By Ayomide Tayo
Album- Frenzy
Artiste- D’Prince
Features- Don Jazzy, Wande Coal, Wizkid, Tiwa Savage, Dr. Sid, Timaya, Bracket, M.I & Yung Breed
Producers- Don Jazzy, Baby Fresh, Altims Beats, Aone Beats, Spellz and Josh Beatz
Record Label- Mavin Records
Running Time- 1 hour, 18 minutes, 55 seconds
Just as he sang about a certain girl called ‘Amina’ on a track of the same name, Frenzy is flashy but lacks substance.
He has been waiting in the wings for quite some time now. After the success of his songs (Omoba and Ooze featuring Wande Coal) in 2009, D’Prince was the next artiste to be churned out of the Mo’Hits machine, which had already created stars out of D’Banj, Wande Coal and Dr. Sid. Sadly for D’Prince, that didn’t happen, as his debut album was pushed back several times. Irrespective of this setback, D’Prince remained relevant, thanks to his feature on Samklef’s mega-hit single ‘Mo Lowo Noni’ featuring Ice Prince and Wizkid, who have gone on to release successful debut albums, and his 2010 hit single ‘Give It To Me’ featuring D’Banj.
After the Mo’Hits split, D’Prince moved to his brother’s label Mavin Records. It was obvious that D’Prince was going to be the first act to be released under the newly formed label. I guess when it’s your time, it’s your time.
With so much time spent in the shadows, D’Prince is eager to show the world what he has to offer. He packs a total of 20 tracks on Frenzy (the deluxe version, which can be bought online has an astonishing 24 tracks).
D’Prince has never paraded himself as a ‘deep’ or ‘conscious’ artiste, so don’t expect depth on this album. What you will get from him are mostly party tracks. ‘Bad Girl’ the album’s opener experiments with country music and rock. The result isn’t that great, as D’Prince sings “I dey pop, I am not a pauper, drinks flying in the air like a chopper”’
Luckily, the best song on the LP follows; ‘Journey of a Thousand Miles’ featuring Wande Coal and Don Jazzy. It is a song that tells you that it’s never too late for you to chase your dreams. In it D’Prince gives his most inspirational line: ‘you don’t have to be told what to do. You just have to decode what to do. Don’t be waiting to be told, there’s a story to be told.’ The inspirational Omoba gives way for the party animal on the rest of Frenzy.
Partying and decadence make up the theme on the first half of the LP as tracks such as ‘Goody Bag’, ‘Africa Zumba’, ‘Carry It Up’ featuring Timaya, and ‘Believe’ could easily enter the soundtrack compilation of Project X (a 2012 Hollywood movie of the craziest High School party of all time). D’Prince makes reference to this movie on one of the standout tracks on the album ‘Painting The Town Red’ featuring Wizkid. “Project X ain’t got shit on us, all the drinks you see is [sic] on us” sings D’Prince on the track with Wizzy.
D’Prince’s greatest calling card as an artiste is his unique ability to turn the nonsensical into party music. He does this well on ‘Call Police’- a track about the recreational use of weed on the dance floor. You don’t pause to ponder when he sings “smoke Igbo, call MOPOL, wheel barrow”. You are lost in the hazy frenzy.
As the disc enters the second half, Omoba gets into troubled waters. The former rapper tries to spit bars on a couple of songs ‘Real G’ featuring M.I and ‘Overdose and Jonzing’ featuring Yung Breed. M.I doesn’t have to go up a gear to run circles around the Prince of Mavin. Both tracks feature a D’Prince with a feeble flow and delivery that isn’t cock sure.
More cringe worthy lines pop up on ‘Shower’ when D’Prince actually says ‘my money wey dey ooze like chuku chuku’. On ‘No More Sleeping On ‘Em’ where Wizkid awkwardly boasts of having a 9mm gun like David Banner, D’Prince drops another wack line when he sings ‘I don grow o, I chop Don Jazzy fertilizer. It’s not something that you find in your Tantalizer’.
When a superhero is in trouble, his superhero friends come in and rescue him. Fellow Mavins, Wande Coal and Tiwa Savage save the latter end of the LP with their feature on ‘Ojoro’ and ‘Ife’ respectively. They help salvage the album as lackluster songs (Chant, Thank You) threaten to drown it.
