– blckcory
This is going to be another one of my unorthodox album reviews but for a different reason. The reason being is that this time I’m reviewing an album where I don’t fully understand the lyrics. To be more exact, I don’t know what Asake is saying on 95% of this album. However, it’s one of the most beautiful-sounding projects that I’ve listened to this year. I could just look up the lyrics and try to really break everything down but this time I thought, where’s the fun in that? This album sounds cinematic so why not make up scenes to a movie that these songs would play in? With no further delay, welcome to my imagination that I’m titling day four’s review of Asake’s Mr.Money with the Vibe.
This would be the opening track that plays in the movie when the African prince returns home after being banished for years. He’s come back to save his village from the corrupt tryant in power who has taken the throne. He had to cross bare* borders illegally and had to live in unfavourable conditions to get there. However, on his journey, you get to see all the natural, untouched landscape on some Planet Earth-type shit with the opening credits.
This is the song that plays in the movie when the prince arrives back at his village. As he walks through the village, he sees how much has changed. His family’s lineage has fallen from grace and his mother is being hidden from those in power by the villagers. The tyrant in power and his associates are corrupt and have been selling off the village’s precious resources to an outside nation. It is up to the prince to take down those in power, liberate his people and sit on the throne as king, as his father did.
This is the track that plays in the scene where the prince is organizing the people of the village to overthrow the tryant/dictator. Bare people are grabbing spears and shields, they’re plotting in some underground bunker meetings, and the prince is warning his family about what is about to happen. The prince has declared war and plans to retake his father’s throne. He gives the people of the city this motivational speech that will be remembered for generations. Shit had you inspired in theatres like when you watched “Remember the Titans”.
This is the record that plays during the war scenes. The prince and the people vs the dictator and his military forces. The prince is hitting the military forces with bare badmon* combos but he doesn’t really want to do them like that because he’s a peaceful man. He prefer diplomacy first but was left with no choice. He’s taking everyone out but he wishes for their souls to rest peacefully because life is precious.
This is the song that plays in the movie in the immediate aftermath of the war. Some of the village is in rubble, bare people got done off* but for the first time since the prince was banished from the village, there is peace. Children rejoicing in the streets and all that. The prince hugs the woman from the village that he’s loved since he was a teenager and she somehow survived this war so now you know they’re going to be together fasho.
This is the one that plays when the prince is taking his rightful place as king on the throne and has restored honour to his family lineage. The new king appoints all these familiar faces from his childhood to be those that help govern the village as they understand the people. The king marries his queen and they have this whole crazy scene with them on the throne and then a whole great room full of boss-level status black people before the scene cuts out.
This is the post-wedding/crown ceremony music. There’s a feast and all the villagers brought gifts, everyone’s dancing and celebrating the end of an era of darkness. Shit probably looks like Afronation or something like that.
This is the song that plays highlighting this loving relationship between the new king and queen. You start seeing how they balance each other out and how this relationship leads to them having children that will be next to take the throne. They have a son and daughter but treat them equally because this movie was made in 2022…
This is the track that plays during the scenes showing the children growing older. It highlights how their parents raised them and taught them valuable life lessons and skills. They’d take them around and show them the reach of their kingdom, how to treat villagers with respect and to be selective when making friends. This is also the point in the movie where the new king develops some sort of mosh-up* illness and is starting to die.
This one plays in the scene where the king dies and it’s now up to his (now grown) children to take lead on the throne. However, it’s also the same time when the nation that was exploiting the village’s resources at the beginning of the movie has gained a lot more strength and will now try to invade the village and take their resources by force from the shadows.
With no time to waste, this track plays as both of the king’s children prepare the village’s defences for an oncoming attack. Both children grab some next-level spears and shields for battle that we have never seen before. Neither of them are about the games at all. If the outside nation wants access to their resources again, they’ll have to try dem man.
Sungba Remix (feat. Burna Boy)
This is the record that plays for the closing scene of the movie. Both armies are lined up for “the last Great War” or whatever they want to call it in the movie. The king’s children give the same motivational speech their father gave before he went to battle. This scene also highlights the opposing army and their strength before the big fight. The two armies rush to each other as the credits start rolling because Hollywood said they want to make an unnecessary sequel (I also ran out of ideas on how the movie should end).
My point in saying all this is, you might not understand the message Asake is trying to convey within his lyrics but the beauty of music is that when music is well done, you can feel it regardless. It’s one of those albums that I heard the first time and ran back to immediately afterwards and might be there on my favourite albums list at the end of the year.
Glossary:
Bare – a lot, a substantial amount
Badmon – a bad person/a bad man
Done off – to die or transcend into the afterlife
Mosh-up – messed up, to get wrecked or destroyed
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