Wizkid ‘The predictable kid’| Album Review

Album- 'Ayo' (Joy)
Artiste: Wizkid (Ayodeji Balogun)
Guest Appearances: Akon, Tyga, Banky W, Phyno, Seyi Shay,Femi Kuti and Wale.
Record Label: Empire Mates Entertainment (E.M.E)
Year: 2014

Regardless of the fact that we all have a right to freedom of expression, I think it's a criminal offence to wickedly and baselessly criticise any intellectual work of art, because a lot of time, effort and creativity goes into it. On the flip side however, if you have kept your fans eagerly anticipating an album for over three years, shifted the release date countless times as it was the case with Wizkid, then you should know they expect nothing but pure magic from you.

His love for his mum

Wizkid shows a rare and unmatched love for his mum in this album. With two dedicated tracks 'Mummy mi' and 'Joy' for his mum, it simply means he truly loves her and this is not the kind of love you can fake, it definitely comes from a sincere and genuine place. Not forgetting his mother again gets generous mention in 'Ojuelegba,' the emotive song about his hood and beginning of his journey.

The sound quality

If there's one thing you can't fault in this album, it has to be the sound quality. You can proudly take the sound of this album to the moon and back and you'll still be proud of it. A lot of kudos and respect should be given to the guy who mixed and mastered this album known as Suka Sounds. You can practically hear all the drums, baseline, kicks, synth and snare that come with each track.

In my bed

Make no mistake, there's no formula to making a good song anymore, gone are the days when a song must have two verses, a bridge and chorus to be complete, if Don Jazzy could make 'Dorrobucci' a hit song with 7 different artistes, no chorus and one directional beat, then anything is possible. However, 'In my bed,' the 3rd track on the album is proving to be one of the break-out songs on the album but I think it's a confused song. The title and verses portray the song as a love song and then Wizkid goes praise singing on the chorus, making the song look mixed up and giving it a cacophony of discordant tunes.

An album of 19 singles…

In street parlance, all the songs on this album are quite good, and for a new artiste, all the songs could very well be individual singles. Wizkid has just made a compilation of dope singles, with no storyline, no message, no personal songs, no skits.

Song arrangement

The arrangement of the songs is quite intelligent too. Wizkid did a good job in the arrangement of this album. The best songs started the album and the least interesting ones were pushed further down.

Producers

Another faultless department in Wizkid's Ayo album is the production. The producers came correct on this album. A total of 8 top notch producers worked on this album and you can't really find a fault. Sarz, Uhuru, Spellz, Legendary Beatz, Maleek Berry, Dr Frabs, Del  B and Shizzi all gave a good account of themselves in terms of the quality of beats they brought on this project.

Conclusion

Times are fast changing, music evolves and as an artiste and individual, you need to constantly rejuvenate and re-invent your style else you'll become stale, boring and predictable. And the moment you become predictable, it becomes super easy to anticipate your next move and counter it.

Wizkid remains the same old Wizkid we all know on this album, the style of singing is the same, no wow factor, no climax, nothing out of the ordinary, nothing spectacular in Wizkid's delivery.

Pundits have argued that he did this because it's his last album with his current record label, E.M.E and his next and soon-to-be-released album under his self-owned 'Star Boy' records would be the spectacular stuff. Well we patiently await.

Rating 3.5/5