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‘Boy Alone’ bares Omah Lay’s dicey relationship with fame and success

Published

2 years ago

July 15, 2022

‘Boy Alone’ bares Omah Lay’s dicey relationship with fame and success

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In the end, this is a commendable debut album. Someone should tell Omah Lay to calm down, it looks like he has survived the pressure.

Omah Lay’s surge to the top coincided with a reduction in the BPM of Nigerian pop music. Alongside his youthful good looks, the Port Harcourt native combined sultry vocals with a beautiful pen, picture-esque, provocative storytelling with carefree takes on love, romance and sex.

He would effortlessly Port Harcourt street lingo, pidgin and English to supreme success.

On his sophomore EP, What Have We Done, he reinforced his lyrical dexterity with a four-track session, headlined by the emotive ‘Godly.’ It then became a soundtrack for grass-to-grace stories, just after he got released from a Ugandan prison. He had arrived, and he duly assisted Gyakie, Olamide and Ajebo Hustlers with pan-African hits.

While eye-test might suggest that he had a mixed 2021 as a solo artist, numbers suggest otherwise. But as he soared to the top of the charts and embarked on a North American tour, amassed an incredible female following, and made money, he was battling his demons. And it is a mix of feeling out of place, existential questions, debilitating fears and escapism.

On ‘Never Forget,’ he sings, “From the slums I come.” When you are from an uncertain life in the trenches, before experiencing a sudden turnaround spurt in status, success, reverence and fame, you can feel out of place, and suffer some existential conundrums. Popular celebrities like Dennis Rodman have complained about that in the past, albeit to a higher severity in Rodman’s case.

Some of those things are a product of doubt, while others are a result of unexplained loneliness. These are the motions and emotions behind Boy Alone, Omah Lay’s slightly belated debut album. It is a broody, moody and honest take on his first two years as a continental celebrity, alongside the pressures that come with it, while dabbling in oft-destructive coping mechanisms.

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On ‘Temptations,’ Omah Lay also articulates the painful chasm between distance from the comfort of family and struggles with staying grounded, while being confronted with attractive impulses.

‘Boy Alone’ is one of those albums: On your first listen, you might struggle to be satisfied with certain instances of insufficient production, but you will never miss the depth of Omah Lay’s songwriting, which represents the plot on which this album’s brilliance is built.

On records like ‘Recognize’ and ‘I’m A Mess,’ it even feels like Omah Lay intentionally employs minimalist production, so that his message wouldn’t encroached.

Tracklisting and Manifesto

Barring the position of ‘Tell Everybody,’ which should have come after ‘Attention,’ before ‘How To Love,’ ‘Soso’ and ‘The Purple Song,’ the album’s tracklist details the transition of Omah Lay’s story.

The opening two tracks on ‘Boy Alone’ document his journey as a Port Harcourt boy, and state his desire to not be “a nobody for life.” The next two tracks then cinematically play like the result of the resolve on ‘I,’ on which he is now successful and enjoying the perks of fame.

Perks of fame

‘Bend You’ is like the T-1000 version of ‘Ye Ye,’ on which Omah Lay documents sexual gynamstics in picture-esque detail, till her “her face and her leg dey shake like say she get epilepsy.” One can only imagine the type of sex that Omah Lay gets, to inspire songs of this distinguished ilk.

‘Woman,’ his second single, then discusses sex within the confines of love, intimacy or preference. Asides from calling this unnamed character “my woman,” he also sings, “If I no pull out, she got my back…”

Many celebrities can’t brag about that. These women will rather have sex with no protection, as Future alluded to on, ‘Never Stop.’

With its Ghanaian elements, perhaps Omah Lay could have secured a Gyakie feature to elevate the aesthetics of the record.

Struggles with fame

As Omah Lay begins to enjoy the perks of fame, he seems to fall into a dark hollow, filled with doubt, existential questions and demons, which require slaying. ‘I’m A Mess’ is a territory that artists explore to look like a unicorn, rather than to present stark realities or to look as human as the rest of us.

