Ikigai: Music; Good Music Remains Olamide’s Undying Purpose

“Eniduro” could be a street slang. It could mean “just keep running” in its most original context. For those who grew up in areas tested by torrid, trying times, it could mean “we will chase you pants down”. For Olamide, arguably the best rapper Nigeria has ever seen, Eniduro was a special invitation into his purpose, his world of endless wonder, invention, reinvention and evolution. It was Olamide’s grand entrance into an industry that needed a strong and lasting local hiphop identity, clarity, understanding and acclaim.

Olamide is the voice of the street. He greatly liberated a people that'd have been best deemed second cadre and made them bid for attention they never would have imagined. His contribution to the success stories of many artistes has continuously made him the guy everyone has grown to love.

From a rabid rapper who had so much to prove, he has become a relaxed musician with nothing else to prove; kingmaker that is a candidate for the throne and a beacon of musical heroism. Baddo has become a generational image of hope, and through music, he is living his purpose and entertaining a fanbase that either love his art or adore his heart.

In Olamide’s 15th studio project, Ikigai, he stretches the limits of his strength again, shows an eye to detail that mirrors his incredible imagination and a keen attention to talent, yet again. He employs an eclectic mix of the old and new, barely known and forever remembered, and thrusts us directly without holdbacks into his world.

Ikigai is a jaunt into Olamide’s special mastery of an art that has become first and second nature. He expresses the sheer dominance of his limitless reach into a pool that is just never dry. He has people, those he has painstakingly carved a path for and morphed into global specimens of musical prowess and almost all pay homage to his excellence in a project that is easily one of his finest in recent times. He understands his fanbase and the quick identification of his lapses is perhaps one of his greatest strengths as a creative. While Unruly spelled itself out, it was hardly the parting shot Olamide would have imagined it to be. Ikigai is a yard away from the usual. It is a quick improvement from his last album.

Olamide has shown time and again that he is as savvy a businessman as he is a musician. Ikigai is an offering that takes us back into a world we have left for some time —— is deliberate and broad in its concepts . It offers what Nigeria has missed for many years- good, actually sensible music that combines rhythm, reason, structure and sound.

Ikigai doesn’t wait so long to get going as Metaverse sets a great pace for the groove to come. Budding producer Semzi whom Olamide calls ‘Semzi Bond’ many times on the project employs pure heavy metal that is delivered with invigorating accuracy. One that will definitely get hair cells seeking connections to more of such sounds. Olamide brags about his consistency and skill and shapes up a song that depicts the grand entrance many would have expected from Baddo. To know Olamide is to love lamba and he says he has just returned from a trip to the Metaverse and is back with exactly what listeners want to hear.  The song is the perfect opener for what’s to come and sets the right mood for a musical journey that felt too short at the end… only down to how beautiful it is. His use of rhymes remains and everything else that makes Olamide a legend of the art is fully deployed to perfection. It feels sometimes like a creative imagination on a stratospheric level — but here we are on earth with Olamide still unearthing gems.

Uptown Disco is one - a gem of a song. It sells itself and seals the fate of the project. It won’t fail if it’s made the face of Ikigai. Guest appearance and YBNL star Fireboy brings the heat on the tar very early and smoothens the road for his boss who veers straight into his rhyming engine and engineers a path for label mate Asake who did nothing to kill the vibe. He kept it alive. True to its title, its strong Amapiano beats feel refined and rejiggered in pure Disco style. It’s danceable and a dancehall that will definitely set halls and blocks in endless motion. The production and arrangement of songs on this album tell tales of mastery and no word or note feels out of place. Uptown Disco is probably the poster boy in a classroom of geniuses, if the teacher agrees.

Makaveli comes somewhat slower than the earlier songs as Olamide goes on a solo run in this. It’s a love song curated by a street lord and the delivery of the message, although with sweet intentions, is direct and unassuming. His use of rhymes again comes to the fore as he delivers concepts that need some depth to decipher. His rap mode keeps the mood intact as he tells a love message strewn with bullish appeal, less machiavellian than the title may have suggested. Some classical sax gives the song a final feel of its earliest intention and it provides a bright shadow for what’s to come.

Raw, rhythmic, raunchy; Knockout is barely the knockout but it lives up to its word in the actual intention of the message. The plan is to knock you out in the other room. Olamide goes high and low as the session dictates. He brings some Carpe Diem and sprinkles a little UY Scuti standards on the front burner. It’s all flames now. His fearless depiction of sex is slow, diligent and direct. It’s a shiny message to keep temperatures high and the field is all waters and skin. Sabri picks up the flow as Olamide’s latest introduction into the Nigerian music scene and her expression is masterful: cool, calm, colourful and beautiful. Definitely not the last time she will be heard at this level as she fills the song with some sizzling sonority, some sass and sound.

Hello Habibi, which Olamide had dropped snippets of some months ago may arguably be the song of the album. It is playful, danceable and has buzzwords that can set the internet rolling. While its broader social impact is expected to be seen soon and fast, it will be deserving of every success it gets as the music itself is fresh, different and eclectic. Designers, dollars and Dubai are in consonance and Olamide brings this reality to the fore in the love language women best understand. While it’s the shortest track on the album, it feels strongly like that with an incredible potential to top charts and stay on lips for the foreseeable future.

The year 2024 has seen Nigeria reach its musical past for inspiration and Olamide will not be left behind on that streak. In Morowore meaning “I’ve seen your hand”, he samples Paul Play’s beautiful evergreen song, Mo Wa Dupe and passes a message of hope and belief in the blessings he has received. Although laying credence to the expectations of the world and all he has to do to keep going, the song is Olamide’s message of gratitude about where he is now. He dips into his spirituality and comes out clean with agreeable sounds and relatable messaging. “Don’t ever stop reaching for the stars, and if you fall, you will land on the clouds”, he rapped. Morowore is a deep introspection into Olamide’s sensitivities and his spirit. With even more spirited flows and an enchanting backup and chorusing that almost brings the church in, it is one for the times and will surely last.

Synchro System is no dead song but it is such a glorious exit to this impressive body of work. It fees like the teacher - Olamide bringing back his old boys - Pheelz, Young Jonn and Lil Kesh except that it’s not just a feeling, it’s musical reality, at its ridiculous best. The song, which is inspired by Nigerian music legend Sunny Ade’s Synchro System is unique in its delivery and style.

All three artistes, formerly YBNL artistes and producers brought their A game to the booth and Baddo’s voice, flows and essence as ever is the crowning glory.

Ikigai is Olamide’s latest testimony to the fact that music is his purpose and what better way could he be living it!

More than a decade since he warned the world that it was yet to see anything, Baddo is still full of surprises.