On 'The Wake,' Ex'O returns with one of the best Nigerian rap projects of 2019 [Album Review]
'The Wake' is a beautiful album from the mind of a experienced emcee, Ex'O.
On October 24, 2019, an OG sent me this album made by another OG. What he later realized was that I already had the album. But what I didn't see coming was the back stories I got about the OG to which this album belongs.
He is a producer who released his first project in 2000. Even if that album's title became public knowledge, you would have to walk a mile on hot coals to get a copy of it. However, what you might remember is that he is the rapper and producer who was most famous for his excellent work with Nuff Noyz. His name is Ex'O.
On October 3, 2019, he released The Wake his first public body of work in about 10 years - if memory serves. The result is grown man raps on wax. Now married for eight years with three kids, his priorities have changed from proving he can rap to chilling introspect about the things that actually matter in life.
The OG even shows gratitude and gives a 'Shout-out' to fans and even haters. Clarity has set in, and the important things are getting a spotlight.
The raps are more personal and nostalgic as they are empirical. Specimen A of personal stories is 'Hip-Hop,' the first track on this album. Another is 'Balling,' on which Ex'O uses football-related metaphors to document his rise from an aspiring rapper who wrote his first bars at age 15 to a rapper capable of flexing and 'balling' on a beat.
Still on the topic of reminiscing, Ex'O and Psalmurai 'Take It Back' with X-ray vision. They rides a 'DeLorean' with Psalmurai as Michael J. Fox. This was before adulting and before the ills of capitalism hit hard. Ex'O and Psalmurai paint a picture of eating in their homes, watching Van Damme and even talk about playing 'monkey post.' The nostalgia piques at 2:33 - listen.
Ex'O's voice is paint-brush and paint. His music is his canvas and his voice/stories represent the art. With a combination of personal stories about his life in Hip-Hop, socio-political critique, wins, losses and other things, he goes deep. The result is an art of a woman waking from her bed - this is symbolism.
A woman represents the greatest things in life. In Ex'O's story, this woman was previously asleep as every thing went to smooth dust on the roads to Ado-Ekiti deep in December. The sleeping woman is good governance. The woman is societal peace and tranquil. The woman is the static nature of Nigerian Hip-Hop. The woman is you, the reader.
The woman is I, the writer. The woman is Ex'O. We all slumbered and forgot to most important things in life both in conversation and practice. On, The Wake, the woman is awake and so is Ex'O. The coexistence of all these factors is that the material things are now getting discussed. More importantly, Ex'O is asleep no more. Through his music, he addresses material conversations.
Ex'O is a realist, a wide-eyed dreamer, an abolitionist and like Ellen Page in 'Inception,' an idealistic architect with his own utilitarian vision of how the world should be. No song better captures this than the manifesto on 'The Journey.'
He gives the floor to RezThaPoet to flex his verbal muscles. As good as this song is, one feels that it might have been better as 'Track 1.' It is a manifesto that encapsulates the entire intention behind this album.
'Odeshi' then follows suit. The song which features LuGHz, Terry Tha Rapman and Omali Yetishela addresses how acts of capitalist selfishness and corruption negatively impacts Nigeria. The negative of this selfishness heightens tensions and strife in a society naturally wealthy enough to afford its citizens the best life.
Like 'Clockwork,' Ex'O effortlessly hits the bullseye on this. The graduate with shiny grades looks for a job. The brilliant struggles and sometimes dies while the undeserving rises high. But ever so predictably, there is always a comforting voice. Sometimes, it's family and for this OG, it's his late mom. But sadly, 'Ain't Nothing Changed' about society but the weather.
Even the pastors got smoke on that one. Ex'O is a realist - as noted earlier. He agrees with Jay Z's idea on 4:44 - the only way to escape the ills caused by capitalism, you have to be successful. But then, he addresses the desperation behind the famous Yoruba quip, "Owo ni koko." which means, 'Money is the most important thing.'
Money might be important and getting rich might be the Nigerian dream, but Ex'O's question is, 'At what cost'? Then comes the most well-rounded song on this project. The production, ripped with muscles of a looped choral chant and armed with the viciousness of pain for AK-47, Ex'O reminisces the pain of B-Elect's death.
He calls the late great a prophet of Nigerian Hip-Hop who has become an angel - no lies there. 'Times Up' is like a sequel to 'Hip-Hop' and it rounds out this album. What an experience.
Final thoughts
This is up there with the best Nigerian rap albums of 2019. I just apologize that it's taken me this long to discuss it - not for a lack of intention, but simply for a busy schedule. Now that we have addressed it, I have two objections asides my subtle issues with the placement of one or two songs on the track list.
The first objection is simple and it is that while there is diversity with afrobeats-based songs like 'Shout-out' and 'Ain't Nothing Change,' I would have liked more diversity. A power of change is in its reflection on art. Contemporary sounds make music more accessible. Thus, Ex'O should have widened the range of the core rap songs with more contemporary beats.
He might have a different audience in mind and that's cool, but the power of a beautiful message is truly felt when it affects a larger audience. These beats don't have to be trap, they just have to be contemporary.
The second obsession is the simple case of juvenoia which Ex'O exhibits on his third verse for 'Balling' and on 'Times Up.' Evolution is a natural course for humanity and 'trap music' is the natural evolution of Hip-Hop. Vices are generational and every generation - even the godfathers of Hip-Hop idolized vices in their music.
More importantly, no vice is non-destructive. Trap kids rap about drug-obsession now. But guess what, 90's rappers rapped about killing their fellow black men. The criticism is unnecessary and it proves the most significant blight on an otherwise perfect album. 'Punchline o jawo mo' which means 'Punchline makes no money' is a genuine reflection of the current state of Nigerian Hip-Hop.
People need to make money. 'For the culture' won't feed people and their families. 'Punchline o jawo mo' might badly reflect on the tenets of fundamental and 'true' Hip-Hop, but people gotta eat. Punchlines are aesthetically and musically pleasing, but they're not marketable in this terrain or any other terrain for that matter.
'Punchline o jawo mo' doesn't make anybody 'less Hip-Hop,' it only means people are aware of modern realities. It also means that they are making Hip-Hop more accessible and appealing. If we don't make Hip-Hop more accessible and appealing, there is no way people will benefit and prosper off it.
Dear OG, if Hip-Hop is still not profitable, that means all you worked for over the years hasn't reached the promise land. People have to be able to eat and prosper off what you slaved for. That should be the goal, not who is more Hip-Hop than another.
That said, this is an incredible album and that blight will not ruin its legacy. The measure of success for any artistic phenomenon shouldn't be purity, it should be evolution and marketability.
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
Tracklist: 1.7/2
Content and Themes: 1.9/2
Production: 1.4/2
Enjoyability and Satisfaction: 1.7/2
Execution: 1.7/2
Total:
8.4 - Champion
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