MUSIC REVIEW: Octopizzo’s New Jam “Butere” Is As Weak As The Legs Of A Newly Born Calf
Octopizzo be tripping. After all the dopeness he unleashed on ‘Bank Otuch’ he has released a track called ‘Butere’ and it’s no good. It’s like Uji with lumps in it. I feel entitled to critique this track mainly because of two reasons. The first reason is that my ocha is Butere and the second reason is I am the greatest writer Kenya has ever seen and you all know it. Thank you very much. Now let’s get down to business.
The track isn’t even Hip Hop to begin with. I am confused as to whether Octopizzo is trying to sing or rap. In the end, it all sounds like primary school kids performing at a music festival. I understand that he is trying to push that African feel but he has truly missed the mark with this one. The jam might be chill and tropical, but in my mind and eardrums, it has sparked a rush of intense reactions primarily split between breezy shock and bored disappointment.
Before celebrity worshippers start pelting eggs at my face, I have to clarify this. I am actually an Octopzzio fan. I used to love Khaligraph’s music but then I realized he’s still an unproven rapper. His two biggest hits were virtually done on stolen beats. “Yego” was done on the beat of Young Thug’s “Power” while “Ojuelegba Refix” was just an act of riding on Wizkid’s hype. So basically, Khaligraph is actually a freestyler, not a hit maker. He got bars and muscles but that’s all there is to say about him until he proves us otherwise. Back to the Namba Nane guy.
Dear Octopizzo, kindly go to Youtube and check out a South African video called ‘Ameni’ by Miss Pru Dj and you will understand what it really means to incorporate African elements into a Hip Hop track. Take this shoddy shoddy things away from our eyes and ears.
Maybe….just maybe, you could have created a better track and video if your song was about a town in Nyanza. You just look lost in Butere. It’s like going to Congo and shooting a lingala video then claiming “I am doing this for Africa man. We are all one”. And don’t tell me I sound tribal. Luhyas and Luos have the best rapport out of all ethnic groups in the 254.
How do you know an artiste is about to feed you garbage even before the song starts? When they start by explaining what they are trying to sing about and what message they are about to portray. Real music needs no explanations from its creators. Real music explains itself. In the video, Octopizzo begins by explaining how is trying to embrace Kenyan culture and all that but naaaah. This meal is not ready yet. Serve us another one.
To make matters worse, there are scenes where women are only covered in lessos, exposing most of their body parts. Really? You won’t find women dressed like that anywhere in Butere. Females in my ocha cover themselves well because of a particular reason. Women that show skin end up being called whores by the community. It’s an outdated view and I don’t agree with it but that’s how Butere is. So Octopizzo is portraying our culture in a wrong way.
The video is dimly lit, the songwriting is pat and treacly, and Octo, despite being good at what he does for a day job, is just no villager’s favorite artiste.
There comes a time in every musician’s career where they consider trying out something different, hoping that the public will like it. Sometimes it works out well, most of the time it doesn’t work out well. This is an example of when it doesn’t work out well.
Part of me is tempted to admire the audacity that Octo has by just mumbling about incomprehensible things over a simple drum beat and calling it a music project. But on an objective level it’s terrible and spits in the face of most music that’s ever been made in this genre.
So yes….in conclusion, ‘Butere’ is a convoluted mess of a rap song. It should be wiped off the face of the earth. It exhibits an unattainable degree of peerless suckitude. Never before has such a refined collection of strident cliches been concentrated in one insidious mass. Never before have the lyrics to a song evidenced such narrowcasted pseudo-mindless incoherent drivel. Never before have such disparate and diseased influences been married so haphazardly in a profound vacuum of taste, and never have all of these atrocities been platooned together to be proffered to the public without someone,anyonewith any bit of conscience and in a position of power putting a stop to this poisoning of the listening public.