Truth is, if D’Prince hadn’t stretched his album to over an hour long, it would’ve been better, especially with most of the songs in the first half of Frenzy. Omoba simply doesn’t have what it takes to keep you interested for very long. The production isn’t exactly varied, leaning towards the Electro pop sound.
Frenzy partially lives up to its name, as it boats of songs that fuel your party rage. It just doesn’t take you through the whole night as it runs out of ideas and gets low on creative fuel. You may have one hell of a ride bumping this album, but you’ll be left with a nasty hangover the morning after, wondering where the plot was lost.
Rating- 3/5
21 comments
Oh goodness, Osagie Alonge!
No one, the so called haters and fans, has anything good to say abt this albumm the only person that I know bought this album already gave it to his security guard. In his words ‘its the worst thing to come outta naija music industry and he wld rather have Terry G’ that speaks volume.
Your summatn of one of dis guy’s hustle is wrong and I agree wit dose who cal u bias.
I have heard the album and i must say D’prince killed it,production was on point(ofcourse that is expected)even though it wasn’t all don jazzy.D’prince evolved in this album and laid his verses maturely.I personally like 14 tracks in it,14/20(excluding d skit)z way above average,dats 70%.Now the question is why z NetNg so biased dat u rate it a “3” which z 30%,some might rate it average,but definitely nt below,y’all should quit thrashing other people’s hardwork,especially when the work is obviously good,i only regret reading this rating and i’m sure subsequently others would notice how bitter and biased this site,when that time comes,y’all’s opinion would not matter anymore.This is totally unprofessional,NETNG GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER!!!
I bought the album……
boring to be honest..24 songs?? i would rate it @ 2.5… im not hating!
I BOUGHT THIS SONG….. GREATEST MISTAKE…
@bc thanks for giving it to your gateman at least you have told the world that a domestic staff has more style than you. This is a baised and untrue review of the album. Firstly, an artist comes out with 21 tracks which have not being heard before.Kudos D’Prince that is creativity at its best. In all your bais my columinist you still acknowledge that he has some party bangers, well tell me the party bangers by p square or tuface which are tiring and in fact are valid content wise considering you had to pull out bars from each of his songs. Comeon in a society where review have no impact to album sales I expect that critics should at least give the album 2 week shelf life before passing judgement. This is where you premature review comes in Mr Ayomide Tayo. If you are asked which songs will be accepted by potential listeners ,even if you fail to acknowledge that there are very few albums that have a 100% tracks success rate, you will still have no clues.
This album is creative. Mavin learnt from their last album, which had serious volume limitations, to boost the mixing and sound of this album which in my opinion was spot on. Like artists will say if you ant to enjoy a cd play it in your ride and if the sound quality comes good it is of superior quality. This album makes it
My rating of this album after listening to it a record 6 times
sound quality 8.5
creativity 9
collaboration success: D’Prince united the north, south, east and west in this album by featuring M.I, Timaya, Bracket,and Whiz Kid plus wande, bracket, tiwa and of course Don Jazzy
Album Photography : 10
Production: 8
Longetivity: D’Prince will eat from this album for at least 2 summers
Please Ayomide be objective
Get a life liar!!! i bet you dint buy that album!!!
How can you listen to it 6 times??
This site is not a primary school site!!
Damola and scope knight plz note that the rating is over 5,that said i agree with u guys,i think the album was thrashed on here with some of the comments,how can u say “bad girls” didn’t come out well,no worthy mention of “by myself” and “because of love”,this is not even an in depth review,the unknown blogs would give a much better review.3/5 is not bad,but the question is,with the few tracks that the writer commended how come he still found it worthy to give a 3,personally i rate it “3.5”
I bought this album with my Hard earned Money
I must say this is the wort review i have seen in my whole life!!!!!!
How can you give it a 3?? For the Love of God!¬!!
