P-Square’s Glory Minimises Rudeboy’s Debut Solo Effort

Iyke Bede

Months after the
release of his twin brother’s solo debut album, Paul Okoye, widely known as
Rudeboy hopes to impress with ‘RudyKillUs’, his debut album released under the
self-owned Fire Department Inc label.

Almost always,
breaking off from a highly successful duo or group to forge a solo career
presents the double-edged sword: a dark cloud of expectations from all, and a
silver lining that is an already attained fame. On rare occasions, artistes
possessing the charisma of Michael Jackson, Beyoncé, and 2Baba emerge with
glowing debut efforts to cement their place as megastars.

With ‘RudyKillUs’
Rudeboy embarks on an expedition to gain a place in the stars. The album, a
bundle of 12 new tracks and three previously released ones (‘Woman’, ‘Audio
Money’, and ‘Reason with Me’) – that now serves as bonus tracks – arrived at
major streaming platforms on Friday, August 5, 2021. Of course, with the fame
accrued from his days as one-half of P-Square, it is no surprise the mix of
excitement and expectation music fans and critics evinced.

Impressively, he
solely pens each track on the album, with sound production assistance from
producers Sele B., Orbeat, Lordsky, and Chrisstringz (produced a total of nine
tracks). With no featured artistes, the project is minimalist, perhaps an
avenue to truly reveal Rudeboy’s might. It covers themes that cut across topics
such as love, patience, sex, and ambition, the general ambience is punctuated
by slow to midtempo sounds that explore the Reggae, Igbo highlife, R’n’B,
gospel, afro beats in varying degrees.

‘Nowhere to Where’, a
highlife influenced track, is the album opener. Here, Rudeboy brilliantly
pieces catchphrases and lyrics of past hits of P-Square. With the arrangement
of the lyrics, it isn’t obvious upon first listen because each word is stringed
to reflect the deep emotions for his love interest. In another sense, the
freestyle could be a homage to the now-defunct duo, and perhaps decrypts his
true feelings from the breakup. The track is a brief tour through some of their
earliest hits —‘Bizzy Body’, ‘Last Nite’, ‘Personally’, ‘Possibility’.

On ‘Ayoyo’, he
experiments with sounds of South African house music. Light-hearted, Rudeboy
delivers a potential hit with a smooth lyricism that is reminiscent of
P-Square’s ‘Ifunanya’. It is one of the album’s most refreshing sounds.
Reflecting his ‘bad boy’ status and hustler spirit, the sleek talker latches on
the reggae-inspired ‘Focus’ to deliver an infectious chorus on groovy reggae
beats.

While the
aforementioned tracks manifest a lively persona, ‘Ego Nekwu’ proves otherwise.
On the track, there is a certain calm and knowhow that describes him. Performed
in Igbo vernacular and pidgin English, he effuses confidence that is almost
instantly felt. He was a natural on the Sele B. produced highlife track. Based
on its lyrical context, it would serve as the choice track to marriage
functions in the southern region of Nigeria; scoring him a big win.

Tearing a page off of
Burna Boy’s hustler anthem ‘Dangote’ in terms of concept, he makes a Bill Gates
reference on the grower hit ‘Broke Land’ that samples Joe’s ‘Don’t Wanna Be a
Player’, to buttress the role money plays in everyday living, or the lack
thereof.

Midway through, the
piece comes off as family-centric, but it turns lewd quite quickly. Although he
doesn’t approach the topic of sex through an explicit lens, he masks intentions
with the use of double entendre.

The old-fashioned
‘Something Must Kill a Man’ reveals the plight of a man under the love whammy
of a beautiful woman he cannot resist. ‘Catch Your Fever’, which mirrors
Wizkid’s ‘Joro’, is a high-spirited track defined by rhythmic percussion and
vibrant horns. Its play on words is a titillating trip to the hospital.
Comparatively, the mellow ‘4 Days’ lacks the sexual charge of the other two,
instead, it represents an introverted male, who at face value, poses no harm
but would intermittently use terms like ‘69’, and ‘shift your womb.’

Clearly, ‘RudyKillUs’
is an expose to his dexterity that impacts each track differently as evidenced
on the racing ‘No Gimme Space’ and sultry ‘Hey Mama’.

A few filler tracks
exist on the album. They include ‘Fall in Love’, ‘Ihe Neme’

By and Large,
‘RudyKillUs’ doesn’t deviate so much from past offerings of P-Square, and as
result, makes certain tracks sound dated, but in a good way. The album doesn’t
show an evolutionary leap. Behind P-Square’s shadow, it presents Rudeboy as
playing it safe. It doesn’t possess a standout single but generally good,
well-executed songs. This may be a problem in an era when up-and-coming
artistes are constantly reshaping the musical landscape to raise the bar of
expectation.

Considering that
P-Square sounds evolved with each era albeit heavy samplings, this first solo
outing will constantly be plagued by the mammoth hits he and his brother has
amassed over the years, and as a result, minimising any minor fine-tuning he
has made artistically.

Walking into the
album with hefty expectations doesn’t help the listening experience. But if one
can forget the feats attained by P-Square, only then will it be obvious that
‘RudyKillUs’ is a good album pieced together by a talented singer-songwriter
with an impressive understanding of musical expressions.