My Thoughts On More Love, Less Ego

Wizkid's fifth album doubles down on his pro-maximalist views on life right now.

'More Love, Less Ego' is here, and Twitter has been vocal about Wizkid's latest album.

The bigger the artist, the bigger the reactions and Big Bird is as big as it gets in Afrobeats. 

Here are my thoughts about the album.

Wizkid doubles down on the silky arrangement of his previous effort, 'Made In Lagos'. This new album is a lush and plush product. The colour of the album artwork, purple, understates his royal and wealthy status in the Afrobeats universe.

Wizkid is in rarified air, and his new album endears itself to an aesthetic of luxury and opulence. There is no hint of stress, strife or struggle on this album. The food is exotic, the weed strain is ice-cream cake, and the cars worth over N1bn give off heavy Cartel vibes.

'More Love, Less Ego' is an auditory mood board for restaurant-curating, Ilashe cruising bad bi*ches with the perfect bathroom thirst traps. For them, chef Wizkid's plate of pasta suits their posh palate. It gives pleasure pampering.

This new album is the foreign POV/imagination of what Lagos feels, sounds and looks like within the Victoria Island-Ikoyi-Lekki Phase 1 elite enclave.

For some, Wizkid's taste might be too rich or repetitive of his last album, but he is determined to release albums reflective of his state of mind. Gone are the days (at least for now) of Wizkid dropping smash 'n' grab, populist albums.

Afrobeats is not a monolith. A decade ago, the formula was to conceive an album of intense mass appeal via club bangers. These days, singers have stripped themselves of that pressure and are now delivering narrow, laser-focused albums.

The albums from Omah Lay and Ckay this year are more reflective of their tastes than the ambition to blitz the industry. Asake falls into this category of mainstream dominance. This year, the grill-grinning, Gucci-wearing, dread-rocking act used a flame torch to burn the charts with an intensive populist strategy. And for now, this is his modus-operandi. Not many are following his path.

One size fits all doesn't apply, at least these days. Wizkid has been there and done that. Now, he wants to bring you to his world of eros, King Charles III pound notes, indica smoke and white toes. 

He might live fast, but the music is unhurried ("And I've been living fast life, but I see it in slow-mo" - Pheelz).

'More Love, Less Ego' is devoid of common-man sentiments. The luxury, wealth and pleasure are not aspirational on this album. It's a testimonial, a snapshot of the big bird perched on Big Ben.

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