A Careful Review of Skales Man of the Year
Everyone will agree with me that Raoul John Njeng-njeng has been around for quite a while now and has rightfully paid his dues in the music industry in every possible way and aspect that one could possibly think of in terms of:
Management: from his hustle from Jos to Kaduna and then finally to Lagos where he got signed with the powerhouse label EME headed by banky w to his now current and fully functional label “baseline entertainment”. He has served well and exceedingly under the banky w record label till he was finally let go.
Hustling and Respect: he has paid his dues in terms of hustling from his “heading to a grammy” to “mukulu” and finally “shake body” his breakout hit. He was indeed also very respectful in terms of his humility, I mean he was still humble to those who even came before him and blew up before him he was still very respectful till he was finally famous.
And I must confess he was really due for a classic album and that what he just did with the “man of the year album”, phew must say that was way above a very decent album with an array of fine songs which includes:
Skales | Another Round: The first song of the man of the year album, with boasts of him always going for another round when the people keep feeling him, it has groovy upbeat tempo tune.
Skales | No Condition: This has as an Igbo kind of beat to it, this song sees the talented rapper, singer and song-writer talking about his struggles, from his mum selling to properties to cater for him till things got better. The message passed across in this song is that no condition is permanent.
Skales | Fa Ra We Mi : on this pure hip-hop beat which has a chorus perfectly laced by Kenny Wonder he talks about his work pressures, the stress and problems associated with making it. He talks about the pain behind the fame.
Skales | Happy: this highlife beat sees the young talented artist telling us how his success has made him happy and joyous always and always has him thanking God everyday cause his happy and no more tears in his eyes.
Skales | I Forget: in this mild beat with a subtle kick and a single piano cord striking intermediately skales talks about him forgetting all the pain, struggles and rejection he went through while trying to make it.
Skales ft Burna Boy | I’m A Winner: this Hip-hop beat sees the former EME soldier rapping and singing about him a winner, not just now but forever. He also talks about how he proved all his critics and haters wrong my making it after much speculation about him not making it.
Skales Ft Do 2D Tun | intro: here the popular lagos OAP recites some powerful and inspirational words about life.
Skales | Koyewon: The Yoruba translation reads “they don’t understand” he raps and sings on the groovy and samba kind of beat bragging about how they don’t understand the way he balls and runs his parade, I mean they just keep loving everything he does.
Skales | Lo Le : is this party up-tempo beat he praises a girl hoping she would agree so he can lo le whatever that means no one knows, it also has an African recitation to it which makes it more fun to listen to. Well let’s hope the girl agrees to his wooing and praises so he can lo le.
Skales | Naughty: this Igbo highlife beat he talks about the way a girl’s body gesture makes him wants to go down whenever she wines her waist low, he sounds like he want to do some bad things to her.
Skales Ft Victoria Kimani | OMG: is this mild rnb hip-hop beat he brags about the way his girl thanks him for handling her body well and still begging him for more, begging him to touch her body and hit her from the back while she screams. Victory Kimani adds very beautiful ad-lips to the song which can be faintly heard in the background while still murdering her verse.
Skales Ft Ice Prince & Phyno | Swagger Man: This song has skales rapping to the very fast up-beat tempo hip-hop beat here all three artists brag about their lifestyle in every way possible telling how they roll and ball.
Skales Ft Capital Femi & Rotimi | Turn You On: in this very melodious and sweet rnb beat he talks about him not giving up till the girl he’s been chasing finally agrees and give in to his woe’s and advances, the remaining artist also sing about same thing they do until their respective girls give in.
Skales | What’s Up: This old school highlife hip-hop beat sees the “man of the year” owner trying to ask a girl what’s up about her love whether she is up for grabs or she is taken cause of the way she is whining and shaking her butts.
Skales Ft Reekado Banks | Wonder: Skales talks about him been a wonder and that’s why the girl should choose to roll with him cause his a better man with better prospects in life and as such girls always flock themselves around him.
Skales Ft Attitude | Your Body Hot: basically on this party beat the baseline act raps and sings about how hot a girl’s body is but what confuses me in this song is that he also talks about people looking down on him back then, don’t know if it’s me but I think the album title is inappropriate. Beautiful infusion of an Indian beat to it.
Skales Ft Davido | Always: On these very beautiful piece it see’s they two superstars trying to beg their girls for not always being there for them cause of their busy schedules as explained by video. At the same time they still trying to tell their girls that though they not always there their love for them is always.
Skales Ft Olamide | Ijo Ayo: phew finally the only pure Yoruba beat has the heading for a Grammy singer and YBNL baddo talking about how they always dance, dance of joy because they’ve finally made it out of the blocks.
To conclude the man of the year album was not just an ordinary album, it was a complete album as it had all genres of music, ranging from Hip-Hop, Afro-Hip-Hop, Blues, Rnb and Afro – Pop. Indeed it was really a classic album with lots of conscious content, braggadocio, sassy, and love, real and deep lyrics perfectly infused and blended into each song with their different beats.
One thing to note here that could kill the album; is poor promotion and marketing, dropping a good album is one thing, promoting it is another thing, he could take a cue from kcee who after dropping his album embarked on a massive promotion which included shooting of videos, interviews, touring, contest, auto-graph sessions, free give-aways and online publicity.
Is skales truly the “man of the year” or “man of the moment”? Well that’s left for all of you to decide as time goes on.