‘AMATERASU’ is Remy Baggins’ not-so-happy stories on happy production [Album Review]
'AMATERASU' continues Remy Baggins’ battles with growth, life’s struggles, doubt, and every other thing on offer. But this time, his response is different.
At this point, Remy Baggins is just showing off. On August 21, 2020, he released ‘AMATERASU,’ his fifth solo body of work in four years - it’s a whole trap project. With its title, he continues his foreign culture-inspired project titles.
According to Mythopedia, AMATERASU is, “The sun goddess, daughter of creator deities Izanagi and Izanami, and central to the Shinto religion. It is from her the Japanese nobility claims descent and their divine right to rule.”
His debut album, Eigengrau was titled after the German word for intrinsic or dark grey. His second project, HENTAI was titled after an anime with overly sexualized characters. But outside Japan, it is anime or manga pornography. And one thing this project runs on is an excess of sex.
When he released his third body of work, Sakura - which means ‘Cherry Blossom’ - Japanese, Pulse Nigeria wrote, “While Baggins was emotional on Eigengrau and he gave up on love for sex on HENTAI, the sex obsession has since gotten Baggins in love. This time, he has seemingly caught feelings from a sexual relationship.”
AMATERASU continues Remy Baggins’ continued grapple with growth, life’s struggles, doubt, and every other thing on offer. But this time, his response is different. Even though this production on AMATERASU induces energy, this EP is not from a happy place.
While he turned to sex on HENTAI, he’s more stoic on AMATERASU. He is also boisterous, expressive, dismissive, confrontational, combative, rude and vulnerable - all at the same time.
To mark his unwillingness for conversation and to restate his own greatness, he tells haters that, “Ogbeni, koshi…” just after calling himself a “A psycho with finesse…” on ‘Trap Rembo.’
While Remy Baggins talked about a woman on, ‘W.I.G.B’ featuring, Zilla Oaks, the lover boy from Eigengrau and Sakura is gone and so is the lover of sex on HENTAI. He focuses on the money and clearly states his unwillingness to deal with indecision. His patience wears thin as he sings, “What you talking ‘bout, what’s it gon’ be?”
Marred by life’s more unsavory experiences, AMATERASU feels like a cry for help disguised as a battle cry for superiority.
When people vaunt their own greatness as regularly as Baggins does on AMATERASU, it speaks to something deeper issues that they are dealing with. There’s a difference between the vanity of sex and the vanity that Baggins displays on, ‘Sicker’ featuring Boogey.
He might have said, “My guy, gboju!” with incredible dismissiveness and nonchalance on Psycho YP and MOJO-assisted, ‘Gboju,’ but he admits to using music for therapeutic purposes on, ‘808 Therapy.’ In the latter song, he starts with, “They ask me why I never tell nobody what’s been going on inside my head, so imma put it in a song and turn my 808s to therapy instead...”
On the song’s first verse, he also sings, “I’ve been dealing with the snakes though, n***az got me on my toes…” He then speaks about the deep pain he carries when he sings, “So many reasons for tapping out, but I keep on fighting like Pacquiao… My idol couldn’t tell me to my face, he told my homie I’m never gon’ blow…”
Nonetheless, when he’s let all the anger out on Trippy rap music, he gets more introspective and delivers the calmer, ‘No Regrets’ aboard a Trap/Emo beat. He sings, “I’ve been under pressure, waiting on my moment waiting on a sign… I got no regrets, waiting for my time…”
From a production perspective, the Emo sound of, ‘808 Therapy’ might be the least-eclectic song on AMATERASU, but it’s the most lyrically dense. Meanwhile, Baggins’ verse on the Telz-produced, ‘Gboju’ is absolutely insane. That “Pull up on a n***a…” pocket is so pleasing to the ears. And, those drums… Oh those drums are amazing.
But even as he deals with life’s problems, he dedicates one to his roots in the South-South of Nigeria on, ‘Southside’ while featuring three fellow South-South boys who are rooted in this trap business. Veen stole the show with his verse, but the Mariachi trumpet chops on this beat are beautiful and dominant.
Even though Eigengrau has the eclectic, ‘Trippy A** Outro’ and HENTAI had, ‘Freaky A** Intro,’ the music on those two projects was more methodical than on AMATERASU. This time, Baggins makes more chaotic music that finds beauty in madness conjured up by drums, synths and trap rhythms. Meanwhile, someone should tell Boogey that we are sorry. Nor vex, bros.
Remy Baggins is one of the most talented acts in Nigerian music as we speak. The limitlessness of his music and the excellence with which he can sing R&B, Afro-pop, Avant-pop, Trap, Emo, EDM and anything else for that matter is scary. And guess what, he knows it.
On ‘Trap Rembo,’ he waves his versatility in the face of detractors like fallen Nazi scalps during the World War. Just after this writer praises the mixing of AMATERASU, he would like to praise two bars on, ‘Trap Rembo.’
The first one goes, “On fire, liquid metal like indaboski…” and the other goes, “The only bands I listen to are rubber bands…”
In the end, AMATERASU is the second-best Nigerian project that dropped between Thursday, August 20, 2020 and Friday, August 21, 2020. AMATERASU is a curious album title though. On the face of it, it has no veritable links to this project.
Ratings: /10
• 0-1.9: Flop
• 2.0-3.9: Near fall
• 4.0-5.9: Average
• 6.0-7.9: Victory
• 8.0-10: Champion
Pulse Rating: /10
9.4 - Champion
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