ALBUM REVIEW: DAVIDO – O.B.O: THE GENESIS – “TALE OF THE SON OF A RICH MAN”

David Adeleke popularly known as Davido impacted the Nigerian music arena with his first major single and became a household name in less than a year. This feat is anything but easy to accomplish; arguably the not so fantastic singer has his music deeply rooted in hearts of fans and critics alike and the plot thickens with the release of his suggestive titled debut LP “Omo Baba Olowo: The Genesis” a.k.a “O.B.O: The Genesis”.

Unlike the Bible, ‘All of You’ make up for the opening minutes of the book. Conceivably packed with subliminal messages as the artiste sings “…My manger is bigger than… HKN is is better than… All of you”; yet David still found a way to hit a commendable score. The second chapter is the self-produced debut single of the singer with a guest appearance from Naeto C where David rants about ‘Back When’ he was broke and it is arguably my favourite track of the LP.

I cannot endorse this as the new school music nevertheless Davido, Sina Rambo & B-Red teams up for the disappointing ‘New School Things’. Davido makes up for the slack time with the suggestive ‘Video’ enriched with a groovy mid-tempo production credited to Maleek Berry, still the lyrics of the song is conflicting. On ‘Sade’ Davido tries to flex with weak vocal chords and the adjective ‘weak’ sums up the track but shines on ‘Ekuro’. HKN’s gang Sina Rambo appearances in ‘No Visa’ and ‘Overseas’ are also a let down, you find the duo ranting about riches et al and not doing a good job at it; also B-Red surfaces on ‘Enter The Red’. With money comes fake friends, we are happy that Davido and Kay Switch realize that in ‘Dollars in the Bank’.

It is safe to say he saved the best for last as the final moments of Davido’s O.B.O showed promise and possible climax of the tale with numbers like the 2Face assisted ‘For You’, the J-Sleek produced winner ‘Mary Jane’, the Dokta Frabz produced ‘Feel Alright’ with vocal credits to Ice Prince as they talk about the rollercoaster nature of their relationship with weed and the smash hit ‘Dami Duro’ which propelled the singer’s career to another level. The last chapter is ‘Bless You’ which features May-D, and sees the rich boy assisted by the dark-skinned vocalist appreciating and expressing gratitude to God for his blessings, well everyone loves a song with a hint of spirituality.

The tale of the song of a rich man fails to match up the momentum built before it hereby we are faced with a bunch of so-so mid-tempo tunes degraded by sub-standard vocal technique notwithstanding currency notes ensured that the production is stellar still the O.B.O: The Genesis falls short of expectation but there is room for improvement.

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CREDITS
Artiste- Davido
Album- Omo Baba Olowo: The Genesis
Features – Naeto C, B-Red, Sina Rambo, May D, 2Face
Idibia, Kay Switch and Ice Prince Zamani
Producers- Shizzi, Jay Sleek, Maleek Berry, Gospel, Spellz, Dokta Frabz, Davido and Theory Soundz
Label – HKN Music (2012)