By Ayomide Tayo
Album- The B.R.A EP
Artiste- Phenom
Featured Artistes- Yung, Wizkid, Reminisce, Phyno, B. Naira, Super Kid, Lamzy, P. Chill
Producers- DJ Klem, Major Bangz, Legendury Beatz, TMXO, Josh Beatz
Record Label- Knighthouse (2013)
Duration- 32 minutes
Phenom Isn’t Ready To Be The Best
Two years ago, Phenom, dropped a mean verse on M.I’s ‘6 Foot, 7 Foot’ remix off his mixtape ‘Illegal Music 2’. His verse laced with sharp punchlines had a huge ripple effect. Many people wanted to know the young man who took M.I to the cleaners. As the KnightHouse general trended for a week, many people hailed him as the next king of Nigerian rap.
Phenom has clearly taken the accolades to heart. In his ‘ShukuBamBam’ video, he is crowned king. Another indication of Phenom’s kingly mind state is the title of his EP, which is his first major offering, the Best Rapper Alive. While the young rapper is eager to prove his worth in Nigeria’s rap scene, his EP reveals that he isn’t only far from the best, he is also not yet ready for the mainstream.
The B.R.A EP is nine tracks long, and for most parts is boring, predictive and muddled. From the get go, Phenom doesn’t hide his ambition of trying to crack the mainstream, but his over-reliance on punchlines shows that he isn’t ready. What used to be the main ammunition for a promising underground rapper has now become his Achilles heel. Phenom drops so many cringe worthy lines without remorse.
‘Hope you have your licence ‘cos you are driving me crazy… gotta be next to you, like the letter v’ spits Phenom on ‘Makachukwu’ featuring Lamzy.
On ‘Hold me down’ featuring P Chill, Phenom actually says ‘I’m at the peak with three crowns, can’t take milo…get it?’
It doesn’t stop there. On the DJ Klem-produced ‘Fagbo’ he goes ‘Can I eat in the morning-breakfast/forget it, we will be balling-Lakers.’ Lines like these threaten to suck the life of the project. The thing about making punchlines your selling point is that after a while you become over-dependent on them, and start to produce corny ones. Phenom is certainly in that region now.
When he does move from that region, he produces good results. The introductory track ‘Nobody Tighter’ feat Yung (LOS) is one of the promising tracks on the set. Yung impresses more on the track, while Phenom’s ability to craft non-rap hooks has improved. His diversity outside the rap genre is shown best on ‘The Way’ featuring Wizkid. His singing is actually better than a lot of ‘tungba’ singers in the country. ‘Ashewo’ featuring Reminisce is a banger thanks to the beat constructed by Major Bangz. Phenom manages to come through on ‘Spray the money’, which also has another in-your-face-beat to boast about.
With the little positives found in the B.R.A EP, one hopes that Phenom can crawl out of the stereotypical punchline rapper hole he has dug himself in. To do that, he has to understand that punchline rap isn’t the main strength of a rapper. He needs to develop his lyrics and not generate songs with random bars about nothing.
Rating-2.5
3 comments
Am @ the PEAK(milk) wit THREE CROWNS(type of milk),u cnt take ME LOW(milo) #get the line????………..BREAKFAST is the sponsor of the basketball team named LOS ANGELES LAKERS #get it????…..PHENOM is the B.R.A
Sorry but I have to disagree..Phenom’s EP is faaaar from boring. He still proves himself, true he relies on punchlines but they ain’t ‘random bars about nothing’ as you claimed. They are all linked..B.R.A
I will disagree too,B.R.A E.P is the opposite of boring.. U urself don’t get d lines,doesn’t mean its boring.. He’s d b.r.a.. And his on d right track