Over the past few years, the sonic boundaries that define the reach of Afrobeats have expanded to accommodate even more subgenres on the African continent. The original meaning was an umbrella term for mainstream music coming out of West Africa with subtle western influences and infusions, but has now gone on to encompass more regions of the continent and even non-mainstream music in colloquial usage.
That doesn’t make it right though, but that’s how it is popularly used. I mean, even The Grammys had the audacity to classify Amapiano, a South African House subgenre under Afrobeats until intense scrutiny and public backlash made them change their stance and rectify their errors in the particular article. Basically, the essence of Afrobeats have changed and so has the genres under it also.
Thus we can have sub-genres like Afro-Drill and Afro-R&B classified as AfroPop simply because they fit into the vein of popular African music with western influences. Tobbytelly’s Wavy, Wavy Vol. 1 is a project that would be inherently classified as Afro-Pop in the manner of it’s topical direction and delivery, but it has strong R&B, Drill and trap influences. Although it’s this pop delivery that the writer feels fails to do the project justice and doesn’t quite elevate its ceiling.
On the intro, we don’t get much asides somber piano keys, cinematic-esque vocal chops and some trite one-liners about life being a rollercoaster. When we get to Spaceship, the direction of the project begins to take place. Tobytelly is likening his safe haven of the arms of his lover and their erotic sex to a Spaceship, that gets him away from reality and off into space.
The writing on the song is hardly coherent, as the artist jumps from one train of thought to another in a quite haphazard manner. One moment he’s talking about sex and the other he’s iterating that his mama prays for him. It gets jarring at times, when you try to get into the meat of what he’s saying, but the flows are nice enough to keep you distracted. The beat is quite bare for melodies in terms of instrumentation and it’s just a growling piano baseline, occasionally stacked with Trumpet riffs doing most of the work. His vocals are also nothing beyond the realm of just okay.
There is some interesting topical progression though, from Spaceship to Forever that’s notable. In the former song, Tobbytelly’s woman was his haven and now she’s morphed into someone else, a dark place he can’t recognize. She’s not his peace of mind anymore and he doesn’t think they’re compatible in the long run. A sentiment he emphasizes so strongly in the chorus of the song.
The build-up from the first verse of the song to the chorus is quite justifiable, but in the second verse—it’s almost like the artist can’t help himself and strays off topic, by mentioning more sex play. And no it’s not some complicated dilemma, where it’s a toxic situation of being stuck in a place you wanna leave as a result of your addiction. The song doesn’t depict that level of nuance. It’s just typical shallow pop writing. It’s not downright horrible, however it doesn’t convince you that the story is palpable or real. You know he’s just saying things for the song’s sake.
The flaws of this directional writing is more evident than ever on SOP (Paris Freestyle), but it’s a freestyle so it gets a scrutiny pass. However, the fact that there isn’t much difference in the lyrics of a freestyle and the writing on the other tracks says a lot about the lack of depth in said writing. The atmosphere on here is a drill one, but it’s as a cliché and stereotypical as they come that it’s the farthest thing from impressionable. Once again, it’s not bad music or anything close to that. It’s just background, filler music. The type that’s played to fill up the silence.
The last song, Komagbon isn’t easier on the ears either. There is so much of a painful repetition of the phrase and the fact that it’s accompanied with poor writing makes it more of an arduous task to listen to. The artist also does his best conventional, typical play on mainstream mid-tempo lamba and doesn’t bring any dynamism to the track. It’s just a rehash of all the sonic tropes, flows and one-liners you’ve heard multiple times in the past. It’s the most forgettable track on a project that doesn’t make much of an impression.
Wavy, Wavy Vol. 1 is the type of album you put on to soundtrack manic social activities, where the point of the music isn’t to necessarily overwhelm or impress your audience, but to in fact have something playing in the background that’s somewhat pleasant to the ears and not impressive or immersive enough to draw said audience’s attention away from the social proceedings to revel in the magic of the music. Background music at its absolute best and it should be treated and seen as such.
Verdict:
Sonic Cohesion: 1.2/2
Unharried Transitions: 1.2/2
Expansive Production: 0.8/2
Songwriting: 0.8/2
Topical Progression/Track Sequencing: 1/2
Total: 5/10.
This review was written by T.J. Martins, an Album Talks’ writer.
Listen To ‘Wavy, Wavy Vol. 1’ here:
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