By Ayomide Tayo
Album- Merchant, Dealers and Slaves
Artiste- BrymO
Guest Appearances- David
Producer- Mikky Me
Label-
Duration- 32 minutes
BrymO has delivered the best album of his career and of the year.
Merchant, Dealers and Slaves is a beautiful, emotionally rich and soulful construction from BrymO. The singer with the rich voice delivers the best album of his career till date as he faces legal woes with his record label Chocolate City.
While his second album Son of A Kapenta did have its flashy moments, it was devoid of soul. After his controversial announcement saying he was no longer working with Choc City, BrymO went into seclusion to work on his third album. With producer Mikky Me orchestrating the lush and layered instrumentals that wraps the album nicely into a cohesive piece of aural art, BrymO’s soulful and thick voice glides, floats and stumps its way into your soul.
The album is darker and more reflective. On the surface it is the story of a village boy who leaves his town for the seducing bright lights of Lagos city. In his quest for money, BrymO gets wise to the wiles of life. That’s just the top layer. Merchant, Dealers and Slaves is about broken promises, deception, hypocrisy and unfaithfulness.
Merchant, Dealers and Slaves starts with love. ‘You be like my blueprint/there is no plan without you/there is something about you, truthfully‘ sings BrymO on the great qualities of his woman. Love doesn’t pay bills so by the next track BrymO is all about the pursuit of money. Backed up by a menacing guitar played by David, the former Choc Boi’s mind is on money. It’s a playful track with BrymO mocking his empty pockets and boasting to a banker that he will be loaded by the end of the year.
Within the next two tracks, BrymO dumps his girlfriend named Titilope for all the riches and wealth ‘Eko’ (Lagos) has to offer. No one knows what BrymO meets in Lagos but it’s pretty clear that he didn’t meet the Golden Fleece based on the mood and tone of most of the remaining songs on the album. On the brooding ‘Down’ BrymO is disgusted about the sexual merry go round that is happening in the society. Using liquor to ease his pain and disappointment, BrymO on ‘Cheap Wine’ is hopeful despite the gloomy circumstances. ‘You see the good times never come. We take the bad one and drink our cheap wine. Yo da, yo da (it will be good)…’ encourages BrymO. The title of the track also serves as an indicator that he is not living the life of luxury he expected.
Earlier on the album, BrymO made it sound like that he was the one who dumped his girlfriend. On one of the best tracks on the album ‘Purple Jar’, the singer reveals the real reason why his relationship with Titilope ended on the first verse. He was unfaithful. Coming to terms that what he had with her can never be gotten back he moves on to another woman. However his fame and love scars won’t allow him love her wholly. The harmonica solo on this track is soul hunting and enriches the spirit of the song. There’s a line in the second verse that caught my attention. When BrymO says ‘half of my heart has gone famous’ does it mean he found fame in Lagos but not money? Is the whole album some sort of loose narrative about his experiences with mainstream music? BrymO sounds so disillusioned on this album, his wide grin replaced with a thoughtful and sad facial expression.
On the Reggae influenced ‘Everybody Gets to Die’, BrymO sings about inequality in the society. ‘The poor man wants a space, the rich man wants the place’ he sings backed by soulful horns. The singer gets philosophical on the song which boasts of yet another amazing production.
The centre piece of M, D and S is ‘Se Bo’timo’. BrymO delivers the entire track in his native tongue Yoruba (the only track of such on the album). With a proverb that says ‘if you put an egg on your left palm and another egg on your right palm and walk to Iseyin in Oyo backwards, those who will praise you will and those who will criticize you will’ BrymO tells us that no matter what you do in life people will talk. Just do you. This is BrymO’s finest hour as he channels the musical wisdom of singers in the 70’s. He obviously didn’t find money in Lagos but his experiences have made him a wiser man. On the epilogue of the LP, BrymO delivers the title track and classifies people in three categories, ‘merchants, dealers and slaves’. It’s a very short track which ends with an illuminating acoustic jam. When listening to this track you get the feeling that BrymO might be heading back home to his village. Maybe he will end up patching things with Titilope and drink a bottle of cheap wine with his rolling stone grandfather which he sings about on ‘Grand Pa’, just maybe.
BrymO might be fighting for his music career at the moment but the former Chocolate Boy has delivered the album of his life.
Just eleven tracks long, BrymO has created a piece of work that will amaze, astound and more than impress even his most fervent critics. His voice sounds richer and rejuvenated. The production on the album is layered with enough soul to last three generations. And it probably will because BrymO is essentially saying that all that glitters is not gold, a well-known saying. Is it a classic? It’s too early for that. Is it a masterpiece? It is a soulful masterpiece that is emotionally charged with amazing production. Merchant, Dealers and Slaves is the best sounding album of the year – at least so far.
Rating- 4.5/5
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