I get it, it's all about being emotional when the unexpected becomes sudden, but in this part of the world we Africans have way too much adrenaline to celebrating the unexpected.
OK, Beyonce's sound-track album "The Gift" - inspired by the live-action remake of popular "The Lion King" - dropped officially last week, and expectedly everyone across the black continent has been "jumping off" the roof especially here in Nigeria where someone who has never been interested in Nigerian music suddenly becomes an instant fan!
Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that Nigerian artistes and indeed African artistes were featured on The Gift album, but there are still some obvious flaws that needed to be observed - and that's what this quick review is about. This piece is not meant to hate or degrade any individual or brand, it is DEVOID OF BIAS OR SENTIMENTS and just stating the clear facts not emotions.
But first, here are a few facts you might not know about the newly released live-action remake of "The Lion King":
* The much-anticipated "The Lion King" cost Disney productions a huge budget of about $260Million to make.
* Remake of the flick is the most expensive live-action movie ever by Walt Disney, followed by recently released live-action remakes Aladdin ($183Million) and Jungle Book ($175Million).
* Lion King remake is the second highest earning movie release ever for a first-day release in the month of July, raked in about $78.5Million - just behind "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II" which earned a whopping $92Million in its first day of premiere.
* At the moment of writing this piece (Sunday July 21, 2019) the movie has already hit $192Million in earnings worldwide.
Now that is out of the way, let's get into the crux review on the African collabos on the soundtrack album, it is a quick one with just three (3) observations...
* First, I reteirate that I'm glad that some African music artistes were featured on the album, but I'm wondering why there wasn't any Kenyan act on the project. There's no logic to suggest that no Kenyan artiste right now wouldn't do a great job on that compilation - not even Sauti Sol, Nadia Mukami, Bensoul, or Makadem? Cognizance of the fact that the movie itself was heavil researched in Kenya, having atleast that Kenyan feel wouldn't have been a bad idea, right?
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| Burna Boy (left), Wizkid (right) |
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| Yemi Alade (left), Tiwa Savage (right) |
* Second, if you are one of those who think because some of your favorite Nigerian acts were featured then it becomes an automatic ticket for a Grammy Award - maybe you need to think again.
Some months back when whole lot of #TeamWizzy fanatics were hoping Drake's collaboration with Wizkid & Kyla in "One Dance" could land Starboy a Grammy, what eventually happened? The song didn't win an award at the 2019 Grammy Awards, instead it was Drake's "God's Plan" that won his only award for Best Rap Song! These "things" have a "natural way" of settling out, fans of Wizkid or any other featured Nigerian artistes might as well just forget that hope of any Grammy now...no hope really.
* Third, I think for me - for the records I am no huge fan of any of the Nigerian artiste featured on this album, my favorite still remains Olamide - the one Naija artiste that stood out among the rest on the album has been Burna Boy...way better than Wizkid (forget all the noise & hype from #TeamWizzy fanboys). Burna Boy has a unique way of easing through any tempo of song, thus no surprise he is the only Nigerian act who had a solo song "Ja Ara E" on "The Gift" music project without being featured.
However, I couldn't understand why Tiwa Savage was struggling with the rhythm or trying too hard to impress on the song "Keys To The Kingdom". Maybe that's why she wasn't given any opportunity to co-write on any of the songs on the album, while Yemi Alade had significant song-writing credits for not one but two (2) songs "Don't Jealous Me" and "My Power" - I guess that settles the argument on who's a better all-round female artiste between the two!
African acts featured on The Lion King "The Gift" album included Burna Boy, Mr Eazi, Busiswa, Moonchild Sanelly, Shatta Wale, Yemi Alade, Salatiel, Wizkid, Tiwa Savage, and Tekno.
Feel free to drop your comments on this...
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