ALBUM REVIEW: Sound Sultan – Me, My Mouth & Eye

Artiste- Sound Sultan

Album- Me, My Mouth & Eye

Guest Appearances- Wizkid, Duncan Mighty, Flavour, Baba Dee, Reminisce, Sean Tizzle, 2Face Idibia, Young Rey C, Blackha and Karma

Producers- Legendury Beats, TY Mix, Mic Tunes, Jay Sleek, O.G.B, Jiff, Sound Sultan, Micworkx, Kid Konnect, Kuk Beats and L.X.E

Label- Naija Ninja Records (2013)

Duration- 1 hour, 18 mins

A strong case can be made for Sound Sultan as

the most talented artiste this country has to offer. 6 albums deep, Sound Sultan continues to churn out hits when most of his contemporaries are past relevant. Strangely, despite his extensive discography Sound Sultan has had to endure the tag of Nigeria’s most underrated artiste. 12 years after the release of his debut, Sound Sultan drops his 6^th studio album. This body of work should be strong enough to dispel any underrated tag still on the musician.

Me, My Mouth & Eye features a gamut of styles that highlights Sound Sultan’s dexterity and shows off his writing skills. His penmanship helps to hold the album together despite its length (the LP is 20 tracks deep). The album starts off on a fast pace with the pop ‘Kokose’ featuring the boy wonder of Nigerian music- Wizkid. It gets the album moving which Sound Sultan sustains by following it up with the genuine hit ‘Natural Something’. Sound Sultan switches to dancehall on the captivating ‘Bad Man’ which is about a good girl who falls for a bad guy. The party continues on ‘Kuru Komaga’ which is a feet shuffler. ‘Make your waist go around and around like a merry go/raise your shoulder like the wall of Jericho/The way you whine am so, omo just let me know’ sings Sound Sultan on this cut.

Sound Sultan packs a few highlife songs on this album. ‘Love Language’ featuring Duncan Mighty boasts of a hook that you can’t hate. ‘Lagbo Lagbo’ featuring Young Rey C, Blackha & Karma is contemporary highlife of the Yoruba variety. The song comes as rowdy; maybe Sound Sultan was trying to mimic the rowdy nature of owambe parties? ‘Orobo’ remix featuring Flavour even though two years old is the strongest of the highlife tracks. Soothing and moving, this song will end up in Sound Sultan’s greatest hits collection in future.

‘The world is a mirror and I see me now/All way na way except for criminal. Abeg don’t be a standard bastard, why don’t you be your own master?’ sings Sound Sultan on the motivational ‘All Na My Way’. The singer gives us a full blast of his artistry on the colossal sounding ‘Africa’. He sings and fiddles with dancehall on the impressive record. This song is enough to dispel any doubt that Sound Sultan is one of the best of his generation. ‘Still I rise when they think it’s over/open your eyes-plenty things to discover’ sings Sound Sultan on ‘Still I Rise’. ‘Still I Rise’ follows ‘Africa’ which is a good move seeing that they are the best songs on the album.

On this album, Sound Sultan shows that he can do it all. He even flips bars on ‘Follow Me Go’ featuring Sean Tizzle. ‘That Nubian empress/she don’t define beauty by when she undress/unless- when she is in the shower building tower/giving power to the man downstairs’ raps Sound Sultan like a full time rapper.

But Sultan stumbles on a few tracks on the LP such as ‘Temporary Turn Permanent’ featuring his big bro Baba Dee and ‘One In A Million’. Despite the errors Me, My Mouth & Eye is one of the strongest albums this year.

This might be Sound Sultan’s sixth album but the seasoned musician sounds like he just started his music career. Me, My Mouth & Eye features the best attributes of Nigerian popular music and leaving out the annoying traits of junk pop that has taken over Nigerian airwaves.

Like an elder statesman Sound Sultan crafts an album that can stand the test of time and be relevant in today’s market.