Since 2022, Afrobeats hasn’t produced a mainstream breakout star that wasn’t street-pop affiliated. Joeboy seems to be well aware of the current soundscape and has signed an artist with a strong cultural affinity.
On his debut EP, we get a full portrait of King Vidarr’s artistry. Like Minz, he is on the more English-leaning spectrum of street-pop artists, who have the same soul of the streets and hopeful aspirations of success in their music. “Emi na fe jaiye ni Miami,” Vidarr sings on EP opener, Tomford—affirming the fact that the good, sophisticated life is the ultimate goal and metric for success. Using Tom Ford, a renowned brand in the fashion industry—is also a layered metaphor of how he intends to become a household name also. It’s the quintessential success aspiration song and it works to a tee, because Vidarr is a competent writer.
Oshe is more upbeat and takes the tempo to an Afro-Pop, party soundscape and the sentiment of turning up for the fun 9of it. The song starts out on a high note with a very catchy bridge and chorus that follows it. But for some reason, Vidarr doesn’t craft an actual verse and just repeats the chorus all through. Yes, repetitive choruses works for the sake of sticking on and aiding the song’s sing-along attribute, but when it gets overdone—it could become a monotonous listen, instead of a memorable one.
Yawa is something of a Highlife track, in the nature of its rhythmic guitar riffs (courtesy of Fiokee) and Vidarr’s vocal texture on the track but the production lacks the punch of those visceral drums you’ll want on a track like this, and whilst Vidarr has a decent outing on the track—it’s not elevated to the highest quality it could have attained. The chorus is also a bit weak.
Want You Gone is trying to be another soulful cut like Tomford with a more introspective topic bordering on love, and whilst it is a good song—it’s pixel clear Vidarr’s strengths as an artist is better suited to crafting street pop songs, that enable him more leeway in dynamism by incorporating his musings in Youruba and other pop culture lingua, that definitely takes his delivery up a notch. This is not to take anything from the range of his pen, as he has written songs for non-street pop acts like his label boss, Joeboy and others like Tiwa Savage, Laycon and Ric Hassani. However, on this project he was simply more comfortable on the street leaning songs.
Kvng Vidarr’s debut EP provides insight into his artistry, and highlights his strengths as an artist—helping to shape his sonic identity. So basically, it does what a good debut outing should. However, it doesn’t showcase enough dynamism and range from him. But for now, resonance should suffice to sell him to an audience. A mainstream moment off the EP is all he needs and with the right push, it can definitely happen.
