs and the deep sage songs.  I gave dad the look, like, yeah, like I'd bring you to see some counterfeit joint, man ;)  I'm becoming my father hehehe.  I remember his Fela days and vinyl record days (Dolly Parton, but otherwise mostly black people with afros and stuff) and the disco tape I inherited from him in Primary Six (oh joy!) 

Since we're on the topic of Brymo, what's your favourite Asa album? 

Advertisement: Read my books. ###Three Sisters, novel #1 here###

1 comment:

t said...

ah yes, translations.
omo o / Child
s'e gbo ohun mo so / have you heard me?
ofo laye o / life is naught

ijapa o ni'bi t'o nlo / the tortoise is not set on getting anywhere
...
ko gba agidi / no strain required
o ro bii A, B, D / it's easy like A B C.

ara mbe / there is a wonder
ti mo fe da / that i want to display (do or show)
ki araye ma pa kadara da / let the (evil) world not reverse what is written (destiny)

se bi o ti mo (Se Botimo) / but you already know (or, you know, right?)

owo / money

omoge / beautiful (maiden)

se o le se'be Pound kan / can you (hope you can) cook a pot of soup with (just) one pound?
ayanfe mi gan gan / my only dear chosen one
mo ni ife re ni gan an / i have so much love for you

Enjoy Brymo.
And when you enjoy Asa, you should get her unauthorized album too (Down On Me) ; it's at least as fine as the other three (Asa; Beautiful Imperfection; Bed of Stone)