The Lyricist On The Roll: The organizers decide who wins this category as they don’t allow votes. It is meant to celebrate that rapper with the best lyrical depth on a song or an album. Questions have been raised about the category in the past as many don’t know what the organizers look out for. Mode 9 has won it for the record 6times based on his word play and lyrical strengths.
This year has four strong contenders namely, Ill Bliss for his Bank Alert remix featuring Ice Prince, Eva Alordiah and Phyno, Vector for King Kong, Reminisce for Baba Afusa album and T.R for G.O.D. track featuring Veedee
Analysis: Ill Bliss – Bank Alert remix: Aside from having four very good rappers on the remix, Bank alert was a huge song and more of dancehall music than rap. Most part of the song was sang using Igbo language but its remix caped it all with Ice Prince, Eva and Phyno killing it. It truly deserves a nod in the category.
Vector’s King Kong is arguably the best track in this category. As fast and hardcore its lyrics seems, fans can sing along with ease as the rapper used some easy to understand words to demonstrate his lyrical competence. King Kong was so big it was remixed twice. We won’t be surprised if he wins the category for the second time for this.
Reminisce’s Baba Afusa the album, was a little upgrade on his previous one ‘Alaga Ibile’ an album that housed the ‘Tesojue and the controversial ‘Local Rappers’ that almost created a divide amongst Nigerian rappers with its lyrics. We feel Reminisce’s album was worth a nomination but we doubt its lyrical strength.
T.R’s G.O.D featuring Veedee has lyrical strength with Veedee doing the chorus/spices and T.R killing it with hardcore rap to break monotonity. The song might not be as popular but it has depth and message inherent.
Our Verdict: We give it to Vector’s King Kong for its acceptance and new grounds in rap music a combination of good dancehall music and message laden rap.