Written By Mr Starks

The new P Square album is out and the superfans are nuts (nobody can boast of having more Superfans than P Square -except D’banj). Even the Okoye twins made a song for them called – Superfans. If there is anything I would commend the twins on, it would be their marketing machine. They have improved progressively on the marketing for each album. Improving their appearance (One of the P is sporting a fresh haircut), the album cover is very nice, distribution of their album (album can be picked up on Katlego Africa ~ http://www.katlegoafrica.com and local outlets near you) and their wallet size. Sadly there has been a minimal improvement in their sound. On Danger, the sound remains largely the same – hardly dangerous now is it. They have stuck to the safe formula that has led to them being one of the most successful acts out of Africa. You have the love songs like I Love You(I wonder how many weddings are going to use this), I Like Dat etc, to send the female and some males crazy – pretty sure there are some guys out there that would be breaking out the Square chat up lines. You have the party songs like Danger, Trowey and Break It which would make djing for Naija parties that much easier for DJs. I can tell you now, nothing like a P Square jam to eject that electric feel into a party. All in all a standard P Square album as expected.

The major gripe I have is the selection of beat and this is a constant gripe music lovers pick up on most P Square albums. Listening to a P Square album might as well be a “Guess Whos Beat is That?” experience. You listen to it and some part of your brain immediately lights up because the beat sounds familiar. Everytime. Lets take the first track on the album “I Love You“, you press play, you vibing , you like the beat and you think wow wow, this was the beat to one of the most popular bashment songs of the year, Mavado – Im So Special. Now there is absolutely no problem in reinterpreting songs or sampling them, but it becomes a problem when a song sounds like it should be on a mixtape when you just stick your vocals on to the track. Other artistes do it but they do not put it on their final album. The J Martins collaboration, a stellar track, but is let down by this same problem as it could easily have been another J Martins track that was left on the studio cutting floor. Same goes for the 2face collaboration. That song sounds like it could have been on any of 2face’s last three albums but again never did. Another track “Who Dey Here” could easily pass as a P Square remix of Faze’s super “Originality” track. This issue makes you angrily want to label P-Square talentless without their own staple sound but you stop short of doing that when you listen to the whole album in its entirety and realise it is just a case of a few bad eggs and this album really is not that bad. Luckily on this album, there are only about 4 tracks lacking said originality and this is extremely commendable as you get more insight to what P Square sounds like. Even the bad eggs taste good and I guess that is what matters to the broader fan base.

Overall this is a solid offering from the Okoye twins; in fact this might be my favourite of all their offerings. It serves up what we have come to know P Square for. A square offering – in which you know exactly what four sides you are going to get and this album, is exactly that. No extra dimension. A safe haven for everyone from the lover to the partygoer. A paradise for the fans. Musically, definitely not a danger.

- Mr Starks