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Music patriots, Wizkid is not doing it the way you think he
will. He isn’t chasing the ‘Nigerian’ sound’ that you had high hopes that he
will.
He isn’t doing ‘Tungba’ music either. What he is chasing is
totally different from the sounds that many Nigerians
expect him to push.
Instead he is going the way of the Caribbean, and creating music that is cool
experimentation of their dancehall template.
We saw this happen in ‘One Dance’, where Drake appropriated
Dancehall for profit, and Wizkid played multi-faceted role in it. Then he
pulled it off with Tinie Tempah on ‘Mamacita’. Before flirting with Justine
Skye in a way that is totally not Nigerian on ‘U don’t know’.
But it is ‘Daddy Yo’, his single from 2016, that should have
set the alarm bells ringing, or rather, hit you with the resignation in the
fact that Wizkid is chasing a different route with his quest for ‘international
exposure’. Wizkid relies on the classic
Reggaeton beat as a base, before layering it with a melody that is both forward
and immersive. Then there’s the chorus taken by Efya.
On newly leaked song with Drake ‘Hush up the silence’, the
Caribbean vibe is on again, with Wizkid owning the riddims from the moment he
opens up his mouth.
“Came into the game, no one replace me/Mi love mine and she
straight with no chaser/I love my guys, know mi all about mi paper/Mi got mi
girls all around me, mi no chaser, yah/Starboy, call me number one/When mi tune
drop, the girls, they bounce along/Mi no like nothing come between me and mi
paper/So when mi come inna di place, mi undertaker,” he rhymes.
Drake too continues where he left off on the “Views” album.
He is all reggaeton and chill on the record. “Too mix up in drama to go
outside/Too mix up in drama to free my mind/Jealous people around me, I need to
change my life/I just turn colder every time I try/What would I do without you,
my chargi?/I don’t feel that way with anybody/Tell me your secrets, I’m not
messy/Steady it for me, girl, hold steady,” he spits.
Drizzy and Wizzy continue their chemistry from the smash hit
single “One Dance” off Views, which went four times platinum and was number one
on the Billboard Hot 100 for 12 consecutive weeks. And it shows that Wizkid is
working on a ‘Caribbean’ strategy to win the US market that he so desperately
wants to operate in.
While doing that, he slowly loses the sounds that are closer
to home, and comes through as a Nigerian artiste who is embracing the Caribbean
template, and giving off his own redefinition of it. That’s a strategy that
provides international audiences with a vibe that is both recognisable and
proven to work. Only this time, its coming from a different vessel – The 'AS
Daddy Ayo Balogun'.
Wiz is currently working on his forthcoming LP Sounds From
the Other Side. And has already promised 4 mixtapes in 2017 to set him up for a
prolific output. But he continues to embrace the Caribbean for inspiration,
rather than the sounds closer to home.
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