This album DESERVES NOTHING MORE THAN A– 2/10
I have written a serious complaint…. i need a f.c.u.k.ing REFUND!!! AHhhhh
I have 2 things to say about this review I jes read thru- the fact that Mr. Ayomide needs to be more objective in reasoning and that reviewing an album aint all bou writing. The album was cool but for few ugly tracks.
I would give this album a 6/10. Mainly because of the teasons you stated. The album did not need to be 21 tracks long. 12 tracks woyld have sufficed, and the album could well have been a classic. The main thing missing from this pr
I would give this album a 6/10. If the album had been cut down to 12-15 songs, the album could easily be a 7.5 or 8. The steamy cover and banging beats can’t make up for D’Prince’s inadequacies. He definitely needs a song writer and needs to work on his delivery. I was a bit scared that music websites and blogs would drink the Kool Aid and kiss his ass, saying how wonderful the album is, but I’m glad you gave the album an honest review in your own opinion, not paying attention to fans who follow blindly whether material is good or not.
It is very depressing that such an album will be rated three mics. For God’s sake, are we using the universal worldwide rating, or we have a “Naija Mediocre Rating”? What would you rate Carlos Santana’s “Supernatural” album which has won 9 Grammy awards, and gone 30 times platinum?! 10,000/5 ?!
The description of the album you gave is quite accurate, and I agreed with you all the way, till you gave the album an exceedingly high pass mark of 3/5. Personally, I wouldn’t rate “Frenzy” more than 1/5. It’s an abysmal performance by an individual who possesses not even a single artistic bone in his being. The only reason for the existence of this album is that D’Prince has FREE access to a studio, and his brother is a producer.
Some of the so-called punchlines almost threw me into a fit. ‘my money wey dey ooze like chuku chuku’?! SERIOUSLY?! I don’t even expect such daft lines from an almajiri.
I’m really disappointed that in The country I live today, nepotism has eaten so deep to the extent that a man will by-pass millions of talented Nigerian youths, and try to force art on his Philistine sibling. God help us all!
Honey, you have said it all. Mediocre doesnt even come close. This ‘album’ (and i use that word very loosely) is absolute rubbish. The ridiculous album art alone should have taken out one point. Ive often said that Don Jazzy’s ultimate test as a producer will be to produce a successful album for his aburo, so far that has not happened, and honestly its not even Jazzy’s fault. theres only so much a producer can do. when the artist is dropping stupid lyrics that make no sense, there’s only so much the beat can salvage.
Mr. D’Prince needs to look for another 9-5 cuz this music thing is not working and even Timbaland can save him at this rate.
I’d give it a 1, just cuz he’s Don Jazzy’s bro 🙂
Thank God this reviewer is not the only person with access to the net and the tracks in particular.
I am more interested in his silly and hare brained analysis of the track titled ‘real g’. He claims MI killed it but i have listened and share it with friends and everyone of them agreed D’Prince and not MI killed it.
advertizing your ignorance and induced hate of an otherwise good album won’t make a scratch. It is the buying public that determines the success or otherwise of an album.
oliver twist did not rate much according to your review but it went on to be dbanj live wire till date.
Go make a hole in the river for you are not worth the tag, reviewer.
Its so very clear dat the net is being paid 4 dis shit dey wrote here,am so disappointed wit u guys.@ d’prince ur frenzy album is soooooooooo hot and I love it.
To hell with ur stupid rating,u guys are so blind,bias and deff.omoba frenzy is da bomb and we ur esut fans soo much love it.
You are freaking biased. cuz people read the wack stories you post online doesnt make you the best. this just make you look more stupid. I put my real name and my email there #CallPolice.
#whats on my mind?# where are the real talents in Nigeria? when will iHear something that wont make Rick Ross remind me of my suffering? re there no good song writers & singers in Nigeria??
This journalist just blabbed RUBBISH! WTF?? U’re not meant to talk this way as a journalist. If u have personal grudges against him, then keep it to damn urself. This is so not right and very unfair. Why didn u complain about iyanya? Mtchew. Frenzy is the ish. Stop hating and start supporting.
Its really sad that you can type….people like you are meant to be in the rehab and not the internet! Ure a big loser, who cant even recognise good music. I bet u can buy Tonto’s full album and buy for ur whole village too. NITWIT!