When you’re unarguably the greatest pop vocalist of Afrobeats and released a classic album that’s responsible for the sonic templates that has defined Afro-Pop and R&B for the past decade, you should not have an album title questioning your legendary status. That legacy is already cemented.
Asides from that, since his breakout year, Wande Coal has had a hit record or sleeper hit song every year till now. He didn’t hit the career peak of some of his peers like D’Banj and 2face but he has managed tangible career longevity more than most artists from his generation. There is still a lot of buzz surrounding his releases and he’s still very sought out where features are concerned. So he is in his graceful veteran years and definitely doesn’t need to prove a point to anyone. Or to be more specific, release an album that’s not great.
Once again, Wande Coal’s legendary status is not debatable. Only senseless trolls and agenda riddled stans would dare detract from it. Someone doesn’t influence the sonic soundscape of an entire generation, inspire the next generation of popstars to the point, that they’re primarily R&B artists like him, whilst also getting a moderate hit year after year, to have his legendary status challenged.
It’s also quite silly in this writer’s opinion to compare him to a new generation artist that hasn’t come close to hitting the artistic peak that he did on Mushin 2’Mohits. In music discourse, we should normalize comparing artists of the same generation together and in the rare case we’re doing a cross generational comparison, there should be clearly defined metrics as to what exactly is being compared, not something vague.
However, that doesn’t mean this album is a great album. Unwarranted comparisons aside, it suffers from a lot of symptoms. Poor A&R’ing, unfocused writing and a lack of cohesion. You see, leeway is granted for up and coming acts as they go out of their ways to experiment and build a discography to establish their legacies as artists. But when your legacy is already established and you release an album that’s not great, then it’s anticlimactic.
I’m all for veterans doing their best to roll back the time to their graceful years, but they should also know it’s okay to not release an album that’s not great. They’ve earned the right to not release projects and definitely don’t need to give ammunition to detractors to taint their legacy. Legend Or No Legend exposes Wande Coal’s flaws as an artist, as it shows the lack of structure and vision that made his debut a timeless classic.
Album opener, Nobody Holy has an avant-garde production that works for the most part. Kinetic drums and jazz horns, gives way to incoherent musings of how no one is truly righteous and everyone is about their own agenda. Like stated earlier, the lines don’t really connect but as a result of the much repetitive chorus, sentiment is conveyed to an extent. It is a decent offering, overall.
3 Square Meal comes right after sleeper hit released single, Come My Way and the album’s shortcomings are on full display, once again. The narrative here is about getting a deal that would enable a 3 Square Meal and it doesn’t just resonate. You see, there is nothing wrong with artists emphasizing that more money remains their motivation even after becoming millionaires. However, that’s all in a bid to multiply their wealth and elevate luxury. It’s not about surviving.
The sentiment of striving for a 3 Square Meal is a survival one. A millionaire could eat 10 times in a day if they wanted. Yeah, you could say it’s a metaphor but even at that, it’s a very poor one. Also, it’s not executed well with competent and compelling writing in the verses. They’re almost contradictory in fact, as Wande goes off about a luxurious lifestyle and its many shenanigans.
Dues escalate the symptoms that 3 Square Meal suffers from. It’s a cloud-trap emo song with soulful guitar chords and a competent vocal performance from Wande, but he’s not quite sure what he wants the song to be about. First off, he starts out singing about a dream girl. Then, he’s partying with “Forty naked bitches” and then he’s throwing shades at the government.
We all know Afrobeats isn’t some renowned brand of music for its topical progression and profound writing and artists occasionally stray off topic, especially when they’re on a trap beat—a genre infamous for the way its artists stray off topic. However, even if the narrative is going to be loose, it still needs to be compelling. No one is going to believe a word Wande is singing, when he calls a girl his dream girl and some lines later, he’s partying with naked bitches. You don’t need to contradict yourself. Also, those adlibs at the end of this song are nothing to write home about. Wande knows he is a great vocalist and can get away with saying anything and that’s a sad truth. No one should be doing that.
Compared to the preceding songs, E Choke manages to stay on topic. The writing isn’t exactly phenomenal and it’s still more of the same braggadocious musings that have littered the previous songs, but on here it’s in line with the song’s chorus and title—even though, Wande can’t help himself and he still automatically strays off topic in the second verse. The beat structure is a bit dated though and won’t be most people cup of tea.
Let Them Know has the most jarring deviation of topic in the album and to a listener that likes to pay close attention to lyrics like this writer, it’s quite annoying. Wande opens the song, singing about being intentional about letting his lover know how much she means to him and in the second verse, he goes into some incoherent run of going into an examination hall, getting a C and being an average person that’s not Okocha. Pop songs are allowed to have loose narratives yes, but in this case however both narratives couldn’t be more far apart.
