Oritse Femi is the undisputed King of Happiness in Africa's music industry. If I have said something akin to that before, without reservation -- as I have -- I happily say it again.
Here, I said this before:
1. Concerning the track Tomorrow, a piece featuring Reminisce
2. In my commentary on Double Wahala Part 2, a truly inspired piece sung -- with joyous mountaintop fervor -- with the irrepressible D'Banj.
And now, this is why we're really here, like this. And now, I wanted to say, Oritse Femi gives us Igbeyawo, a great song, which, I believe, draws one's attention like a magnet from the very first time one hears it. Igbeyawo is a Yoruba word for a wedding (or marriage). Good to know. Take a listen:
Click here to watch the video
READ: The lyrics of Igbeyawo
Igbeyawo is a high-spirited celebration of Love and the (shall I say related?) 'institution' of marriage, as it is lived in real life, which has innumerable versions and various ideal types. This, it so happens, is as apt as the next, or the last.
"Love is a beautiful tin", declares he, in a disarming and sincerest of voices.
Of course, like poets, singers, who are themselves poets and sometimes troubadours too, do have a licence to sing soaring songs without perhaps having to account for the higher truths which their songs urge us all to (up)hold and honor; without, that is, having to live their songs. It'd be nice, 'dough', if dey lived dem truts -- at least some of de time; some of de time dat deir songs continue to be sung, and heard, and such.
That doesn't matter here, though. We're just, we're easily, we're hopelessly caught up in this whirlwind of a tune. This sunny interlude in life's long and episodic journey -- and even magical.
There's a storyline. It's patchy, OK. Yet it allows for a moving wedding-day raga. There are flash-forwards. Some. And so, we hear the voice of The Master sing: "What God has joined together let no man put asunder." Asonder, too! And there is much joy. Much dancing. Early-days love. Lots of smiles all around. Things to eat. Everyone's in hi heaven, long as all the 'choy' lasts, and tru livin intrudes, as it's bound to. A mini-montage of images here. Territorial/cultural tussles with the Queen Mama. Hey, that's my wife's sufuria, there, Oritse! Inexorable forward motion.
Things go up, and they go down, and up again, but it's never, no never, quite a roller-coaster. Luv conquers all in the end -- just so that it can be said, without a doubt, that "Patience is a virtue".
What's never in doubt is Oritse Femi's passionate and finely crafted (tho with a touch of rasp) and entrancing and (oya) bewitching voice. He delivers his lyrics at the highest level of musicality. All that deeply earnest charm and pleading! There is no one, right now, quite like him on this planet.
My ears plainly like the mix of tones and beats and instruments, in full flights of fancy, that they're served by the very one. I like this song because my ears do. And because my eyes savor the colors and the nuances of all the body language implicated here.
Friday, October 02, 2015
HaikuZela
HaikuZela
[By Mauri Yambo]
HaikuZela!
Be
Tailwind
for those who, Conga,
Who
find the pathway.
[Nairobi,
March 22, 2014]
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Long Longue Durée
The more things remain the same,
Till we're not there to see them,
The more steadily they change.
Till we're not there to see them,
The more steadily they change.
Sunday, September 27, 2015
MUSIC: Boj's Paper
"So they told me to come for a show, they will give me paper"~ Boj
In this song, Paper, Nigeria's Boj wraps his mind, and ours, around the certainty, and/or otherwise, of paper -- and the potential otherness of Self and Place -- in a life form such as ours. Not paper mache. Not paper tiger. Not paper money. Not travel paper(s).
No tradeable paper, here. Nor no paper-thin Ness. Just plain ticket for a, not even the, the show. But what on earth show? That, that is his poetic right to w/hold.
Yet what a show! What a stream of cerebral suspense, in the terrain of life! With paper figurines of an extended idea -- of the right, merely, to pass. To pass from this all-too-ordinary Ordinariness of Self and of Place to the other, more prized, placement; placement which morphs one in2 an Other; and itself, as Giddens would have it, in2 Locale.
Boj's grainy voice is part of his charm; and, with his tended facial hair and distinctive eyewear, his distinguishing persona. Bow-tied Boj. Hat-topped Boj.
