Nigerian music in the present day is a fusion of so many forms of music from all over the world, these fusions are so intricate that sometimes they sound nothing like their parent genres. A generation of artists the likes of Tekno, Eazi, and Maleek Berry have made their very own sounds with this formula. Another one of such artists finding his own sound with that formula is Mystro, as evident from his debut album – Sugar.
The album is a ten track compilation of love and pseudo-love songs. The title probably comes from love being perceived as sweet. Mystro achieves the not-so coveted feat of self-producing a project, employing features on 6 of the tracks, and showing a certain ability to match and complement the musical ability of his features: by both picking instrumentals that suit their styles as perfectly as couture coats, and delivering his vocals in an augmenting manner to theirs.
The album art is an illustration of a silver coin, edges trimmed with gold, designed quite similarly to the Canadian one dollar coin (it has eleven sides and little circles around its face). The coin is positioned in space, surrounded by shooting stars. On its face, it has cracks, as well as ‘MYSTRO . SUGAR’ written around it with a side view of Mystro’s face in the middle. Right underneath the coin is written ‘SUGAR’ in gold paint.
The album opens with the disco sounds of “Inferno”. The choice of instrumentals of the song might be what disco lights in a 70’s dance club would sound like if they ever formed their own band. The song also incorporates an early to mid-2000s RnB sound, the base makes a sturdy foundation for the rest of the sounds to be built upon. Mystro’s voice is smooth and free of brusqueness, as the shining melodies of the song brings the listener to slow head bopping pleasure. But between the bright tunes and captivating melodies, the singer’s voice sounds muddled up in the hook as he harmonises with his multiple vocal takes, making it difficult to pick his words. The song, and indeed the whole album, could have benefited from better mixing and mastering.
The end of “Inferno” and entrance of “Atarodo” is mellifluous, it’s not difficult to move from a song about the fire body of a girl to one of how you want her to “pepper them for eye”; after all it’s all about being hot. ‘Atarodo’ is the Yoruba is word for red pepper, the word refrains across the chorus of the song that Mystro blesses with a style spiced with a slight Jamaican delivery over the slow paced pon pon instrumental that makes this one an ideal one for the club. The song is free of any lyrical depth, rather making do with the shallow, catchy and melodic lyrics that mainstream Nigerian music has come to be criticised greatly for by so many of her fans. Despite the criticism though, lyrically shallow music has found a place with the commercial audience, making up for shortcomings with catchy tunes just like Mystro does on “Atarodo”.
“So wavy” introduces the first guest on the album. Ghanaian artist, Eugy, loans Mystro his vocals for the pon pon song. Mystro delivers steady and energetic melodic vocals, switching at the hook to contrast Eugy’s more erratic melodies. Mystro’s hook and verses are filled with catchy melodies, shallow and near meaningless lyrics such as “me plus you, mathematician. Come meet me as your maths teacher” (when you think about it, student-teacher relationships are paedophilic or just inappropriate), and overtly simple rhymes. The closest thing to a narrative the song has is found in Eugy’s verse which still descends into a generic (albeit catchy) verse about a lady. Mystro puts his guest appearance to good use, picking an instrument to maximise Eugy’s efficiency, despite the instrumental sounding like it clips or skips a few times.
On “Nightlife”, Mystro gives us a Wizkid-esque delivery over a trap instrumental. The tunes of a Spanish guitar can be heard making an appearance occasionally in the verses and steadily in the hook. The song could have used more switching up in his delivery as permitted by trap sounds. “Nightlife” ends with a vocal sample that lays just underneath a short Spanish guitar solo.
The Maleek Berry-assisted “Bad” has him – Maleek – right at home on the Afro-fused pop/RnB instrumental, sounding what sound might sound like if it could be propagated in vacuums – unimaginable. Maleek’s subtle patois delivery on the hook, and Mystro’s use of the style in parts of his verses, how they harmonise, their delivery of energetic yet calm verses as the bass line thumps, idiophones, strings, and melodious electronic beeps resonate through the song, make this song worth putting on repeat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84U_fYT3WIg
The Afro-fused RnB, mid-tempo “Juice Box” features Nonso Amadi who assists with parts of the hook and takes the last verse. The native percussion follows the melody of the passion filled voices of both artists on this love song. The song is as sweet as the contents of a juice box, so much so that the almost 3-minute song ends too quickly, leaving us with too little like the contents of a juice box. Thoughtful lyrics glorifying a lover or love interest and lines like “shebi you leave me when I need you, I never see you when I need you” depict the meaning of the metaphor ‘Juice Box’. Again, on this song, Mystro makes efficient use of his guest artist.
“Sibe Sibe” features Ycee and has both artists sing about their blessings to the percussion-heavy, Fuji-fused song. Ycee shows his versatility, singing rather than delivering a rap verse.
“Radar” is a very danceable pon pon tune that has ad libs efficiently dispersed around the song. Mystro sings about a girl who’s his destiny that he keeps on his radar. The song is brief, due to the hook being used quite generously and repetition of melodies through the verses, it is catchy. Lacking in lyrics, but heavy with melody, ‘Radar’ is for the chill and for the club.
The penultimate song on the album – “My Way” – features Tomi Agape. The slow RnB/Pop tune employs reverberated kicks and dreamy strings to support lyrics that profess love. The best thing in this song is the harmony of the artists.
Sugar closes with the song: ‘Ife’ (which means love in Yoruba). The song features Simi, fuses pop, RnB, and elements of traditional Yoruba music – percussions, and the touch of call and response in the hook and bridge. Simi’s unique voice finds its way to the top of the instrumental like vapour bubbles to the top of boiling water, with ease. Mystro again making use of his guest appearance’s strengths by using an instrumental that suits her well as they both tackle a heartbreak/makeup love song.
3 songs into Sugar it’s easy to forget that the songs aren’t mastered in the most profound manner, as the tracks share similar decibels. The album though taking cliché approaches to the topic of love on a majority of the songs, and generally coming off as average or weak in lyrical content, seems to be well thought out in track selection, organisation, and feature selection. Mystro himself seemed to become more energetic in his delivery as the songs went by, moving from gentle dance songs, to more energetic dance tunes, finally ending in slow love tunes. A project that testifies to the production abilities as well as the recording abilities of Mystro, Sugar is a compilation of love songs from a sweet mouth.