It’s almost like Wande and his team of writers (surprisingly, more than one person was involved in this mediocre writing) approached this album with the mindset of prioritizing rhymes and tossing any reasonable logic out of the window. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not horrible, cringe-fest worthy writing but it’s mediocre writing nonetheless. And when it’s over an entire project, it’s worrisome.
Streets is another decent song, but one that had so much potential if only the T-Pain feature was used more properly. When you have another great vocalist on an album with you, you need to optimize said feature and use him to his strengths. A soulful record that would allow both vocalists to thrive and even layer their vocals against each other. Instead, we get a song that’s just another stereotypical bop about paying your dues on the come up. This is the point where you wonder why the song that was titled Dues was about a woman and the extravagant lifestyle.
This is also the point you realize that Kpe Paso, the second single is the best song off the project. An album can be great and still have a single being one of its best songs, but when the gulp in quality is this far apart, then there is an issue. Kpe Paso is the only song on the album with a structure that’s perfectly balanced, arranged and the lyrics well written. One can only wonder why it was a one off and that amount of intention didn’t go into the other songs. This writer believes the same studio session that produced Olamide’s 2022 Hate Me is the same one responsible for Kpe Paso.
So it makes sense that both songs were perhaps recorded in Olamide’s YBNL/Empire camp where there is definitely more structure, as opposed to Wande’s team that have proven to be mostly incompetent on this album. It’s all speculation of course and there is no proof to allude to this, but this is the most sense this writer could make of it. Because how does Kpe Paso excel in every metric (unfocused writing, most especially) that the previous songs failed at.
P. prime’s lush production can only do so much on Ebelebe but it can’t save it from the same depths of mediocrity that the album has been treading. Wizkid does his trademark rhythmic delivery over the Afroswing beat and Wande is once again one-dimensional with his delivery. The song would undoubtedly generate buzz initially because of the heavyweights on it, but it’s not a great song and certainly not one that would stand the test of the time.
“Let me take you back to the Genesis,” Wande Coal sings on Genesis and goes on to NOT take us back to the genesis. On the third line, he’s already throwing shades at other artists and calling someone a Catfish. It is obvious that the writing mentality here is to make anything and everything rhyme at the expense of a resonant story or even a relatable narrative. When we get to the Chorus, he’s already singing about wounding his foes and I’m here wondering why the song was titled Genesis in the first place and why he promised us a trip to the beginning, only to not deliver on it.
Wande employs the services of his disciple, Fireboy DML on Jabo and you can see the clear contrast of where they are artistically. Fireboy stays on point, waxing poetic about the lengths he would go and sacrifices he will make for his lover. Wande Coal on the other hand tries to sound heartfelt and compares the way his lover holds him to another woman with the line, “the way you dey do me, always remind me of Lateefah.” You see, on a love song you will always need empirical and relatable writing that can tug at heart strings and Wande Coal doesn’t have that anymore.
There is not much to say about Sho Ma Gba, except the fact that it shouldn’t have seen the light of day. It’s a nondescript freestyle that’s all over the place and should have remained in the hard drive. At this point, you just have to wonder if there is anyone advising Wande at all, or he just doesn’t listen to advice.
Wande Coal brings out the falsetto guns on Don’t Feel Love and it’s definitely his best vocal performance on the album. The writing here too isn’t as unfocused and it’s a more than decent offering. It’s also an R&B song and the genre that Wande excels the most as an artist, even if he’s had massive pop songs over the years. The fact that there’s barely any R&B cut on the album is more than glaring evidence of the lack of strategy and vision of the album.
Mushin 2 Mohits was an exceptional album at the time of its release and still an exceptional album now, because it has aged gracefully. Its production, writing and cohesion were executed brilliantly because of the structure set in place by Don Jazzy at Mohits to optimize talent. Don Jazzy is also an incredible A&R and executive producer that ensured all the songs were properly structured and balanced. It doesn’t seem like Wande has competent people in his camp anymore and now the music has suffered for it.
Wande Coal is culpable of blame too, perhaps more than his team in fact because he is the one responsible for assembling said team. Still, it’s truly painful to see a legend in a form like this.
Verdict:
Sonic Cohesion: 1.3/2
Seamless Transitions: 1.2/2
Expansive Production: 1/2
Songwriting: 0.6/2
Topical Progression/Track Sequencing:1/2
Total: 5.1/10
-This review is written by T.J. Martins, an Album Talks writer.
