😊
The top 10 have been announced, and I won't be winning any money
so here are my essays. They were fun to write.Here's the list of shortlisted entries for #TheCriticChallenge2017 cc @Catchoris @joeyakan @drwill20 @theChiaman @IAkinseye @MsSalamatu pic.twitter.com/UVpbLJ93RD— CREETIQ (@creetiqafrica) June 3, 2017
Music Review
by @tosinbird: For You by Cobhams Asuquo
As expected, Cobhams Asuquo’s album is divine. Whereas you might have expected to visit
heights of ecstasy, stirred by glorious musical arrangements and operatic
vocals, this work surprises by being divine in a different, more Biblical,
sense.
Titled ‘For You,’ the album opens with ‘Make
Our Hearts’, a simple hymn performed with sparse piano and vocals like
something from an Anglican Sunday morning.
The piano is adequate and the voice is Cobhams’ that is to say, a very
nice voice.
Track 2 ‘Here It Is’ pops a bit more – there’s
guitar and percussion and a tale of urban stress backgrounding this worship song. It should be easy for this to be adopted by
congregations worldwide, just as we Nigerians opened our hearts to American
worship recordings back in the ‘90s.
Cobhams has stylistic maturity and so we can
predict the arc of the rest of this album – even more style, more ‘ginger’ and
assorted spices, and sometimes more ‘pop’-sounding but still sacred music. Indeed, Track 3, ‘Highly Lifted’ features a
foreign artiste Aaron Lindsey and sounds like something from the Maranatha!
group on whose music many Nigerian Christians of Cobhams’ generation were
reared.
Track 4 ‘No One’ features Nosa, a darling
Nigerian artiste specializing in Gospel music, but the more salient guest
artiste is the Caribbean feel on this tune.
There’s also a backing choir doing Yoruba praise lyrics. Altogether, it’s subtle and very
beautiful. Altogether, this album is
subtle, avoids showing off, and instead devotes itself to simply providing
beautiful ‘praise and worship’ material to last through the ages.
‘Oh How I Love You’ follows, and it features
another American, Claire Hendershot. The
next track ‘Let Your Kingdom Come’ is firmly in Christian Rock territory with
the acoustic-guitar tingling throughout, while the title track (07 – For You)
is essentially a 21st-century psalm:
Like the river needs the stream,
Like the grasses need the dew, Like the sailboat needs the wind, Oh Lord my
soul thirsts FOR YOU…Like a desert needs the rain, etc. Here the mystery of the album title is solved
- this work is not a gift ‘for you’ greedy, grabbing child; it’s dedicated to
capital Y-You, capital G-God.
Track 08, a cover of the popular ‘More Of
You’ is heartfelt and heart-stirring.
Then follows ‘Glorious Deliverer’ a straight-forward stripped-down
worship tune, and another cover - ‘Here I Am’ To Worship…Halleluyah.
Track 11, Ordinary People, was released as a
single, with a video, two years ago. The
singing is slightly more dramatic on this track, still, trust me, Cobhams’
voice is a top-notch instrument and capable of far more. I wish you could hear him when he’s not actively
hiding the power, texture, and sheer nimbleness of his voice.
Track 12, ‘Eyin Sa’ follows, a deep worship
offering, a somewhat still and silent and appropriately reverent piece. Then we have another cover, of a hymn you may
remember from Catholic church: ‘Praise To The Lord’ The Almighty The King Of Cre-ayy-tion. This features Hendershot again, and they
share a fine male-female duet with enough tempo and heft to fit in a little
non-black, neighbourhood church service in America, or pop-channel and
shopping-mall music in a country like Nigeria that does not mind sacred music
in public places.
Track 14, ‘Angels All Around’ was recently
released as a single, also with a video.
It shares its simple message and some whistling and la-la-ing - three
minutes of that - and it’s the end suddenly, of the whole album.
The world is moving so fast that one wonders
how many people have time for this sort of simplicity. As you know, the answer is – truly millions of
people. Do you love Jesus and/or enjoy
worshipping God? This album is like King
David returned to add to the psalms.
This is the first album of music performed by Cobhams, the maestro
producer who over the past decade has touched so much Nigerian music performed
by other artistes, turning every single piece to ear-fondling gold. He deserves to have the intended audience
find this work.
~ * ~
Music
Review by @tosinbird: Life Is Eazi Vol. 1 - Accra To Lagos, by Mr. Eazi
Life is Eazi.
