Blackmagic, the unofficial alte front runner returned to the music scene with an eponymously titled album in January 2020, his first album in five years, in between these years, the act quench the thirst of the fans with some singles.
Blackmagic Version 3.0, the starving artist was the culmination of the series which began in 2013. The act stuck to his known rule of no featuring much act on his album, only Tems and Bigbad made the cut, all other tracks were solo. This album was Blackmagic most personal project so far, he was vulnerable, talking about his mental health, how he contemplated suicide, the death of his father, his ex-girlfriend, toxic masculinity and not forgetting the volatile political system in the country.
According to him, the title Starving artist was a reference to his pursuit of knowledge, his growth process which formed the bedrock for this album, they were all spiced on this album, he is not even ashamed to say that. Bad Intentioned a sex-themed was an opportunity for Blackmagic to show his already known dexterity with sound, it a dancehall.
No Need explored man masculinity, the storyline in the video was crisp and attention-grabbing. No need is sad but you will still like it, who makes a sad song so adoring.
First of all, there was an apology to the fan on Tems assisted “Soon”, the fans missed his music, he misses them but the process should not be hurried, enough waiting has to be done. Soon summarized his last five-year struggle, it has been a lonely journey.
Topically, this is a good album but the tracklisting was awful, some tracks came too early, how does Koole come right after soon, if the intention was to make the fans comfortable, then, that’s not cool enough, at some point you have to check if the song was starting from the beginning, no, it wasn’t, it just a needless elongation.
Anything 4 love was one of his infrequent interventions, it was released 10 months before the album churned out. The song was sung more on a piano, the vocal is warm, lines were reassuring with some promises made. Black Magic will always say it the way he sees it, Ponmo was a social commentary with a collage of different topics, societal ills, the power monger, etc, like he said, he was speaking his mind.
Blackmagic trapped on Ego, Traviss Scott had nothing on me. Ego featured Bigbad. While a starving artist devised ways of making headway, there is no sleep in the process. Scavengers are everywhere, your girlfriend, friends, police, the neighbor, what’s up with Blackmagic and his ex, this is his second short at her? Letting his guard down for the first time, on Ordinary man, he let it out, this is me, skip the societal expectations.
Blackmagic is a Fela child anytime anyway, when he does Afrobeat, he brings some vibe which you might not see on another record, his vulnerability also comes to the fore on I Do. The female on this ditty, sacrifice material wealth for love. It alludes to the title of the album, the distraction on your way to greatness, women, baby mamas, doubters.
Strong man was the antithesis of the letting out, it was more personal. Pretense is one of our myriad coping mechanisms. Blue and everything ended the corpus, the former was a tribute to those who contributed to the success of this album. The colour blue is somber, depressing, bleak and so forth, while he battles with life struggles, green (Marijuana) has been helpful, rejuvenating the low spirit alongside some bottle of Jameson. Warm and dark.
On this album, Blackmagic explored a lot of genre Trap, dancehall, palm wine music, afrobeat, it can be categorized as an alte, for the record, Blackmagic was one of those who started the trend.
Like earlier posited, the arrangement of the track was a big minus on this album, it made the sequencing difficult, for me, the album started at the midpoint, in an era where the fans are no longer patient, they might be able to wait till then.
Blackmagic Version 3.0 showcased this artist at some of his lowest moment, he was unapologetic about his truth, the five years break was too much for an artist like Blackmagic, it seems some of the fans have moved on, an album like this doesn’t sound like one of which would bring them back. I hope we won’t wait for another five years before we get to hear the new sonic direction of Blackmagic. Less I forget, you can excuse the bland art cover.
Grade: 3/5
