Wizkid, Afrobeats, and How The Nigerian Artist Reshaped Pop Music In His Image

Exploring The Range And Impact Of The Game Changing Album From Wizkid

Background

Wizkid’s story shows how far a person can go with strong self confidence and unquestionable belief. Growing up in Surulere, Lagos the young global super star wasn’t too interested in music. His parents would play artists like Fela Kuti, Bob Marley, and King Sunny Ade around the house, but it didn’t really filter deep into Wizkid’s identity.

The older WizKid got the more he grew into his own musical preferences. Everything changed when his cousin introduced him to hip-hop. In those formative years (Wizkid was around 10 at the time) he was listening to Snoop Dogg, Master P, and G Unit, among many others. Not only did he enjoy the swag, seriousness, and realness of the artists, this was the first time Wizkid wanted to create music of his own, other than in church.

From 11 on WizKid would start making music of his own under the moniker of Lil Prinz. Initially playing in the church, a young Wizkid did his best to network, buy studio time, study shows, and work with producers for beat beats to sing on. As he was crafting his individual sound WizKid went back to those old Marley and Futi records, ultimately finding his R&B and Raggae approach to Afrobeats in all of these influences.

WizKid grew up in a rough part of Lagos but didn’t let his surroundings define him. In fact, from the moment he started making music he knew he wanted to be a musician with a global audience, like the legends he grew up hearing around the house and form his cousin. He wanted to live a life like the international aritsts he grew up listening to. He figured he had the talent and wasn’t afraid of putting in the work to see the fruits of his labor.

His first major studio sessions were with local veterans like OJB Jezreel, Naeto C ane Banky W. The positive response he received from his work on their song’s and albums led him to take his craft more seriously. Thereafter, Wizkid guided his mixers, producers, and videographers more clearly towards his vision. All on the same page, the following years would see Wizkid’s leadership and networking skills pay off.

The interim years saw Wizkid focus on building his debut album and dropping hits to see what stuck. His 2010 hit “Holla At Your Boy” became that hit and helped a young Wizkid received a Headies Award in 2011. He was also busy working in other artist’s albums, lending a feature verse here and helped write songs there.

In 2011 Wizkid was finally given the green light to deliver his debut album, Superstar. As you could probably tell by the title Wizkid was already at the epicenter of the Nigerian pop world in the at the ripe young age of 21. He sounded like he was having fun on the project too, trying fresh flows, and making bangers with his older peers in artists like Wande Coal and Banky W. Overall, the album was received quite well with a small sum of critics lambasting the focus on in-the-moment party songs rather than timeless hits.

Wizkid’s sophomore album showcased his ability to market himself overseas. His western features were impressive, including acts like Tyga and Wale to support his smooth understated brand of Afrobeats and R&B. While the reviews were mixed the goal was accomplished, Wizkid became a solidified mainstream international presence in the music industry. Wizkid celebrated this accomplishment with the follow up project Sounds From The Other Side. At this point Wizkid was big enough to comfortably score a Drake feature and was heralded for brining Afrobeats to new great heights, debuting on the U.S. Billboard Hot 200.

Wizkid had little to prove by 2020, and surprisingly, after all this time, he was still in his 20's! With all eyes on him he worked with producers P2J and Ekojo to build a legacy of timeless music rather than of-the-moment hits for the Nigerian global icon. Welcome, Made in Lagos.

Cool and Chill Afrobeats

From the start of the record with “Reckless”, WizKid serenaded the listener with a sweet and reserved display of Afrobeats. These songs were packed with elements of r&b, jazz, and hiphop and offered the world an approachable side of the heavy dance genre.

Usually the polyrhythms and non-english lyrics throw off American audiences, but this time around WizKid made an afrobeats records made for western ears. For instance, the sweet jazz-centric soundscapes of “Sweet One” could fit very well on a cafe’s daily soundtrack. The song was essentially a classic jazz record with a second layer of west African rhyms.

In hindsight, Wizkid’s careful genre layering on Made In Lagos greatly helped universalize the genre for the post 2010’s era. By the time we get a couple years into the 2020’s, Made in Lagos has rightly become the global Afrobeats standard for full length projects.

Give Them More Sax

On this career-defining project WizKid shifts to a more mature and sophisticated sound. The use of live instrumentation heavily contributed to this sound. We can hear this on the gospel tune “Blessed”. The saxophone was used as a kind of third vocal presence a the track, and supported Marley and Wizkid’s gratefulness for the life they had.

On afrobeat records usually the bass is overused to emphasize the need to dance to the records. For WizKid, the use of bass and bass lines are few and far between.

The rarity of these musical devices make hits like “Essence” and “Longtime” so novel and special.

For instance, on “Essence”, the lustful song feels like a rush of blood flushing your face as you realize how in love you are with this person. On the R&B-Afrobeats fusion tune, “Longtime”, the baseline creates a moodiness to the track that is tapped into by Skepta’s aggressively slick tone and Wizkid’s soothing crooning.

As Wizkid’s fans grow in number and age, so does his ear for sounds that mature with him.

Room For Improvement

I have two sizable complaints for this album. The first involves the album’s general flow. Unfortunately, too many songs sound the same. They’re practically indistinguishable from one another.

I found this to be the case with a lot of the WizKid-only songs (No Stress, Sweet One, Roma etc.). If one or two songs had the chill beats, acoustic led-production then I would have waved it off as making the album sound sonically cohesive.

However, that wasn’t the case here. Not only were the beats similar but the overall theme of them stemmed from the same uninspired place of love and dance.

On “Roma” WizKid is making the girl dance, on “Gyrate” he’s having her gyrate, and on “Mighty Wine” it is whining. No matter how he phrases it, the act is actually the same thing, and after a couple listens, it got tired, fast.

The next complaint is aimed at WizKid himself. On Made In Lagos the tracks with features stood out significantly on the album. From “Ginger”, to “Longtime” and “Blessed” the beats were dynamic, the verses were fun, and the songs felt like they were made with purpose.

Unfortunately, Wizkid’s presence on them was completely unnecessary. Take “Essence” for instance. It’s very clear early on that Tems makes the song. Not only that, but Wizkid’s presence and verse are entirely forgettable and insignificant to the appeal of the track.

Tems has the hook we remember, the tone of voice that stays in our heads, and verses we find catchy. On an album this important to his career it was odd to contemplate just how second rate he sounded next to his contemporaries, some not even on his level.

A Realist With Faith

For the most part, Made In Lagos is a groovy and sensual afrobeats record. A large majority of the songs find the Nigerian superstar on the dance floor with a lady he’s deeply in love with or working his way to loving.

When he’s not asking her to whine or come home with him he’s singing about something else far more sentimental, and that’s his faith.

The album starts and closes with these sentiments. When we first hear “Reckless” WizKid sings about both his gratitude for success and awareness of the challenges inherent in this lifestyle. By the album’s close, on “Grace”, he’s just as resolute in his faith and is focused on running his own race. By the time Made In Lagos debuted WizKid was already the most awarded Nigerian artist amongst his contemporaries. However, with this vision he proudly went into the future with his head locked into future achievements, and with this album it was future achievements he would eventually receive.

While he is from Lagos, with this album, Wizkid’s talents continue to be shared and loved around the world. In a global music space Wizkid showed us how important it is to remember where you’re from.

Album: Made in Lagos

Artist: Wizkid

Genre: Afrobeats, R&B

Review date: 7/16/2023

Album drop date: 10/29/23

Artist’s fourth studio album

14 songs, 52 minutes

Lyrical content: 3

Theme: 3

Production quality: 7

Song development: 6

Context in genre: 9

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