Omah Lay succeeds at it, and admits to overthinking, loneliness and social awkwardness, while he employs alcohol as a coping mechanism.

‘Temptation’ sees Omah Lay daydream about time traveling to his calmer, more familiar past, with the help of marijuana. This is despite the incredible success and comfort in his current life.

Perhaps the heartbreak that he documents on ‘Understand’ contributed to his mental struggles, perhaps not. Perhaps Omah Lay is just a successful young adult, who is confronted with the gruesome realities of inevitable independence. Perhaps he is just dealing with the success and shock of realizing that success doesn’t necessarily slay all his demons and make everything perfect.

Reflective yearnings, inspired by a fallible, flaky mental state

This bit is filled with happier, reflective records. Perhaps, he seeks to affirm himself to any doubters on the incredible ‘Safe Haven.’ Perhaps, he is strong enough to know that he needs help, only to seek it between the thighs of ‘Soso,’ a song that might see the world dance away to Omah Lay’s pain. With its Makossa rhythms, ‘Soso’ screams for a verse from Kizz Daniel, Tekno or a Latin-Pop artist.

He also yearns for love on ‘Attention,’ which makes far more sense as part of a conceptual album alongside other singles, ‘Understand’ and ‘Woman.’ Perhaps, ‘Attention’ should have dropped after the album was released, not before.

‘Never Stopped’ features a slightly rough and hastily done hook, but he explores gratitude – a positive emotion – through the spectrum of an uncertain future, diminished by positive affirmations. Perhaps the final few minute of the song could have featured a Yinka Ayefele-esque praise session of key South-South people.

Looking forward

‘Tell Everybody’ will be a deep cut and cult favorite from ‘Boy Alone,’ and it sees an Omah Lay who holds a positive outlook, perhaps afforded by his belief in love, but through the lens of romance and sex. After all, he yearns to be taught ‘How To Luv.’

The album closes with ‘Purple Song,’ a goodwill message and demand for unconditional love.

Final Thoughts

Sometimes, Omah Lay feels inaudible enough. In moments like the second verse on ‘Safe Haven,’ it feels like he mumbles his way through. While that might seem problematic on the first listen, it dissolves with subsequent listens.

The production on this album suggests deft beat selection. Even though records like ‘Purple Song,’ ‘Temptations,’ ‘I’m A Mess,’ and ‘Safe Haven’ are rooted in Afro-pop by way of percussion, the riffs that form the main melodies on those beats suggest foreign influences.

The riffs on ‘Safe Haven,’ ‘Temptations’ or on ‘I’m A Mess’ are things that you might expect from an Ed Sheeran, Lewis Capaldi or Maverick Sabre album. It suggests that the album was deftly made with a foreign audience in mind. Even ‘How To Love’ is deeply rooted in House music. These details also suggest that Omah Lay rightly had foreign pop markets in mind while he made those records.

Perhaps Keyqaad could have featured Black Coffee on ‘How To Love.’

There is also an unmissable need to sing more in English. All the while, it’s not ‘on-the-nose.’ It’s very deftly executed, that a listener wouldn’t notice these strategic, smooth blends.

In the end, this is a commendable debut album, which plays like a slow burn Tarrantino movie. Not for its cinematic effects, but for how a listener might reach climax after experiencing the whole album.

Someone should tell Omah Lay to calm down. It looks like he has survived the pressure. This is an album that gets better with every listen; an album which has at least five things for everybody. It is filled with deep cuts, commercial hits and cult favorites.

It has substance, it has melodies and it has depth. Pop albums seldom have this depth and are never this moody, but Omah Lay might have just pulled off a heist. Breathe Omah, you do this one?

Ratings: /10

• 0-1.9: Flop

• 2.0-3.9: Near fall

• 4.0-5.9: Average

• 6.0-7.9: Victory

• 8.0-10: Champion