Choosing the right stage name is often the most important, yet most difficult, decision in an artiste’s entire career.
There’s no right or wrong way to go about it but there are some ways that are less imaginative than others, and adapting common terms or words like “Future” or “Common” or “CDQ” is certainly one of them. The challenge with those kinds of stage names is that it’ll be an uphill battle to distinguish yourself in nearly every facet of public life going forward, except you literally start making a name for yourself and – among your specific audience at least – that name becomes nearly as popular as the word you’ve adopted.
That’s the point that CDQ is now at with Nigerians. Nowadays if you run a Google search for the initials C-D-Q from anywhere in the country, chances are that the rapper’s name will come up first, which goes to show you just how impactful he has been in the last couple of years.
Originally an English-spitting MC, CDQ says his mentor DaGrin encouraged him to ditch the colonial language for his colloquial language, and he’s been making Yoruba rap magic to beats ever since. The beats on Quality were 100% provided by the musically diverse Masterkraft, the ace producer strips down the beat on “4AM” and adds a trap bounce to “Talosobe” to allow CDQ the space to talk candidly about his journey in the game on the former and to get somewhat introspective on the latter. But he adds layers to “Ferrari” and “Sun Seyin” that distract you from just how mindless but entertaining those songs really are.
The producer showed his versatility by mixing different sets of elements on the same song too, elements that are Nigerian and indigenous to us but also elements that are global and foreign. A perfect example is the dark “Olowo” (featuring Reminisce) which incorporates talking drums and drum machines but doesn’t lean too heavily towards either Yoruba folk music or American hip-hop; that’s the space that CDQ operates in a lot of the time. It was interesting to see just how his actual rap style contrasts with Reminisce’s on the record. Whereas Remi makes an effort to infuse some depth into his verse with the sparing use of street slangs, CDQ’s music is that way by default. His music is for the inner street, for the backwaters of Mushin and Somolu.
There are a number of other interesting features on Quality that broaden its appeal however, from Iceprince (on “Shanawole”) who CDQ used to open up for and Gabanabwoy his label mate (on “Otishe”) who probably now opens up for CDQ. But one feature in particular caught my eye and that’s Banky W (on “Odikwa OK”). On an otherwise grimy but occasionally fun album, this song provides a perfect balance because it talks about the feeling of being in love. I cannot therefore explain to you just how relieved I was to find that CDQ didn’t ruin his heartfelt raps with his trademark ad-libs, placing them only at the start and end of the song instead.
I’ve been thinking, CDQ probably has the worst ad-lib in Nigerian music right now – why on earth does he feel the need to psst every time like he’s a trader in Balogun market trying to get a customer’s attention? I know the man isn’t trying to prove that he attended etiquette classes during his LASU days – he’s a street rapper, I get it – but this level of razzness does take away something from the music and places an automatic limit on the demographic that could find him interesting as a rapper.
Another negative is that a number of the records on this 16-song album have been floating around the internet for months now, so a significant portion of the album has lost its freshness. Some releases like “Indomie” and “Nowo E Soke” were hits especially in Lagos, while others like “Gbemisaya”, “Salaro” and “FCFS” came and went. I’m guessing not being able to rely on the guidance of Tee Billz and 323 Entertainment to pay attention to little details like the roll-out of singles, album promotion and even the ironic album cover took away from the album as a product but thankfully, not as a body of music; Quality is a very solid debut album from CDQ that lives up to its name and also to the name of its unimaginatively titled creator.