Artist :
Wizkid
Album
Title:
Ayo
Label: Empire Mates Entertainment
Release Date : September 17, 2014
Last week saw the early release of Wizkid ’ s
anticipated sophomore album ; a 19 track
release , a third of which consists of songs
that have been out for at least a quarter.
Most listeners would have heard those songs
before , as such they interrupt the intended
flow of the album .
Show You The Money, ( a track that sees
Wizkid ’ s best delivery for a while) , is
followed by In My Bed . The second half of
this song sounds exactly like the
aforementioned track , down to the melody he
uses. Mummy Mi is a decent track on its
own , but dude drops a line to his mother on
almost every other song on the album .
Ojuelegba is the standout track on the
album , a chilled mid - tempo production by
Star Boy ’ s in- house duo , Legendury Beatz .
This track is a delight , it samples Leon
Haywood’ s I want a Do Something Freaky To
You , a joint first sampled on Nuthin But A G
Thang by Dre, which serves to make it more
appealing, I ’ ll be playing this song for a
while. Kind of Love follows , this song is
plagued by the same issue others are , lazy
song writing , the melody is pleasing enough
but if only more effort was put into crafting
the song in its entirety.
The second third of the album has only one
pre released track , On Top Your Matter, this
song was sweet when it was released at the
top of the year, it remains so . Seyi Shay and
Akon are featured on different tracks , on both
songs Wizkid was underwhelming , on In
Love , he could not match the vocal
playfulness of Seyi Shay nor could he rise to
Akon’ s easy delivery on For You; that said ,
For You is a song I’ ll be playing again .
Akon’ s turn on this track is worth whatever
he was paid.
Dutty Whine feat . Bank W. This song is
terrible, there may be a chance that it bangs
in the club because when the Remy ’ s in the
system every song sounds great , but in the
cold light of day, this song is really bad . The
next track , Ki Lo Fe , I skipped too , it left so
much to be desired. Omalicha, another lazy
song, skip . Bombay Feat . Phyno , it’ s alright
as club songs go. One question feat . Yemi
Sax is lovely; the kinda song that makes the
sun not as hot as it feels . I also like
Celebrate . After this song , Joy is the next
track worth checking out ; yet another ode to
his mother , on its own , no problem but on an
album where Mama Ayo is shouted out at
least 6 times, with 2 songs dedicated to her ,
it’ s a little much . The foreign collaborations,
Akon aside , did nothing to enhance the tracks
they were on. Tyga and Wale both phoned in
their verses ; nothing remotely memorable
here.
The glaring thing here is that there is no
overarching theme for the album . The choice
of songs and their arrangement is not what
one would expect ; too many songs sound the
same or like they belong on a giveaway
project .
There is hardly anything of the man Wizkid
on this album . The art is bland, its delivery
largely pro forma , repetitive lyrics ,
unimaginative riffs , etcetera. Ojuelegba is
hot because it marries a soothing mid tempo
beat with a glimpse of his backstory , same
goes for Ayo . If longevity is a concern of the
artist ’ s then his pen game needs to improve
markedly. It ’ s not enough to make club
bangers where the beat makes up for his
lyrics ’ deficiencies . An album is supposed to
be versatile art that lends itself to moods and
situations; that cannot be said of this work.
Of the fresh material, only three songs are
compelling enough to warrant revisiting :
Ojuelegba , For You and Celebrate . The album
relies too heavily on the familiarity of the old
joints to prop it up, as such it falls way
short.
This album is rated 4. 5 out of 10.