Great albums aren’t solely characterized by brilliant conceptual overaching vision, thematic cohesiveness and stylistic variety. There is a more resonant layer that’s breached, when the artist in question dons a persona that undergoes some journey, or is the protagonist in the musical story being narrated. Blaqbonez is a master at chronicling phases, through ingenious characterization.
Even when he isn’t the creative genius, churning out skits to promote his music catalogue or directing a music video, brimming to the top with Easter eggs packed with subtle messages—Blaq’s artistic shenanigans are always on display in the most minute details. They always come off as organic and smooth, exuding the narrative that he’s just having fun and ‘catching cruise’ but make no mistake, it’s all a part of the grand scheme. Like he told Korty on her YouTube series, every little detail has been catered to with intricate planning.
Before the fame and success, he had embodied numerous personas. Super Emeka, the pidgin-English rapper, Mr. Thompson, the indigenous Yoruba rapper and the wayward Rasaki. On his 2019 EP, Mr. Boombastic he explored Alté aesthetics and branding and finally, perhaps his most iconic character so far, ‘Emeka The Stallion‘ on his debut album, Sex Over Love. The cynical, conflicted persona that struggled with commitment and held a crusade dedicated to ‘Breaking The Yoke Of Love.’ Young Preacher shares similar themes to his debut, but Blaq seems to have shed his garments of cynicism and mild bitterness in place for charisma and justified bravado.
On the eponymously titled album opener, Blaq skirts through the topics and themes of the album in a succinctly, brazen manner so the song doesn’t exactly have a monument point topically, but it works as a grand teaser of things to come. Witty lines like “Run em tracks, like an athlete” iterates the sentiment on the song and floats over a stacked instrumental, layered with skidding saxophones and piano keys, clattering drums and dicey bases. The outro of the song iterates that it’s going to be an introspective journey and would implore “critical thinking.” The beat features sampled chops from Styl-Plus’s Runaway.
Blaqbonez glides on electric-acoustic guitar strings and a Reggae-fusion beat on Hot Boy, and like a stereotypical trap-star, brags about his sexual prowess and potency to satisfy his lover. He might have abandoned parts of the cynicism of Emeka, the Stallion on this album, but his explicit and brash nature of expression remains. Lines like “Knack am, Knack am teach her carpentry” and “spread her legs like gymnastics” depicts the creative direction of most of his delivery on the project, as he prioritizes facetious, comical lines over snappy, blunt metaphors.
Whistle is a psychedelic, soulful Afro-Bashment track that sails on the silky vocals of Lojay and the honeyed voice of Amaarae. The featured artists do most of the heavy lifting, but Blaq delivers an impressive verse nonetheless that’s still in line with his sexual proficiency testaments from the previous track. Matter of fact, Blaq’s jaded sentiment permeates to Lojay and Amaarae, where the former is warning the listener to “guard your boo” and the latter laments that there are tears in her eyes, as a result of the unrequited love she’s experiencing.
When we get to Fashionnova, it’s no mistaking that it’s produced by JAE5. The prominent bass-progression, visceral percussion and minimal melody blips are more evident than ever. The highlight of the track is when Blaqbonez, makes a lyrical juxtaposition to fucking a girl to Zinoleesky’s music and pleading with her, so she remains quiet and “Ma Pariwo.” The facetiousness and tongue-in-cheek nature of these lines are a recurring theme throughout the album.
There isn’t much to be said about Back In Uni anymore, as it’s the pre-released single with a high-octane energetic production, that features signature elements of JAE5 production. Fake Nikes reroutes the genre territory back to pure Hip-Hop with a classic rap beat with soaring vocal chops, woozy piano keys and a slow, but steady chord progression.
Some of the cynicism is back in lines like “Name brands don’t guarantee drip though, half of y’all look stupid in Nikes” but here, there are geared towards critical elements of preaching, as opposed to slandering of love. Blxckie’s delivery is a bit mumbled, so parts of his verse sound coherent, whilst Cheque closes out the song with an effective outro, that makes a brief reference to Fashionnova and captions how most tracks on the album are intricately tied by a consistent theme.
