Wizkid FC to the world!
Released on the 11th of November, Wizkid’s 5th studio album ‘More Love, less Ego’ sees Machala fuse Afropop, Amapiano and RnB vibes to give us a solid 13-track album. The album’s pre-release tracks–Bad to me and Money and Love were received quite well and the Amapiano flavour in Bad to me gave us a different taste of Big Wiz.
Now, about the album in general. Is it Great? Nope. Is it Poor? Nope. It is just there.
Some people think Big Wiz’s music has just been there of late. In his defence, it was pointed out that everybody can’t sing about current affairs like Burna or cruise like O.B.O and that we should let Big Wiz be with his pattern of music.
And while that may be the truth, the real question is: When Wizzy was at the top of his game, wasn’t he known for this same pattern? So what changed? The answer is very simple: people come and people go–I mean look at Ronaldo. Time be like breakfast, eventually e go reach everybody.
Another big question is how can there be no song about Love in an album called ‘More Love’?
The album opens with Money and love where we get lyrics like “Fuck you to Buju Banton or Buju Benson (which was a great pun by the way). There are also songs like Flower pads, Wow, Frames, and even Special which would have passed for actual love music if he wasn’t so centred on the girl’s body. Like in Slip and Slide, where the title already lets you in on what the song is about before you even listen.
The song Deep was the most contradictory, especially when he said, “I’m not looking for your love, I’m honest, I just want a piece of that…” What’s less about Ego in this song? Well, what’s important is that Wizkid FC likes it like that.
Speaking of FC, the Pressure lyrics where Big Wiz was blowing his horn, Pipipi (person say make una clear road, make e no jam una) make you wonder how the same FC were dragging Burna Boy for wack lyrics in Last Last.
Enough about the misses though, there are a good number of laudable tracks on the album. The intro to Everyday is what other songs should have entailed, expressing gratitude for being loved. Skillibeng’s sound in Slip n Slide was nice (even though we didn’t understand him). Naira Marley added real spice to the Wow song– we’re sure Marlians are proud.
The Plenty Loving song can easily pass as the best amongst the ones that weren’t pre-released, the chorus was too smooth and the song Frames was a pretty good way to end the album.
In Wow, when Skepta said, ‘Even if I leave, Agaracha must come back’, our Igbo brethren must have been very proud. In our opinion, Juls’ beat in Special didn’t quite match the song and there’s actually nothing special about 2 SUGAR Music.
Maybe we should all just accept and come to terms with the fact that Wizkid is no longer what he used to be and stop setting our expectations of his projects too high.
Tribe Rating: Not a bad album, but not a great one either. We’ll give it a 6/10.
#Unsolicited is a segment for reviews, opinion pieces and professional perspectives for various industries. In this edition we rate Wizkid’s album ‘More Love, Less Ego’.
