On Basket Mouth And His Yabasi Album – Best Albums Of 2020

2020 Was The Year Of Albums And Basket Mouth’s Yabasi Is Pleasantly Perfect

Except you have been focusing only on onions, palliatives, Neo and his pant washing business, coronavirus, Gov Wike’s jims and my afang soup, chances are you have noticed that the only people that did not drop an album in 2020 were Bobriski and Dino Melaye

From Yemi Alade to Olamide to Burna Boy to Chike to Davido to Tiwa Savage, Timaya to DJ Cuppy, it’s been raining albums like Calabar palliatives 珞

But the most shocking for me is Basket Mouth’s Yabasi which dropped yesterday.

I was wowed the first time i heard Basket Mouth rap, and that was in 2012 when he dropped his first rap song featuring Wizkid and Eldee De Don.

Eight years after, Basket Mouth reintroduces himself with a 10 tracks album, Yabasi.

Basket Mouth sure knows how to get the best people to deliver his project for him.

Surprisingly, he did not rap nor take any hook, instead, he brilliantly engaged Duncan Mighty, Ice Price, Flavour, Waje, Chike, Ill Bliss, Zoro, Flash, Ladipo, Peruzzi, Show Dem Camp, Oxlade, Phyno, Dice Alice, Bez, Play, BoJ, The Cavemen, Ceeza Mill and Umu Obiligbo to deliver an album of the year contender.

This album confirms that bwess and nyash are overrated like onions and six-packs as the nyash singing musicians left the WhatsApp chat at the mention of Yabasi

The only love song on the album, “Ride or Die” features Waje and Ladipo and it’s reminiscent of Duduke.

While Waje used the opportunity to remind us that she still got great vocals, Ladipo, on the other hand, took advantage to cement his place as the gentleman rapper who though can be lyrically insensitive sometimes, yet a perfect definition of romantic and handsome according to members of ” we like tall, romantic and handsome guys” association of Nigeria 蠟

Move over to the number one song on the album- Pepper Soup featuring Duncan Mighty and Ice Prince.

This is like the song of the album. The song is inspirational, motivational, educational.

And going by Duncan Mighty lyrics on this song, the yet-to-deliver self-acclaimed Port Harcourt First Son could pass for the Pete Edochie of Nigerian music.

His lines are all quotable and it’s safe to say that Duncan Might is an OG in the game.

The beat is a fusion of afrobeat, high life and hip hop and this allows Ice Prince to flow seamlessly even as Duncan Mighty deliver his proverbial hook and verse.

And yeah, “Myself” featuring Oxlade and Show Dem Camp Issa jam.

Every other song on the album is great, you will struggle to skip a track.

Yabasi is perhaps what Davido wanted to do with A Better Time but ended up with give me more time.

That aside, it seems the song has an Igbo agenda. Something tells me that the album was originally titled “Made In Igbo Land” but the onions scarcity influence a name change.

But that does not affect anything.

My rating?
I give it 8.5

Over to you…..

What are your thoughts on the album?

And which album was the album of the year?