What do you say to this
philosophy?
Just say: Zaga That! Then you’re welcome to our club.
On the other hand, many people
would object strongly to you saying that life is easy, or (misspelled) eazi, or
that life is anything but strife and stress.
Ask many Lagosians and they would say: Life is Hustle. Or (mispronounced) ‘Ozzu. These ones, who in fact need this album the
most, would probably be the last to consume Mr. Eazi’s product – a chill pill
in music form.
By now you should know Mr. Eazi
– his real name is Tosin Ajibade (nice name, Tosin) and so he’s Yoruba, from
Nigeria, but sometimes he gets confused and thinks he’s Ghanaian because that’s
where he learned how to really chill out and eat banku or whatever inferior
imitation of Nigerian food they eat out there…and now cheesy people will bring
up the jollof wars again. Spare us. Nigeria is the Giant of Africa, end of
discussion.
You should know Mr. Eazi by now
- his voice is rough and strong and smooth, like ale, alomo without the excess
bitters, and he collaborated on these super-amazing recordings – Bankulize
featuring PappyKojo, Skin Tight featuring Efya, both produced by DJ Juls, and
more – that were adored but all more-or-less underground one or two years ago
until all of a sudden this goofy Eazi guy’s photograph was everywhere and Wizkid
who was newly sort-of world-famous was signing him.
Both of these tracks –
Skintight and Bankulize - are amazing.
Neither is on this album, but you can find them, with adorable visuals,
on youtube. They show talent, promise,
and oodles of swag. What do you call the
charm of a chocolate-skinned handsome and lean guy with a sort of raffia hat
always there on his head or hanging behind his shoulders? Aboki swag?
Cowboy swag? Cool Fulani
herdsman?
Now to comment on this album
labelled – Life Is Eazi – The Mixtape - Accra To Lagos: It seems my gorgeous
African brother and namesake Mr. Eazi has recorded the same song – same beat at
least – times fourteen, and called it a mixtape. Why
would he dare do that? Well, keeping it simple
worked for Wizkid and may work again here.
Do you remember that Ayo (Joy) project, the Wizzy-platter
marketing something called ‘Afrobeat’ or ‘Afrobeats’ - whichever name you
choose? It was a rather jumbled album
but effective as a sampler of Wizkid’s style, designed to introduce him to specific
global audiences and help him find a place in their music marketing categories.
Did it work or not? Ok, so now his team is likely saying let’s
try that formula again, in every way, starting with the earth-toned album cover
and ‘not doing too much’ with the music.
By the way, I adore the cover
photos on both albums: the coral-bead-wearing “Fela girls” and shabby mud house
and traditional clothing on Wizkid’s cover, and the ‘Ghana-Must-Go’ bags sewn
into ‘agbada’ that Mr. Eazi wears in a mock chief-attire on his front cover. Inside he poses with a casual jacket made of
blue bag-material. Always the hat.
In the album/mixtape proper, I
love him singing ‘I understand your needs, I understand your needs’ on ‘Right
Now’ – Track 13 of 14, which is the one, the shining, the stand-out track on
this album. Oh that voice! I remember now why I have a crush on the
guy. I don’t know, would YOU marry
someone just because he’s intelligent and hot and sings beautifully?
The rest of the music has:
-
some
words but not many really because it is eazi-er to repeat the same ones.
-
a computer simulation of a nice happy person
spanking drums kaa-kaa-kaa-ka-ka forever, but you won’t believe, they’re not
all the same producer. I exaggerate a little
– there are lovely times, rhythmically, on Track 07 ‘Accra to Lagos’ for
instance, and there’s even a saxophone feature on Track 09 ‘In The Morning.’
-
featured artistes like Falz, Olamide, Phyno, and
Tekno, of Nigeria and presumably Ghanaian artistes like Mugeez and Medikal.
-
funny moments like Mr. Eazi saying bumbum on the
very popular ‘Leg Over’ – Track One; saying
pint (the way the street pronounces pant, underwear) and bumbum again on ‘Detty
Yasef’ Track 08 where Falz is not his uproariously funny self; and DJ Cuppy
playing Eazi’s girlfriend on Track Six which may not be funny to you.
The truth is I’ve rooted for
Mr. Eazi from Day One, and I’m not about to stop now.
Omo wa ni - na our pikin. Open door make ‘im enter.
~ * ~
Summary, both albums are very just-ok work by far better than ok artistes. Oh well.
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