Intro by Truth
Ola who? That was the first thing I thought when I heard about this guy from Detail. Searched about him on the web and I got a lot of praise from fans hailing him as the next Da grin and for some reason, a lot of fans loved the fact that he’s being managed by Toni Payne. Is he worth the hype? Is he Da grin re-incarnated? Not quite. Olamide crafts a style for himself on RAPSODI and makes the album a solid debut and worth the listen.
Detail: Truth, think you are taking this Toni Payne thing too personal. My point is, will and has always been that given Toni’s track record there must have been something in Olamide hence the whole hype. As for the Da grin related acclaim- I think it was a residue of the huge loss felt by the hip-hop community and their desperation to fill the vast void left by Da grin. Did Olamide achieve that? Detail says NO
Truth: Ok…really want to counter your last point because I think he created his own sound on this album…but ride on
LYRICS
Detail: Lyrically speaking Olamide may reach the heights of you-know-who probably with five years under his belt and at least two or three records in between. It seemed to me that the idea of a Nigerian ‘A millie’ didn’t work out well for Olamide’s rap as he seemed burned out in all the other tracks. I’m not saying he was serving us conductor punchlines (do I know what I’m saying? Be imaginative) but just don’t be deceived by that single: Olamide doesn’t have that much punchlines in his arsenal and even at times when he clicked, he lacked consistency. But it must be said he’s got sweet rhymes on his shoulders and the Yoruba/english collabo is so so perfect. His lyrics on Woman were very touching although he sounded a bit arrogant.
Score: 3.35/5
Truth: Well, I think I agree with you to an extent on this one. Although his wordplay and metaphors are not extreme, he does show deep level of thought with lines like “Na every Mike Tyson get he own Holyfield”, on the track Responsibility. So I think in the lyrics department, he’s not quite there but he still scores above average.
Score: 3.5/5
PRODUCTION
Truth: Cabasa does the bulk of production on this album and it fits Olamide’s style very well. Would love to see a little diversity: looking forward to what comes out of an Olamide-Jesse Jags collabo. But overall, Cabasa does a great job from catchy tunes like “Jara on top” and gospel tracks like “Lift Him high”, which could easily become a church chorus due to its church-like Melody. The album is a testament of Cabasa’s expertise behind the boards.
Score: 4/5
Detail: Well Detail feels that the only thing production-wise about Rapsodi is ‘attention’ and Cabasa did just that. Not that this was not a good effort but really I don’t think Cabasa improved much after that long over-due hiatus. Woman is okay, Kelegbe is as expected, Apa ti jabo could be termed unnecessary show-off. But if one sheds light on the matter, this ‘uni-production’ credit gave this album a lot of consistency and general feel that may hinder you from changing tracks. With that said, I expected Cabasa to be a trend-setter with this album but I’m keeping my fingers crossed. The features on the other hand to my knowledge were totally irrelevant. Infact all the features were irrelevant except Woman ft. Jumoke (yes I know, that’s my favourite track). The album is a perfect cacophony of different voices left, right and centre it’s difficult to fathom why. Jumoke and Wizkid were enough to me but probably Toni used her wide network in the industry to give us all these unnecessary garbage. Poor Olamide.
Score: 3.75/5
Truth: Woman with Jumoke? Yak!!!! That lady’s voice is not it at all and her vocal range is amateur at its best. That was an unnecessary track: even the narratives on the verses were childish. Don’t think Toni Payne used any influence to get features because apart from Wizkid, Nice and Terry Tha Rapman, other guests are relatively unknown but still manage to add value to the album. Check Responsibility with Adol, Soundtrack of my life with Soul Joe and Legendary Hustlers with Nice & Reminisce. Please, features were on point. Except of course, Woman with Jumoke.
Detail: The ugly Truth all up in your face is that the song is very emotional and rich in real-life drama that’s plaguing our hanging-by-the-thread society. Like the chorus says ‘she’s meant to be cared for’. I really think it’s a nice one for the ladies; yes you can’t dance to but the song really speaks to you. My best track by far.
Detail Average Score: 3.55
Truth Average Score: 3.75
TOTAL AVERAGE SCORE: 3.65
i love u brother