Taking The Information Culture To Another Level...Lets Do This
Today I finally got one of my musical needs fulfilled (sounds dirty lol but far from it). I managed to score the D’Banj and the Mo’Hits All Stars album from a friend today. Apparently, you receive the album when you make a purchase from Mr. Biggs in Nigeria. Oh the joy. The album is called C.V. (Curriculum Vitae). After my fourth listen almost immediately I must say this is one of the strongest albums from Naij in 2007. I mean this album is literally filled with hits from Track 1 (the hugely popular Move your body) down to track 15 (Stop the Violence).
The Artists
D’Banj – Need I talk about D’Banj’s skills as a Nigerian artist? He has awards and accolades to talk for him. The self titled Kokomaster was on no long thing to prove himself on all joints on this album that he was featured in. The opening track Move your body was just a simple showcase of this guy’s skill on the mic. He definitely showed the reason why he and Don Jazzy are reshaping the Naij music scene. Like he says on the Why me Remix…Follow me to Johannesburg, I get them kokolets plenty plenty….”
Wande Coal – Close friends of mine would be tired of me banging on about this guy. I call him the African T-Pain, I mean this dude’s voice is for real. Go to Youtube and see a clip of this dude and D’Banj messing around and watch him break out into singing. That electronic type synthesizer effect in his voice when he is crooning on the mic coupled with Don Jazzy’s bass infused production is just crazy. Not to be seen as just a Mr featuring guy, he proves he is able to carry his weight without no D’Banj or Mo’Hits record cat by having his own solo joint on the album entitled “Ololufe” which by the way is the only solo joint on the album. Ololufe means lover in English terms for non Nigerians. After listening to this and getting emotional, I must say I cannot wait for his solo album. I hope he does not disappoint. The lyrics are good. The track does not sound as your typical Styl Plus crooning. I got my money on this dude for real.
Don Jazzy – say whatever you like about this guy, but just don’t say he cannot produce. He has single handedly helped shape D’Banj’s career and the duo are showing no signs of quitting. Production by him is just off the hook. His styles range broadly. You could easily mistaken his production sound for a Scot Storch sound on “Ololufe”, or a Diddy sound on the “What You Wanna Do” track, or a Mannie Fresh sound on the “Igbe Mi” track. This guy’s production is versatile and sickalicious. All I am saying is do not be silly and play this album without a good bass system, the production is bass heavy and would have you nodding and doing the yahooose windmill dance with unabashed shame…Bring on summer…FI LE
The other artists are relatively new to me but did carry their weight on this album. They were S.I.D, D’Prince and K-Switch. Hopefully we would be hearing more from these guys.
Production
All tracks are all produced by Don Jazzy except Track 11 – No Long Thing and Jasi. These two were produced by Icon and Dr. Frabz respectively. Lets quickly talk bout these two. I feel Jasi could be a next single off the album. It has got all the perfect ingredients for the club bangers. Fast tempo with an infectious carnival-esque feel to it coupled with the infectious crooning of Wande Coal, you have a hit.
The standout tracks
Move your body - D’Banj & Wande Coal
No Long Thing - S.I.D. & D’Banj
Ololufe – Wande Coal
Jasi – D’Banj, Wande Coal & Don Jazzy
Anaconda (ofcourse it has D’Banj on it) – D’Banj & Wande Coal
What You Wanna Do – D’Banj, Wande Coal, S.I.D. & D’Prince
Why Me Remix? – Don Jazzy, D’Banj and Wande Coal – this track is dance floor filler with the turn table scratches, heavy bass and Mexican trumpet. A perfect remix for the hugely popular Why Me song…..Fi Le!!!!!
Conclusion
A very heavy album production wise and theme wise. They are not here to preach about global warming or any political issues that might be bugging you. D’banj and the all stars are here to make you dance and have a good time and this album definitely pulls this off. With no extremely weak tracks to pull the consistency of this album down, this album scores a solid 9/10 for me. The curriculum vitae of Mo Hits records shows that they have a lot to offer to the Nigerian music scene to help move it forward and bring the Nigerian music to a worldwide fan base.
Labels: Nigerian Music
