Preparations for this year’s Headies awards are in top gear with organizers making major announcements vis-a-vis the venue, date and the awards categories.
As the D-Day approaches, let’s take a look at the possible winners of the major categories: Video Of The Year, Album Of The Year, Next Rated and Lyricist on the Roll.
READ ALSO: Just In: Headies To Hold December 30
Video of the Year
A scene from Davido’s The Sound video.
We start with the video of the year, a category that rewards the most exciting and creative videos in the year under review. In this category, unlike for others, video directors and not the artists go home with the plaque. The nominated videos are: Simi’s Jamb Question directed by Mex, Seyi Shay’s Crazy directed by Meji Alabi, The Sound by Davido featuring Uhuru & DJ Buckz directed by Sesan, Reekado Banks’ Katapot directed by Unlimited LA and Baby Jollof by Solid Star featuring Tiwa Savage directed by Clarence Peters.
A scene from SImi’s Jamb Question featuring Falz.
These are creative videos by great artistes and directors. Simi’s Jamb Question, filmed in Ibadan, went old school. It doesn’t get more traditional and real the choice of the set was amazing. Music fans will not forget easily Seyi Shay grabbing of Wizkid’s crotch in Crazy Video. The costumes by Meji Alabi were on point. How about Davido’s famous sky dive on The Sound? His management confirmed that the dive was real and not some camera magic. Kudos to Sesan for that. We feel Unlimited LA deserves commendation for Katapot and Reekado too if only for allowig himself get drenched in dirt. Baby Jollof was Tiwa Savage’s last video before she went on her maternity leave. Clarence Peters did a marvellous job in the video as Tiwa lighted it up with her beauty.
Verdict: It is a close one between Katapot and Crazy but we give it to Crazy for its artistic ingenuity.
Album of the Year
The album cover of Wizkid’s Ayo.
Excellent song writing, production, rendition, quality, acceptability, promotion are major factors for consideration in this keenly contested category. The nominees for this year’s Album of the Year award are Praiz’s Rich and Famous Album, Yemi Alade’s King of Queens, Olamide’s Street OT, Chairman by MI Abaga, Wizkid’s A.Y.O and Double Trouble by P-Square.
The album cover for Yemi Alade’s Kings of Queens.
Many will wonder how Praiz’s Rich and Famous got into this category, being mostly R&B based and going against the usual hard beats of Naija pop which is common to the other albums in this category. However, it must be noted that despite the genre, the first runner up of the maiden edition of MTN’s Project Fame did justice to his Rich and Famous album with some well written tracks. Yemi Alade’s King of Queens was indeed a great effort from one of the hottest artists right now.
The Effizzy Music act has some interesting award winning singles like Johnny, Kissing, Temperature and many more. Everyone one wonders how Olamide’s name keep appearing on every category. Well, that is hard work and he sure knows how to woo the street. Little wonder he named his 4th studio album Street OT. OT is short for orientation.
Four years without an album is long enough. M I Abaga came back hard with Chairman. The album topped all charts in its first week of release and was rated in many quarters as the “best outta Naija”. With some interesting collaborations, a record of 21 top artistes on an album and killer tracks, I feel this list would have been meaningless if it had omitted the Chairman’s album. Wizkid’s A.Y.O album housed that monster hit, Ojuelagba a song rated in many quarters as his best ever. The eagerly anticipated album lived up to its billing and was worth the wait. P-Square’s Double Trouble showed the fantastic duo’s musical dexterity. They have demonstrated that over and over so this latest effort is not really a surprise.
M.I Abaga’s Chairman.
Verdict: A close call between Olamide’s Street OT and M.I Abaga’s Chairman. But we give this category to MI for a top notch and classy album. Well-conceived and nice finishing, no track on the album was a push over.
Next Rated
Korede Bello and Reekado Banks
The Next Rated category has five young and promising acts that are expected to take over the music industry in the next few years to come. Pundits refer to this category as the most competitive, considering that the winner will not only walk away with a plaque but also a brand new car. The category being contested by Mavin Records duo of Reekado Banks and Korede Bello, G-Worldwide act Kiss Daniel, YBNL’s Lil Kesh and Cynthia Morgan.
Cynthia Morgan
Reekado Banks has arguably been the most prolific and impressive of the new Mavin trio of himself, Di’Ja and Korede Bello. Korede has also had an impressive year, although his latest single Somebody Great featuring Asa does not fall into the year in review. Aside from his music, Korede also has a likeable character that made him a fanfavourite but I feel he hasn’t done much to deserve a nomination in this category. Kiss Daniel’s Woju alone should ensure that he drives the car home but his follow-up songs have not that been that impressive.
YBNL’s Lil Kesh is a strong favourite even Davido attested to that, a comment that made Cynthia Morgan respond. Unlike Daniel, Lil Kesh has been impressive with hits upon hits and collabos. He has however been criticised for being vulgar but I guess that is what the streets want and is surely paying off for him. This list would have been incomplete without Cynthia considering her dynamic style of music. She carved a niche for herself with her reggae dancehall style. German Juice was a hit.
Lil Kesh
Verdict: The five were carefully selected and it is very close but I’ll go for either Lil Kesh or Reekado Banks they have more fan base and their contribution to music in the course of the year was alarming.
Lyricist On The Roll
The organizers decide who wins this category as they don’t allow votes. It is meant to celebrate that rapper with the best lyrical depth on a song or an album. Questions have been raised about the category in the past as many don’t know what the organizers look out for. Mode 9 has won it for a record six times based on his word play and lyrical strengths. This year has four strong contenders: Ill Bliss for his Bank Alert remix featuring Ice Prince, Eva Alordiah and Phyno, Vector for King Kong, Reminisce for Baba Afusa album and T.R for G.O.D. featuring Veedee.
Ill Bliss’ Bank Alert remix aside from having four very good rappers was a huge song and more of dancehall music than rap. A large part of the song was sang in Igbo but its remix caped it all with Ice Prince, Eva and Phyno killing it. It truly deserves a nod in the category. Vector’s King Kong is arguably the best track in this category. As fast and hardcore its lyrics seems, fans can sing along with ease as the rapper used some easy to understand words to demonstrate his lyrical competence. King Kong was so big it was remixed twice. We won’t be surprised if he wins the category for the second time for this.
Reminisce’s Baba Hafusa the Album, was a little upgrade on his previous one Alaga Ibile. Baba Hafusa housed Tesojue and the controversial Local Rappers, a song that almost created a divide amongst Nigerian rappers with its lyrics. We feel Reminisce’s album was worth a nomination but we doubt its lyrical strength. T.R’s G.O.D featuring Veedee has lyrical strength with Veedee doing the chorus and T.R killing it with hardcore rap. The song might not be popular but it has depth.
Verdict: We give it to Vector’s King Kong for its acceptance and new grounds in rap music; a combination of good dancehall music and message laden rap.
No comments:
Post a Comment