Lord Paper first caught my attention in 2016 with the fallout from his debut project, Awurama. The song was released with a music video that had every intention to trigger twitter fingers and incite full blown arguments on Whatsapp groups. It was soft porn.
I remember being mildly impressed by the arrangement on the song. A great part of Awurama reminded me of Michal Bolton’s When a Man Loves a Woman, except, the instrumentals completely overpowered Paper’s vocals which left much to be desired. Nonetheless, it was quite an entry into the music industry. By leveraging the pseudo conservative nature of Ghanaians and the ever present hypocrisy, Paper was catapulted into a trending topic and now we are here, Insecure, featuring Joey B.
When the synths roll in at the beginning of this song, there’s subtle hints of the makings of the perfect soundtrack to a road trip, Jeep Wrangler and everything. Paper is the first to sing on the track but that’s not easily discernible because both artistes have the cadence of a phone sex operator. I like the calmness of the opening vocals, too many times we are served aggressiveness and ‘hype man’ styled yelps on a groovy beat and it just doesn’t work. Which is why I think the pairing of Lord Paper and Joey B works very well in this case because both sound just right for the afro-highlife instrumentals producer Kuvie cooked up.
While the Daasebre sample was very much welcome, I won’t be capping so much for Paper’s lyrics. They aren’t bad, they’re pretty standard. Yet another artiste singing about a girl with only some of the most clichéd phrases ever, ‘when I think of you…start to craze’ ‘you make my heart dey beat oh’. But his chorus on this song is pretty dope and his adlibs were spot on. In fact, one of the pockets of greatness on this track is when Paper backs Joey with ‘Fakye me’; it is simply divine. I liked Joey’s rap verse, he delivered the wit that I personally love him for and I am convinced that he cracked himself up in the studio with that banana peel line. For sure.
In retrospect, some of the greatest Ghanaian songs that ruled Decembers have beautifully worded lyrics. The countless quotables that Kwadwo Antwi and Daddy Lumba delivered to hip-gyrating beats cannot be emphasized enough. But perhaps, these days, lyrics hold the same value as public dustbins in market places, simply irrelevant. It’s the only plausible explanation for songs like Article Wan’s Solo and Patapaa’s One Corner becoming overnight hits with barely any substance to their lyrical content.
I am not quite certain what Lord Paper’s music direction is but I appreciate him for what he’s done on the three songs I have heard from him so far. He skillfully meanders between Twi and English and I find the calmness of his voice quite welcoming. This is a Ghanaian crooner I am eager to hear more from because now more than ever, the culture is ready for more.
juKnowit 