Album – Sounds from the Other
Side
Artist
– Wizkid
Record Label – Sony/RCA Records/Starboy Worldwide
Producers:
Sarz
(‘Come Closer’ ft Drake, ‘African Bad Gyal’ ft Chris Brown, ‘Sexy’, ‘Sweet
love’) Del B (Gbese' ft Trey Songz), Spellz, worked
alongside Dre Skull (‘Daddy yo’), DJ
Mustard (‘Dirty Wine’ ft TY Dolla Sign), and
Major Lazer (‘Naughty Ride’)
Duration – 40 minutes
Released Date: 14th JULY 2017
For a lot of Nigerians, Wizkid is the one with the
requisite talent and skill to lead the charge for globalizing the African
sound. I cannot think of a better representative than a boy who went from being
E.M.E’s gem to becoming the boy wonder of African music.
With his previous projects (Superstar and Ayo), he
had shown how much of a special talent he is, as he followed a fine pattern of
career progression, using one project at a time to conquer the Nigerian and
African music sphere. It was his sophomore album (Ayo) that he began his
expedition to the field of global music, by featuring international superstars
like Drake and Tyga. He has now worked with several other
international superstars including Chris Brown and R.Kelly. His
second collaboration with Drake got a Grammy Nomination; it won several
Billboard Music Awards, while ‘Weezy’ stretched his hands to collect the
biggest awards in Africa. His push to globalize the African sound has so far
been aided by the deals he signed with Sony Music and RCA Records, to get his
music distributed far and wide outside the continent.
So, with Sounds From The Other Side, he probably
aimed at serving music lovers, especially those outside of Africa, with refined
African sound. Wizkid planted his
flag firmly in North American soil after guesting on Drake’s UK funky-celebration “One Dance.” With Drake, communion is often interpreted as
wave-riding—or, more unflatteringly, cultural appropriation—but this wasn’t his
own discovery. He was paired with WizKid by grime impresario Skepta, when they both hopped on a remix of WizKid’s 2014 “Ojuelegba.” This collaboration wasn’t
about Drake looking for another trend to engage with, it was about WizKid’s
globalist, genre-hopping vision. That point of view hits with precision on
WizKid’s stateside debut Sounds From the Other Side, a world party
blending pop, R&B, dancehall, and Afrobeats, a descendant of the West
African funk genre Afrobeat (no S) popularized by Fela Kuti.
This fusion has caused some derision. Fellow Nigerian pop star Davido, who is also experiencing some crossover success,
lambasted Sounds From the Other Side for being “pon pon,” or leaning too
heavily on music styles outside of Afrobeats to appeal to an international
audience. But pop’s global harmony—or, hegemony, depending on how you look at
it—means learning how to blend and, look, even Davido is making tracks with Rae Sremmurd and Young Thug.
TRACKLIST:
Tracklist:
1. Sweet Love
2. Come Closer ft. Drake
3. Naughty Ride ft. Major Lazer
4. African Bad Gyal ft. Chris Brown
5. Daddy Yo
6. One For Me ft. Ty Dolla $ign
7. Picture Perfect
8. Nobody
9. Sexy
10. All For Love ft. Bucie
11. Dirty Wine ft. Ty Dolla $ign
12. Gbese ft. Trey Songz
Bonus Track:
13. Bring It Back
Post a Comment