Timaya Broke to the music scene in Nigeria for almost a decade and a half and has not slowed down on his sound. A musician who has built his brand as a dance hall artist with tales of struggles from the hood to women never disappoint. Chulo Vibes which is a new extended play album from the Dem Mama soldier will have any dance hall in Nigeria to the Caribbean on fire when a Disk Jonkey decides to play his vibe. Recently, Timaya had his music deviate from the normal music done in Nigeria. He has been highly influenced by the sounds from Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and the Bahamas. Chulo Vibe album is a compilation of Caribbean Sound with very different blend of Afropop sounds. This separates him from other Nigerian musician who have been stock up under the large hands of poppon Afropop/Afrobeats sounds. The album is groovy and will keep him very relevant in the Nigeria and the world. Compared to other albums released by Timaya; Chulo Vibes Album can be regarded as one of the lowly placed album in terms of ranking because Timaya has spoilt his fan with good music.
THE THEME
Timaya has grown up in terms of lyrics and his ability to diversify his stories. Once upon a time, he only had one topic sentence in his music, but this album sees Timaya diversify into different topics. “Balance” has him tell a short stories of his journey to Lagos City Nigeria to pursue his music carrier. He states that when he was going to Lagos city that he was only concerned with making people dance and making money. Going back to some elements of Gospel music which is one of his musical strength, he makes the song titled “I can’t kill myself”. He talks about the criticisms he has endured since he started music commercially. He declares that people never get satisfied with what he does and even alleged that people even claims that he is involved in the use of voodoo in music.
In a slow tempo Afropop -RnB which could get a lady working her waist line from side to side; Timaya made a song title “Obrigado”. A love song that is kind of disappointing from Timaya on his relationship. He acknowledges that the lady he is dating is beautiful and a wife material. However he tells her that he is not the man who will walk her down the aisle because he is not ready to take that step in his life.
Alikiba joined forces with Timaya on a song titled “Number One” as they sing about the love he enjoys from female friends. On same vain Burna Boy teams up with Timaya as they made a song titled as “Pull up”. They sing about being unnoticed when they were not stars but wonder why people are labeling them proud now that they are stars paying them back in their coin. “Happy” has Timaya sing about working hard to stay happy and has no time to please people who are not adding anything to his life and carrier
“Stoopid” is a song that describes the state of mind of a person who is on the move and ready to have mad fun; with zero regards for people around him. “The mood” which is another song that discusses his state of mind as it regards people who are not positively adding to him. He declares that his mood is like a freeway on a steady move with zero regard to haters. He adds that all he is about is making more money and enjoying life. Finally in “Akuna”; Timaya sings about falling loving a commercial sex worker. He declares his love for his sex worker lady (Akuna) stating that he is ready to get married to her irrespective of who and what she is.
THE PRODUCTION
In an album that is dominated that with Caribbean musical flairs, it can be said that it is influenced by a lot of Igbo High-life music. A song like “Balance” sounds like a typical music made by local Igbo Musicians in Nigeria. STG working with Timaya made a song that sounds that has Igbo song. Also “I can’t kill myself” has the beat sequenced to sound like fusion of Legendary Bright Chimeze’s Zigma sound to Fela’s Afrobeats sound. This is so because while the slow tempo sound and vocals has high influences from Zigma sound; the Keys and percussion has high resemblance to Fela sounds.
In the RnB sound in “Obrigado” had Timaya fuse some elements of trap into a slow beat Caribbean RnB. The love song will drive any lady into a slow saucer dance. The Caribbean sound can also be traced in “stoopid”, however elements of koto sounds can be heard when listened to carefully.
“The Mood” is a song that is really groovy with a lot of Caribbean content. There is distorted play of some Reggae tune and can be best noticed in the interlude after the first chorus. And just like the other songs, it also has a lot of Afropop influence in it with the percussion sound closer to ponpon sound. In “Number one”, there is also another evident presence of Caribbean sound with Alikiba adding his sauce to it. “Pull up” has Timaya make a Caribbean sound with Afrobeats fusion there is dominated by a hard snare and Shekere play
In general the album was produced to make people dance and feel the music. All the beats are good and can achieve that however some song will perform better than others.
POSSIBLE HITS AND FLOPS
The best songs in this album is obviously “The Mood”. The message, beat and turn up potential is massive. The progression is steady and has the potential to drag anybody into a wild dance. Another song that is worthy of mention is “Obrigado”. Although it is a slow tempo song, it has a good drive time sauce in it that makes it enjoyable at any time of the day.
“Pull up” could be a hit because of the feature of Burna Boy. There is this buzz that a musician like Burna brings to song and that will affect “Pull up”.
The flop of this album is “Stoopid” because the song is going to be loved based on perception of people. Some people might find it rude while some find it funky and groovy. However the flops of this albums can be regarded as hit from some musician because all the songs will make anybody dance all night.
