Timaya – Bang Bang
This guy is one very versatile artiste. And he has shown his fine stuff being able to switch effortlessly between ragga, reggae, dance hall, afro pop, contemporary high life and even some (afro) hip-hop with R&B fusion all through his career years. It’s almost impossible now to appropriately peg him as an artiste in one field (even though we know deep down in our hearts that he’s the presido of alla dem dance hall man tings… Lol!)
It’s exciting to hear Timaya trip back to his dance hall roots especially considering the fact that he’s featured more in the division of afro sounds for some time now. On ‘Bang Bang’, he unleashes that patois frenzy some of us have longed to hear a little too long a while now. The intriguing thing about this new sound would be Kitwana’s production. It was so unusual, like we’ve never heard it before. It was so unnatural, concepts might be able to explain it but minds won’t be able to fathom it. It doesn’t even sound like it’s from here either, the musical template could have only come from abroad. And it was so flaming hot, it started to bang and burn right from the first electro-synthesized riffs on the song’s intro. The lyrical framework of ‘Bang Bang’ follows a very simple design with distinct repetitive patterns. They’re easy to assimilate and sing along to despite the deft upward progression structure. The blend between the spoken words and melodious chords evokes more than just some swift badass rhythmic movement. There’s the thought of an intensely-satisfying, deep-reaching ‘soul’ that was sewn up in it as well. Suffice to say Timaya has yet again struck gold with another song that is sure to cross boarders since the time of Sanko, ‘cos indeed, he slayed big time on this one.
Rating – 4/5
Mayorkun – YÃ wa
I think we all kinda saw this one coming. It’s probably why it took the DMW management a little longer than we perhaps expected for them to put out a new sound from Mayorkun since Eleko trended and pulled all that views they claimed it got in a little less than a week. They must have hit a couple brick walls while they tried over guessing the outcomes from his next single.
To be very frank, it’s a beautiful love song. The very okay kind that just needed plenty more work done. The hype and anticipation for this second single really made it fall flat on arrival. The production is not even as tight or shall I say it was an imperfect mix that affected the sounds ‘cos it seemed too light in the listener’s ear. Moreso, the production didn’t sound current at all… as in, in trend. It plays like something pulled outta the Wizkid freshman era. Unlike Eleko! You will have to forgive the fact that I keep making reference to Eleko, and that is because for a debut track, he pretty much set an appreciable standard for expectations on his other musical works. Sadly, ‘YÃ wa’ didn’t cut it at all.
Rating – 2.8/5
Reviewed by Jim Donnett
@jimancipation
