Based on this “ASAW” EP, am sorry Efe isn’t winning. Not yet.
EP - "Am Sorry Am Winning" (ASAW)
Artist - Efe
Record Label - Matrix Music (2018)
Duration - 23 minutes
The problem with Efe isn’t that he is obstinately chasing music, even with a world of people sensibly telling him not to. The problem with Efe isn’t that he continues to drop records that people find hard to digest, not to talk of enjoying. The problem of Efe isn’t that his music, although has improved in bits and spurts, still lacks the quality required to blow.
The problem here is how he blatantly pushes it in faces, obstinately attacks the people who offer him mass wisdom, and swaggers about confidently with his art. The problem here is that he sees the calls for improvement as a manifestation of hate, a disturbance of his ‘greatness’, and a minor requisite interference for people who are pushing for stardom.
One thing is clear. Efe isn’t that humble guy with unadulterated realness. He’s cast away that show-winning gimmick, that shroud of pretence and showmanship which he curled around his being as he pushed for victory at the Big Brother Nigeria. Efe isn’t that guy hustling on the streets anymore. He isn’t the everyday struggling Nigerian. Efe is not the poster boy for how fate and fortune, (or is it guile and chance?) can smile at a man and carry him to the heights of achievements.
He is a star now. One that has risen above the pity votes, the self-projecting votes of poor people, the collective goodwill of everyday Nigerians, and the shackles of being answerable to his uplifters. He’s got no obligation to you now. He isn’t Efe from Big Brother Nigeria, anymore. He is Efe Money. The personification of the swagger and elitism that comes with having some cash in your pocket in this country.
His new EP “Am Sorry Am Winning (ASAW)” is the musical embodiment of this. He is re-inventing himself into a proper star, devoid of public-ownership, and voter obligation. According to him, he’s winning at life, and his music and branding have to reflect that. You can’t have Olamide on a record, and not claim to be ‘winning’. That song, ‘Warri’ is the only highlight of this project. Energized and uplifted by the superstar, Efe upped his game and showed us glimpses of a musical promise. The next best record has Oritsefemi pouring his soul out on ‘Babaloke’.
But the rest of EP offers a lesson in creative incompetence. ‘Away’, with its pointlessness, and attempt at House, belongs far away from public consumption. ‘I done care’ is an interesting sample of Bobby Benson’s classic ‘Taxi driver’, but it offers nothing else. The drag of ‘Onome’ becomes uninteresting quickly, while kudos have to go to Efe for discovering a way for how not to make Trap music on ‘Yeba’.
Efe isn’t musically at the level that he’s found a way to convince himself that he’s at. Although his choice of production has improved (hats off to Duktor Sett), but there’s something fundamentally lacking in Efe. It goes beyond the obvious defects such as his grating delivery or his lack of a good hook. It’s a flaw in his essence, an anomaly in the soul of his art, a hole in the place where his music comes from. It rears its head every time he grabs a mic. This isn’t time for swaggering and attacking haters. It’s the hour of soul-searching and intense work.
Based on this “ASAW” EP, am sorry Efe isn’t winning. Not yet.