Review: Wizkid’s on cruise control
The world has developed an appetite for his sound. Now we crave it even when he is on autopilot.
Wilfred Okiche
When he became an instant superstar with the release of his catchy single Holla at Your Boy, Wizkid was a fresh-faced teen. Now all of 34, over the past 15 years he has built one of the most consequential careers in Nigerian music history, becoming a veteran of the game. These days the reliable hitmaker is a cultural icon, whose dominance is conclusive enough that he need not beg for our attention.
His sixth studio album, Morayo, sounds like something delivered on autopilot, as Wizkid continues to cruise the rarefied altitudes of global pop. He knows he has competition, but he also knows they aren’t touching him just yet.
Morayo is the middle name of Wizkid’s mother, who died in 2023 at age 66. A photo of her adorns the album cover. But with just a scattering of nods towards her, the album isn’t an overt tribute to his late mum. Only the closing track, the feel-good Pray, touches on her life directly.
The bulk of Morayo is produced by Wizkid’s regular collaborator P2J, with some assists by P.Priime. It is drenched in a subtle melancholia, a direction Wizkid has embraced since his international breakthrough with 2020’s Made in Lagos. But it also shifts between genre and tempo – without inducing whiplash – an elegant melding of these collaborators’ influences.
The album’s launch was preceded by two singles: the party-starter Kese (Dance) and the more relaxed vibe of Piece of My Heart (with American singer Brent Faiyaz). Both songs are a fitting representation of Morayo as the album moves deftly from bops (Karamo, Bend, Soji) that seem crafted for day-one fans to more chilled-out, sensual reflections on Slow, Time, and opener Troubled Mind.
The record’s sound is hardly original – indeed, the building blocks are Afrobeats, R&B, and dancehall, with a smidgen of reggae and fújì. But Wizkid has elevated all these influences by breathing his own laid-back personality into the record.