Tay Iwar is a surprise guest on the cloud trap-oriented beat of Ring Ring and although he holds his own quite well in an unfamiliar territory, it’s obvious he’s out of place as his verse isn’t memorable much in terms of delivery or lyrical content. For other artists, this isn’t much of a stain on their artistry but Tay Iwar has built a solid reputation off the back of impressive guest appearances on Afrobeats projects over the past year. Blaqbonez doesn’t do much to salvage the track either, as his flows and delivery is very derivative of the genre.
Paul Play’s Forever is sampled on Loyalty, the track where Blaqbonez is the closest to being vulnerable. He admits his unwillingness to commit is down to his awareness of not having the discipline to remain faithful, singing “you know I’ll prolly fuck around and cheat.” The song departs from the overall thematic concept of the album, but it works because it’s an introspective, brooding song with solemn chords and Hip-Hop bops that serves as a breather from the first half of the album to the second.
The sax instrumentation on the She Like Igbo interlude is sonically cut from Fela’s unique brand of Afrobeat and alongside the concise skit at the end, makes it effective. Ees Mama is your cliché Afro-pop record with a mainstream atmosphere, that’s tailor made for Tekno, yet Blaq makes a better impression. The problem with Tekno on this track and probably every other track is the over simplification of his delivery. When it works, it really does. When it doesn’t, it falls flat. On this song, it’s stuck somewhere between both worlds and isn’t inherently bad. However, it is not impressionable.
Mazoe is a beautiful, sensual song packed with great harmonies across board—from the differing vocal notes of the trio of artists present. Bien of Sauti Sol and Takura’s lines are laced with brimming sensuality and effervescence. The song is dangerously close to being an heartfelt, love song but Blaqbonez endures it’s right on theme with lines like “if you no get another man, i get another girl” that cautions his lover to stay in line or face the toxic repercussions of her actions.
Star Life features South African log drums, clinking synths and underlying crowd vocals. It’s a formular that’s been abused in the mainstream so far this year, but the fact that Blaq uses it for a mid-tempo, mellow record that documents the constraints and shackles of life on the fast lane—gives it a breath of fresh air and prevents it from sounding stale.
The album closes with Back On BS and I’d Be Waiting. The former is a bare Hip-Hop track with somber piano keys and infidelity-themed lyrics, making a ploy to convince an old flame to return to their cheating ways with him. The oozing charisma is unmistakable once again, when Blaq assures his lover’s guilt with lines like “Oh, he, loyal to you? This that ‘he don′t fuck you well sex.“‘ Empathetic toxicity at its utmost best.
When the album finally closes on the Asa’s 360 sampled, I’d Be Waiting, Blaqbonez is affirming his success, relevance and stakes in the industry. It’s been a long time coming indeed, in a journey that had him release a plethora of mixtapes. “I sold out M.O park, I mean I’m carryin’, ’cause no other rappers could do that shit” isn’t the wittiest line on the track, but it’s perhaps the most significant of Blaqbonez’s current status in the budding Hip-Hop scene of the country. Basically, it’s a solemn track that ends the album with the same personal reflections that it commenced with.
Overall, Young Preacher is another great offering from Blaqbonez and the rapper seems to be building up some legacy-esque discography that could rival classics in years to come. The project has very strong Afrobeats leanings in Afro-Pop and Afro-Swing and even Caribbean influences like Dancehall, so it might not be the cup of tea of a Hip-Hop purist.
However, it’s a rap album nonetheless as the delivery of the artist across the project can be traced to various subgenres of the genre. Blaq’s ability to maintain tight cadences, multi-syllabic rhyme schemes and layered delivery dexterity speaks a lot about his rap prowess even on pop territories. This is the state of Nigerian rap at the moment, as it needs to fuse with other mainstream sounds to survive and Blaq has proved that he’s the most adept new generation rapper at doing so.
The album is also one of the best thematic albums out this year, as the offerings on each track never strays off course for the sake of it. It’s also sonically cohesive production wise, asides it’s topical cohesion. There is a lot to enjoy on this album and something for almost everyone.
Kudos to Blaqbonez for another commendable triumph.
Verdict:
Sonic Cohesion: 1.5/2
Unharried Transitions: 1.4/2
Expansive & Pristine Production: 1.5/2
Songwriting: 1.8/2
Optimal Track Sequencing: 1.6/2
Total: 7.8/10.
This review is written by T.J. Martins, an Album Talks’ writer.
Listen to ‘Young Preacher’ here:
