Diistill’s beliefs, experiences and journey take centre stage on the talented singer’s debut project.
As an independent artist, finding your feet in the industry can prove to be a difficult task as everything keeps evolving daily. Diistill is definitely having not having it easy, just like other artists in similar brackets, but he has often relied on his grit and abilities to create likeable art to keep him abreast.
Diistill, who once highlighted his intentions to “make music for people who want more out of life, the one on the path to self discovery and resilience” and also born in Lagos has a lot to let out as regards to the aforementioned goals because even his personal story typifies self discovery and resilience. The experience living in Lagos can be intense at times and Diistill packs it all and infuses it across the 7 tracks project.
On the project opener, titled in the name of a clothing design brand, Ashluxe ( Ashilor), Diistill offers a prayer filled track in a hope for success in his endeavors. As one would always find on most Afrobeats projects, ruminating on one’s journey and hoping for success are the key themes that mostly open an album, this is not an exception. Diistill begins to list his deepest wishes over two verses with a subtle and catchy hook uniting them. The delivery is perhaps the highlight of this song as he perfectly glides through the Afro-Trap production. This opener definitely scores a lot of points.
Surprisingly, I was expecting an upbeat Afro-Pop song to come up next, but Diistill chooses to slowly up the tempo as the project winds on. On Leg Over, Diistill excels by opting for basic songwriting; he doesn’t do much but confesses his love using simple choice of words. The message is relatable and the delivery is superb as well. The laid back nature of the song’s production which incorporates some traditional elements in it rightly complements the artist’s efforts.
When we get to Pray For Me, the brazen act fuses Afro-pop with Dancehall elements, which is exactly what makes the cut appealing a little. This is very well not matching the standards of the previous tracks because Diistill does not offer enough quality to its songwriting and delivery. Not to discredit it, but it coolly slots in between.
It feels like the party is just starting on 225. The upbeat nightlife inspired song brings the heat back to the album although it does not salvage it quality wise. This song can most likely be judged from two areas; the commercial purpose which it duly fulfils because of its mainstream leanings and the quality area which it will most likely falls short. Can it be highly commercial? Yes. Is that the reason it was created? Most likely. Does it come close to being the best recording on the project? No.
And we are back to where we want on Competition. The song is about not wanting competition from another man when it comes to his woman, he wants her attention to only himself. But if we keep it real, both artists are actually competing for the best performance on this song. Peruzzi though, actually steers clear with his verse, but Diistill makes solid efforts with the exciting hook and chorus. What’s the essence of a collaborative effort if its not to squeeze out the best from both artists? We got served on this one.
One thing which has been laudable so far, it is Diistill’s willingness to always try new things. On God’s Power, Diistill admits the superiority of God’s power to any humanistic power while depending on God to help him over a basic Reggae inflected production. It is surely an experiment and not close to perfect, but he gets A for effort.
Happy Pills with Zlatan centres on Happiness as the title suggests. The Amapiano centred lead single is a subtle curtain drawer and does nothing much than to leave us in a familiar surrounding as everything comes to a close. “I’m so happy right now” most likely expresses the artist’s excitement in successfully creating his debut project.
Over the course of the project, Diistill seems to be experimenting as he navigates across genres and sub genres and unifies them with his stellar delivery and hooks. This is a good offering as the highs overshadows the lows. On some certain songs, he could have done more and it actually masks how fantastic the project would have been with more intentional efforts on songwriting. For what its worth, it is a brilliant body of work and something nice to build upon.
[LISTEN] “Faith Over Fear” by Diistill