Not yet chart-topping Boj -- Paper, published on November 23, 2014, has 72,990 views right now -- even gets to wear a dashiki.
The set invokes an easy afternoon ride, in a convertible (or else), across a lush tropical countryside. Along the way, he and friend(s), encounter a motley of folks: a band of religious folks, clean clad, in a near-orgy of un-self-conscious adoration of The One. Mocking layabouts in better dashikis than Boj's. And there are always, it seems, uniformed schoolgirls deep in the country. Which is a good thing. Snippets of scenery, then.
Overall, a tribute to the diversity of talent we Africans must nurture. Talent -- not quotas of regional inclusion.
Click to view the video of Boj's Paper
A little more about Boj the person here
For The Lyrics of Boj's Paper, Click here
In this song, Paper, Nigeria's Boj wraps his mind, and ours, around the certainty, and/or otherwise, of paper -- and the potential otherness of Self and Place -- in a life form such as ours. Not paper mache. Not paper tiger. Not paper money. Not travel paper(s).
No tradeable paper, here. Nor no paper-thin Ness. Just plain ticket for a, not even the, the show. But what on earth show? That, that is his poetic right to w/hold.
Yet what a show! What a stream of cerebral suspense, in the terrain of life! With paper figurines of an extended idea -- of the right, merely, to pass. To pass from this all-too-ordinary Ordinariness of Self and of Place to the other, more prized, placement; placement which morphs one in2 an Other; and itself, as Giddens would have it, in2 Locale.
Boj's grainy voice is part of his charm; and, with his tended facial hair and distinctive eyewear, his distinguishing persona. Bow-tied Boj. Hat-topped Boj.
Not yet chart-topping Boj -- Paper, published on November 23, 2014, has 72,990 views right now -- even gets to wear a dashiki.
The set invokes an easy afternoon ride, in a convertible (or else), across a lush tropical countryside. Along the way, he and friend(s), encounter a motley of folks: a band of religious folks, clean clad, in a near-orgy of un-self-conscious adoration of The One. Mocking layabouts in better dashikis than Boj's. And there are always, it seems, uniformed schoolgirls deep in the country. Which is a good thing. Snippets of scenery, then.
Overall, a tribute to the diversity of talent we Africans must nurture. Talent -- not quotas of regional inclusion.
Click to view the video of Boj's Paper
A little more about Boj the person here
For The Lyrics of Boj's Paper, Click here
MUSIC VIDEO: Olamide's Theatrical Performance in "Falila Ketan"
There's thrill in that speed, in that cocophonic beat about a few sturdy minutes? Betcha. Everytin is, you know, hapa kwa hapa: Words, sounds, visual images, naughtiness. Chuckling. Gals who don care what u tink abt de twerking ('an den sum'). Nay, who axe u -- an who u tink u r. Who, even, dare say it's yo prooooblem, Mansa!
Guess dey dident 'ave dat kind of hot n hotter stuff or t'in or rump in de, dat sing-song Sung (Song?) Dynasty dey toke of.
Click here to watch the video clip
MUSIC: Leriq ft. Wizkid, a Winning Combination in "Say You Love Me"
For some perspective, here are three tweets I wrote in June this year about this collaboration between two Nigerian artistes -- Leriq and Wizkid. Wizkid, as keen observers know, is already popular across Africa and beyond, but he can do more and he can reach higher. I was highlighting multi-talented Leriq's value-addition to Wizkid's creative art, a contribution which is fairly obvious to me -- and, I hope, to Wizkid; and which I hope, not against hope, will last:
@Mauri Yambo: @YouTube Has #Wizkid gotten his #mojo back? Last time he truly shone was with #Ojuelegba. He's since been coasting & riding into creative...
7:06 PM - 7 Jun 2015
@MauriYambo @YouTube ...into creative turbulence. Then #LeriQ steps in with a collabo & we're surprised 2 find that W has a wider vocal range than e...
@MauriYambo @YouTube than even he (W) probably thought he had. I think "Say You Love Me" is a wonderfully crafted gem. Big up all around.
DO ALSO READ: Iterview With Leriq
Click here to view the Ojuelegba video
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