Artiste- Lagbaja
Album- 200 Million Mumu (The Bitter Truth)
Label- Motherlan’ Music (2012)
Running Time- 45 minutes
Lagbaja speaks the bitter truth
In the 90s and early 00s Lagbaja
was as big as they came. His humorous and political songs made him a
household name and his faceless persona made him an interesting
mysterious artist. The burgeoning pop scene sinco the mid 00s might have
slightly diminished Lagbaja’s influence in contemporary music, but the
masked one still has the tricks to make everyone listen to his music.
His 9th studio album 200 Million Mumu (The Bitter Truth) is
vintage Lagbaja. He mixes sarcasm and humour to sing about the ills of
the Nigerian society. The main theme of this LP has to do with the
docile and hypocritical nature of average Nigerians. On ‘200 Million
Mumu (Part 1)’ Lagbaja says ‘you no different from them at all’. The ‘them’
he talks about are Nigerian leaders. According to Lagbaja the ordinary
Nigerian is no different from a bad politician and Nigeria’s problem is
mostly a case of bad followership.
In ‘200 Million Mumu (Part 3)’ Lagbaja turns former President Olusegun Obasanjo
into a stuttering auto-tune robot talking about his failed third term
bid. Lagbaja splices OBJ’s vocals to address the docile nature of
Nigerians when faced with oppression.
Lagbaja has a fascination with OBJ as his vocals appear again on ‘Dust to Dust’.
As the former president says that no one is as powerful as him even
God, Lagbaja warns that God has the ultimate power and death will come
to all. He also talks about the hypocrisy of Christians and how God is
not deceived with their holier-than-thou attitude.
This album is filled with three hymns (‘Joy Cometh in the Morning’, Guide Me O Great Jehovah’ and Nipa Ife Olugbala’). The presence of these hymns on the album is puzzling at first but at the end of ‘Dust To Dust’ when Lagbaja sings ‘justice go come one day’
it all makes sense. The hymns are Lagbaja’s solution to the Nigerian
problem- God. You would think Lagbaja would prefer a call to arms but he
like most Nigerians looks up to God to solve the Nigerian dilemma.
Then there are some of the songs (‘Knock Knock’, ‘Redemption Song’ and ‘Omo Jayejaye’) that steer off the main theme. ‘Omo Jayejaye’ is a combination of African drums and Electro pop. It’s a fun and celebratory song that uses the vocoder and chipmunk vocal effect.
There are a few songs that shouldn’t be covered or remixed because the original is basically flawless. Bob Marley’s ‘Redemption Song.
SOURCE:NET
No comments:
Post a Comment