9ice gets in touch with “Tradition”

When you hear the name 9ice, only one thing springs to mind: party rider. Sure he is, as his first album flooded not just Nigerian party scenes, but most African ones too. His ability to mix excellent melodies with his mother tongue always results in an irresistible urge to get up and roll your hips, drop it down, bring it back up and turn it 360 degrees to the point where you start cussing him when you wake up the next day . Although he’s still very much a party-tracks connoisseur, his latest album, Tradition, showed us just what a softie at heart our beloved Abolore Akande is.

Tradition, released all the way in December never really caught my attention even though I claimed to love him from his Gongo Aso days. Let’s just say I was one of those people that thought he was a one-album flash-in-the-pan wonder, kudos to him for proving me wrong. The first track I listened to off the album was Gbamu-Gbamu and like the rest of Nigeria would agree, very good track. I couldn’t get enough of it the first few weeks of my hearing it and when the video came out, fell in love with it even more, well partly down to the fact that it looked like 9ice was dancing to a completely different song in it. Despite his off-beat dance moves, no-one can take away from the album the pure genius of it.

With tracks such as Anytime where he speaks about his humble beginnings and his struggle to make it, you can‘t help but just feel like you rode the waves with him. He pays homage to his grandmother who he says is the influence behind his success as a Yoruba R’n’B artist as she was always using proverbs to get her points across, and also his friend Faheed Ishola who he said he lost in the struggle. It is such an emotional track but with a feel-good beat that will leave you marvelling at the pure talent he mysteriously possesses. I say mysteriously because you wouldn’t believe just one person embodies all that talent. Also, another song which shows you talent at work, I Don’t Care. That track will, true to his words, make you not care. You will actually want to live for you and by your rules alone. “…cause I got God behind me, I can’t fear. Bring it on, bring it on, I’ll be right here” and “….Legally you go enter coma with this flow”. Now how sick is that? 9ice, again, kudos.

Being a married but recently separated man, it’s no wonder the track Once Bitten, Twice Shy has attracted so much controversy, with different theories emerging as to what the song really means. In all fairness to the fans, albeit some bad-belle ones, the song does sound like it was directed at Toni Payne, just for the simple fact that he just separated from her. With its melodic lyrics, emotional delivery and the fact that well, Payne is a girl we all loved to hate just ‘course she got to 9ice first, you just can’t help feeling so very sorry for him but at the same time, putting the song on repeat.

Nonetheless, Tradition is not a gloomy album. I guess 9ice just wanted to show us he’s more than a party rider, but we so much love him for being one. Charging Charger – big tune. I defy anyone to listen to that and still sit down. When I first listened to it, I felt some funny movements in my body, my hips making a sudden movement and my chests jolting in time to the heavy bass, I had no idea it was 9ice urging my body to let go and surrender to the song. If you are a bit on the razz side (yes, we are Amebor.com prides ourselves on being quite posh), then Liquor is more for you, where he sings a high praise of the intoxicating beverages, glorifying it, making it not exactly my cup of tea. There are so many other tracks on the album with feel-good factors like Bo Kini Yen, an anthem for woman-wrappers, Mi O Seru Owo for the hustlers and Respect Is Reciprocal for, well, everyone. Besides, with the release of Tradition Volume II, which is just a few tracks different from the first one, you really have no reason not to love this guy. Appetizer, which is on volume II is an absolute smasher. Again, I defy anyone to listen to it and not fantasise about him, be it male or female. After all these, it’s safe to say our 9ice has earned his stripes as an artist and never disappoints us where his music is concerned, shame we can’t say the same about his choice of women, so lets accord him the respect due, as a musician that is.