Chronic

Davido, master builder conquering the afrobeat

Davido, 2019 © Johnny Nunez / Getty Images

11/12/2019

Listened to by a large part of the African youth who made it one of his reference artists, the Nigerian singer Davido fervently waves the flag of the urban Afrobeat to try to rally to his cause an ever wider audience, especially in Atlantic. With A Good Time , his new album, he does not lack arguments.

He ended up following the conventions of the music industry, to go into the mold even if it has completely distorted since the advent of digitalization and new ways to consume music. With A Good Time , Davido finally gives a successor to his debut album Omo Baba Olowo, The Genesis released in 2012.

Meanwhile, with isolated tracks clipped as it should and broadcast on all traditional channels or 2.0, he became one of the stars of Nigerian music. His influence spread first across the continent to artists of the new generation and then beyond, as evidenced by his recent participation in the double album Poison or Antidote Franco-Congolese Dadju.

During the "seven long years" that separate her two discographic projects, the 27-year-old artist assures on her Facebook page that she has "gone through a process of significant changes". He sums it up in a few sentences: "In sad moments, I lost loved ones, family and friends, and in the happiest moments I created lives (Imade, Hailey and David Jr). fought all kinds and on all fronts: spiritual, physical, mental, emotional and even political. "

The author of what he calls "the album of the century" explains that A Good Time "talks about this ability to trust what's going on in your life, to appreciate the good times and to persevere when that happens. This is no time other than the present and it's A Good Time (NDR) to be alive, to be a PROUD AFRICAN (sic) and to fight for the freedom of one and the other - in unity ".

The cover of the album is the illustration of his words. On the front, to evoke pleasant moments, a drawing that combines both the inspiration of the Lord's Supper and that of a party that could take place in a large villa in Miami, with the appropriate pomp, and as a central character a Davido climbing on the table to dance. In short, the party, under palm trees and party favors. On the back, alongside his father Adedeji Adeleke, one of the country's biggest fortunes, the singer collects himself in front of a neoclassical statue of his dead mother.

Plethoric numbers

Of the seventeen titles (sixty minutes total), a few have already contributed to the popularity of the artist and it would have been difficult not to include them, such as If and Fall published in 2017. As a teaser released in July, Blow My Mind had also perfectly fulfilled its objective: thanks to this duet with the r'n'b King Chris Brown, the Nigerian came back in the game by ahead of his compatriot and ex-best enemy Wizkid in the race with a million views, reaches only eleven hours after uploading the video!

Recorded in a multitude of places (London, Los Angeles, Lagos, Accra, Atlanta) but with a unit of undeniable style, A Good Time is a company that has recruited throughout Naija music, this urban Afrobeat of the 21st century where programming have replaced the instruments. The division of labor as much as the division of tasks impresses. The numbers are plethoric: there is sometimes for a single piece not less than five co-authors who are also co-composers!

The project manager has made sure to take the appropriate people to his service. For example, the producer P2J, bridgehead of the Afrobeat in the West, very present on the album The Lion King: The Gift of the queen of r'n'b Beyoncé, marketed in July in parallel with the release of the film The Lion King . Or the singer Naira Marley, rising sulfurous value of the local scene, who stood out with I Am A Yahoo Boy , identifying with the cybercriminals of the famous "Nigerian scam". There is also Jamaican Popcaan, who had already shared the microphone with Davido in 2017. This time, he comes for a featuring on Risky in a spirit similar to that he had done on Controlla by Canadian rapper Drake.

In front of a fried fish with okra sauce, in a video for the Spotify streaming platform, the one who is one of the most influential African artists today unveils the line he seeks to follow and the intentions that drive him: "I am half American and half Nigerian When I satisfy my Nigerian fans, my American audience does not understand what I say and blame me for it.When I make music, I always have in mind that I'm talking to two kinds of people. "

In fact, this led him to overcome this duality and define a common ground, which he refines a little more the perimeter on A Good Time , on the artistic level. Beyond apparent calculation and strategic considerations.

Davido A Good Time (Columbia) 2019
Official website / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram

By: Bertrand Lavaine

Davido

Afropop - African Music - Nigeria - album

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