Tayne Ment: November 2010

Okay, by now everyone knows I am an M.I groupie so maybe I am biased ( I highly doubt). I am not a music critic or a music connoisseur. I just happen to like music and have an opinion and that is exactly what this is. Since this album dropped it has been divided into two - Those that like it and Those that don't, which is expected, regardless of what he brought out, it would have been the same thing. It seems that for those that don't the main complaint is that, it doesn't compare to Talk about it or Illegal Music. Should an album be judged as a stand alone or in comparison to previous work? I have no clue, I leave that to the experts. I have to say that I don't take my music seriously. When I say that I mean that, I will give everything a chance. I won't dismiss a song because Miley Cyrus sang it so it is automatically crap. I don't care if you write your songs, I don't care if you play instruments,I don't have to relate to the subject matter for it to be a good or bad song - shoo if that was the case that would eliminate every love song- I don't think "conscious artists" are automatically better because their songs are serious. I try to judge each song individually on its own.

My verdict on this album is that, this is a solid album.

You know how when you meet someone, you make a first impression which might be wrong. You get to know the person and then you understand them a bit more. That's how I would describe this album. At first listen, I called it commercial but listening some more, I wouldn't call it that. There really are no club bangers on this album besides Action Film and maybe No one curse. I listened to this album, a couple more times and I decided MI went playful with this album. Not playful as in not taking it seriously but not just as serious/uptight as his first album. It's the reason why a serious message was put in "My Head My Belle" or why "Beef" didn't have as angry a tone as a beef record should have. I also called the album Drake-ish, because it had elements of Drake's punch line (Man I clean up ya mouth, toothpick or When I'm living by the bay, Takwa) but I remember I said that the world is too old not to have similarities and almost every rapper raps like that now, but I revert back to his old albums and MI has always been a master at wordplay. He has clever lines on this album that bring a smile to my face.

The Pros: I like the whole vibe of the album. I like the variety of rap styles he shows us. Listen to Number One, Slow Down and No One Curse back to back and see how different each style was. I like the family vibe, how he incorporates his choc city boys on (OMG, Brymo better not fall my hand on his album, the man's voice is ridunculous). Wild Wild West he sends a shout out to his homeland, Represent sends a shout out from the choc family and Unstoppable shows us how he met each of his fellow Choc brothers. I like how he had a balance of no name guest artists and famous guest artists he introduced me to Naija's john legend aka Praise who absolutely killed Epic. I heard about Waje, who I had never heard about before on One Naira. I liked the beats on every single song, even the songs overall that I thought weren't so good. I like that we have 18 songs on an album, I hate when artists have like 9 0r 10 songs and that's it.

The Cons: Ok, so everyone don complain tire about the skits. I now skip the skits because I am listening to the album over and over but in the beginning I won't lie I chuckled at the skits. I am probably in the minority that sees what his whole idea was. You know...MI2, the movie..to be fair each skit connected to the next song and made sense, at least to me, it was reminiscent of Kanye's College Dropout. He saved naija hip hop or rather brought it to the limelight, had a great year but still went through times of naysayers etc. Now one skit that should be removed and not to be heard of again is the skit after One Naira. Geez Louise, that skit was awful and annoying all at once plus I think the person who voiced Jesse inhaled helium or something. There was one too many, I am the greatest on this album. I have no problem tooting your own horn, heck his job is not easy and everyday I see people tooting their own horns in life and in social media but I hate when things are done in excess (like Nicki Minaj's british accent)but you know if he spoke about money, girls, cars or sex in excess, i'd still complain

I feel like I am blabbing so I will just summarize my thoughts on each song:

Action Film - I think this is my favorite song on the album. Brymo's voice, the beat and the overall fun nature of the song.

Slow Down - I like. Very chill, very mellow. Very grindable song. Did anyone else hear snippets of Oleku in it?

Number One - So, I am igbo and I usually don't like igbo songs. I didn't like this song at first but now I love it. I like how he tries to rhyme everything ending with an ah!. The highlife/hiphop fusion is kinda nice, don't think I have heard that from naija before. Can I mention, I like the way the beat changes when he says "they should switch to Makossa". I do wonder if any non igbo person would like this song. I have a friend who doesn't care for songs in Yoruba because she doesn't understand what they are saying. Sha this songs makes me wants to shake my waist, igbo style!

Anybody - Like I said, I like every single beat on this album, but this song overall just failed like a deflated balloon. I can't tell you what's wrong with this song but something just didn't connect.

Nobody - I think I am the only one who didn't hear this song earlier. I will say I am not a fan(indifferent)of Tuface but there's a reason why he is still standing compared to those who started with him -*stylplus *cough*. I feel like he held his own on this song. The song itself was a sincere song.

Beef - lol. biko who can tell me MI and Kelly Handsome's beef? I thought it was with Mo' Hits. I like the chorus and how it incorporated beef(kpomo you no chop, fish e no chop, goat e no chop, e say e want beef), he gave iceberg one line and everyone heard the Kelechukwu line. I laughed at "Why you mad at my flow, you be tampon?". The chorus did sound like a Don Jazzy chorus though.Oh and there's this beat that comes in at the beginning and at the end, i like that.

Wild Wild West - not one of my favs. Actually I skip it. I am not from Jos sha.

My Head, My Belle - So, I confess I don't like naija songs that are about naija problems and how we can fix it. Not one of my faves but I like the playfulness of it.

One Naira - Men everywhere are dying for this song, apparently we females are golddiggers. Anyways, nice song, nice voice. I'm just bothered by the part where she says "Mu na gi ga nwu garri", it sounds like she is pronouncing nwu wrong. But that's just my OCD.

Craze - I like am, not in top faves but I like am.

Undisputed - Jargo had to have produced this because it sounded like one of his songs. I like am.

Epic - I still haven't met anyone that doesn't like this song. I'm fucking Epic yall!

Imperfect me - Awesome song. This could be the soundtrack of my relationship with God. Give or take a lot of lyrics lol

Represent - I especially like the intro, where they told the girl to wake up because "film don finish", then my voice crush- Brymo comes on. I like

Unstoppable - The piano intro to this song gets me everytime. I loves it. Introspective song.

God Bless You - Soooo, I heard this song earlier in the year and STILL it hasn't grown on me. It's a beautiful song don't get me wrong, it just does nothing for me.

Somebody Wants to Die - Shet! this song go hard! This was one of the earlier released singles.

No One Curse - I hear this song and my head moves in repetitive fast motions all through. I love this song.

Overall. I like the album, it was different from the first two but MI didn't lose his essence. Let me know what y'all think. Do you like or hate the album?

Have a great week ahead!