The 11th Olamide is (still) Ghetto-bred

At the 11th album, Olamide capped a run begun since Dagrin's baton in 2010; he still holds the street’s thumping heart. 

See it in how fan hit ‘99’ is stacking 100 thousand daily streams at this time. Olamide nevertheless remains in the studio. Pulling in Asake, Seyi Vibez, Young Jonn, Zimbabwean Daecolm, apogees of the new Africa street, to whizz through Yung Willis’ riser progressions. Feels like 1am spinning in a topless Datsun. The arrangement is as demonstrative of the kind of thoughtful application that defines Badoo’s trademark; intervening verses carry from Asake’s deserving craving, Jonn’s shrewd deal making bounce through to Daecolm’s Shona infused verse that full circles Badoo’s self assured intro. The afro-house record is as distinct from Fuji leaning ‘Hybrid’ or from ‘Special’ re-depicting the beloved smug romantic persona of UY Scuti.   

It was around that time the sound got properly synth-pop. He’d been cult status, unparralled in plunging mobs in hip-hop euphoria, a school field in Bariga. The sound Ikeja, gruff. He could be so much more. It pined all the way through Ghetto-bred, Eniola Badmus star 2018 movie. Then YBNL cut a joint venture deal with EMPIRE February 2020, it was his one shot. The entrepreneur got to work, now he really had the globe spinning to this vision for Afro hiphop. He continually re-evolved the scene, continued his streak of pinning viable talent, investing in the rise of highly successful acts, Zlatan, Bella Shmurda, Fireboy, Asake, TI Blaze. 

The heart of Olamide’s self titled album is the man’s uncompromising stare, blazing, you could say. How you look deeply in a mirror. As autobiographies go, this is a call to honest self evaluation. There is no conventional story threading the album, better, the emotional tones which sketch where he is now; one of the 50 most influential people on the continent, thought of in the same line with Jay-Z. 

While promoting the album on Flow, he tells Korty how co-writing Lonely at the Top, and its grassroots appeal, taught him to stop worrying if he still related to the next chap. Self assuredness, this is precisely how he moves, in ‘Hasibunallah’, prayerfully. ‘Lalakipo’ smoothens any Lojay club banger. 'Indika' is most accomplished, production wise, tapping palmwine strains reminiscent of Show Dem Camp’s Clone Wars. ‘Luvaluvah’ like artwork samples Lauryn Hill’s sole timeless album. ‘Hybrid’ brings the same energy from Lagos Nawa, proving the first thirst really is insatiable. ‘I no fit joke with my last card,’ because he’d double it. Coal city block party; Dj Gentle superintends soundcheck by sharp glances in two directions, presses play to ‘Billionaire’s Club’ because it was an earworm from earlier that day. 

Where the Lagos Review sees a ‘collection of left over songs from various past sessions’, African Folder lauds ‘an artist who is more interested in delivering a tightly woven album that thrives on its curation, cohesion and ambience.’ Olamide has no further points to prove, indeed has moved beyond that game. Olamide is his most globally reaching project yet, including features across Black Diaspora Popcaan, Dr. Dre. If home is living to leave the music pipeline he met a highway, this is where he belongs. Most oft quoted rapper and all them charts. The man in the mirror enjoys what he stares.