Davido is afrobeats’ most theatrical star. He’s the loudest, he’s the most flamboyant, he’s the most famous. The 30-year-old has become a master at making a moment out of anything he touches. Throughout his career, this sense of theatre has extended to his album rollouts. The recent announcement of his album release and the subsequent roll-out has been no different.
“There is a time for everything – a time to grieve and a time to heal,” he said in a dramatic trailer on March 21. “A time to laugh and a time to dance. A time to speak and a time for silence.” He went on to thank everyone who’s shown him love and support over the past few months after his three-year-old son, Ifeanyi Adeleke, died in November after he apparently drowned in a swimming pool at the family’s home in Lagos.
“All the love and messages while I was away, the gifts sent, the concerts you all threw – I appreciate it all. Today, I want to remind you all that what is now Timeless, was once new. It’s time for new.”
The trailer is soundtracked by the brilliant album intro ‘OVER DEM’, and the lead single ‘UNAVAILABLE’, which is a catchy, up-tempo amapiano cut featuring the supremely talented amapiano star, Musa Keys. On the trailer Davido, flustered and grimacing throughout, runs through a jungle in search of something. What exactly he’s looking for doesn’t quite land. And it really doesn’t matter because, as ever, it’s all about the theatrics. And for the most part, so is this album.
‘OVER DEM’, which features a smooth, traditional afrobeats beat that brings out the best in Davido, is arguably his best intro to date. The very next song, ‘FEEL’, then sees him effortlessly switch to amapiano. For the most part, this is how the album plays out, a blend of both afrobeats and amapiano.
The elephant in the room is that the album drops amidst the inescapable backdrop of his hiatus following the death of his son. But Davido doesn’t speak on this topic much on ‘TIMELESS’. While it’s understandably a deeply sensitive and personal topic, you can’t help but feel that it’s a missed opportunity to peel off the mask and reveal a side of him we’ve never seen before. Thus far, Davido’s entire discography doesn’t reveal much about the man behind the music. Despite being quite open and generous in the content he shares, we don’t know all that much about him through his music. And he’s still as guarded as he’s ever been on here.
But there are some sparkling moments on ‘TIMELESS’, especially from the all-star cast of collaborators Davido assembled – British rapper Skepta brings his sound bars to ‘U(JUJU)’, Fave showcases the best of her unorthodox delivery and incredible songwriting on ‘KANTE’ and Asake displays exactly why he’s one of the continent’s brightest new stars on ‘NO COMPETITION’. Aided by a smooth dance challenge he posted on his socials on release day, ‘UNAVAILABLE’ has already sparked thousands of dance challenges across TikTok.
Musa Keys recently shared with IOL how this process played out over the past few months.
“I was in Amsterdam and I was going to support TXC, the two amapiano girls, and then Davido was there as well,” he said.
“We had been texting all along and then we met for the first time in the club and he was like, ‘Yo, you know what I need you on my album’.”
Initially, Keys said he wasn’t sure if Davido was serious or if he was just making the typical artist to artist small talk.
“Then sometime later he DM’s me telling me that he’s submitting on this day and says, ‘I need you to handle something’. His manager, as well, started hitting me up and they sent me the beat and stuff and I just recorded from home and sent it through. I was actually kind of nervous and not sure about my verse and they just kept quiet. And then later on I was like, ‘How do y’all feel about it?’ and they were like, ‘Bro, that’s the one’.”
Time will tell if it really is the “one”. For now, Davido did just enough to pique our interest. He’ll need to do a bit more to keep it.
