The Dream’s Love vs. Money is one of the most highly rated R&B albums of the past ten years. It wasn’t a concept album, in the real sense, but it did contain a number of records that examined the influence material wealth has on love, lust and heartbreak.
Emma Nyra’s own stab at the same topics some 7 years later, Love Versus Money, Vol.1, isn’t a concept project either but there are 3 songs that approach that concept from a woman’s point of view, namely:
- “Make Money” – A mid-tempo, feel-good record for ladies who consider themselves to be self-sufficient but also a warning to the men who desire them.
Please don’t fall in love with a Make Money Baby
Many men say they want a woman that’s independent but can they really handle one? Emma quizzes and teases and ends the record with a neat little rap.
- “Love of the Money (Ego)” ft. Fiokee – Emma adds her analgesic voice to that of many creatives in this part of the world – just because she does what she loves and she loves what she does, doesn’t mean that she’s willing to do it for free. Fliptyce provides a high-life sound bed that Fiokee overlays with a classy guitar performance.
- “Work Hard” – Is the weakest vertex in the love/money triangle, which makes you wonder why producer credit for the song was so hotly contested by the songstress and her erstwhile producer OD Beats. Staying somewhat on topic, the song legitimizes whatever lifestyle one chooses for oneself as long as there’s the work ethic to back it up.
The rest of the EP doesn’t strive for the same level of creative discipline as those 3 records but doesn’t let itself go like a new mom that has lost her fight to obesity either. The former Triple M G princess keeps things tight. She keeps an eye out for the king of the dancehall on “Drop It” but gives everyone else in the club the stankest attitude on “One Chance”, while gyrating to the Uhuru-esque club banger “Sakarin”. All three songs exist in that high intensity, linear melody pocket that grossly under-utilizes Emma’s voice. There are no love ballads on this project, the singer has found her comfort zone elsewhere.
“Sakarin” has a guest verse from Dammy Krane, the necessity of which can only be explained by the contrast his high octane performance provided. I do not have any excuses for the 2 remixes to “For My Matter” however, since the difference between the 2 of them is a verse from Banky W and another one from Patoranking, so I’m not sure whether the public needed to hear the two differently.
When she does bring collaborators together, the self-titled Lady of the Water does so to good effect. The 90’s R&B-inspired “Vex” offers a slower sound palette for Emma to let her vocal chords stretch a little more. The posse cut features Cynthia Morgan and Victoria Kimani, both ladies are expected to release debut projects of their own before the year runs out. But in the year of Our Lord the woman 2016, Emma Nyra has beaten her posse to it and crafted a 9-song soundtrack for the working class woman who also likes to let her hair down; typically the kind of hair that’s worth a small plot of land in Ondo state.
On Love Versus Money, Vol 1, there’s music to dance to, music to inspire and music about those that love you but there isn’t a lot of music telling them how you love them back. In Emma Nyra’s world, in the battle between love and money, money seems to have the upper hand.