With 2face and A1 on lead singles ‘We Dey Vex’ and …
Though there are so many rappers in the country’s mainstream music today, nothing can be said of hip-hop in Nigeria without mentioning Modenine. Dubbed the custodian of the Hip-Hop World Awards’ Lyricist on the Roll statuette for continuously winning the prize since the inception of the award, he releases ‘Da Vinci Mode’, his fourth solo studio album, to great expectations
Punch lines
Typical of Modenine, he isn’t just about making music, he displays why he is considered a great lyricist. …
Adopting metaphors, he drives home his messages with lines that will definitely take a lot of rappers to school. On the opening track, ‘We at it Again’, he distinguishes himself from perceived fake rappers with “…most of y’all are flightless/ the fly ones fly low/…I can make you babies go gugu gaga…” showing and not telling why he considers himself the Head.
His wordplay and punch line continues again on the 2Face assisted ‘We Dey Vex’. He drops lines like “if you love to role play, roll over and play dead/… me and you is prime numbers, we not even…”
One also can’t help but think he takes a jab at Hip on TV who criticized his dress appearance at the 2009 Hip Hop World Awards: “…too Hip for Y’all, y’all can’t rave me/ Fitch about my dress code, I’m so wavy/ atomic number 47, I’m a gee,” on ‘My Life’ which contains spoken words from Afrobeat legend, Fela Kuti.
Love Mode
While he keeps it gangster on most tracks on the album, he still has enough space to play some ‘love Jones’.
On the track ‘Thinking about you’ delivered on a feel good instrumental, Mode plays a Casanova trying to woo. “…My million dollar baby you are my charm/ love the way she flips it to the back/she puts her spell on me,” he goes on the track.
He speaks about day dreaming about a crush from his school days on the track, ‘Love Jones’.
Mode men
Modenine features a couple of artists on Da Vinci Mode though only a few of them are rappers. With 2face and A1 on lead singles ‘We Dey Vex’ and ‘Badman’ respectively, both tracks were killed. Ososensi gives the reggae flavour to the track ‘Tears of Pain’.
On the Mo’Chedda assisted ‘Whut you Want’ the rapper cum singer from the Knighthouse leaves the rhyming to Mode and only sings the bridge. OD and Terry Tha Rapman both provide Mode with stiff competition lyrically on ‘Loke’ and ‘Down’ respectively. Tha Rapman, however, takes the spotlight from Mode on ‘Down’ with rhymes like “this is the freestyle cipher, in the eye of the tiger, the Real McCoy …the rhyme writer, the limelighter only mine is brighter/… been with Hip-Hop for so long think I might wife her”.
Back to the roots
World over, Hip-Hop heads attest that the best rap songs were those made back when Hip-Hop had not been fused with other genres, a thought Mode must have shared while making a couple of tracks on this album. ‘Muzic Lives’ a career reminiscing track, ‘Remember’ and the B.I.G. voice and line sampling self-defining track feeds well on the rap ideas and beats of the 80s.
And the beef…
As promised, the carryover from Paradigm Shift, his previous album, is ‘Death Blow part 2′ standing as the last track. It, however, isn’t a R.I.P Ruggedman track as expected, it is a comic lame freestyle from the one introduced as Joe Skippy.
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true talk… modenine is d best ever in naija… d guy has been doing it since way back… best lyricist, best metaphor user, and d most consistent with true rap style… truth be said