By Adegboyega Adeleye

Afrobeats superstar, Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun ‘Wizkid’ took Amapiano to another level in hit single ‘Bad to me’. The big question, is it a hit or miss? Here is a review of the groovy jam by the Grammy-award singer.

The intro of ‘Bad To Me’ shows that the beat was rushed at first, probably for replay value, and slower in middle. The duration is slightly a few seconds away from 3 minutes. ‘Bad to Me’ reverses the law of Amapiano a bit, which is usually slow at the start and upbeat in hook and chorus. However, the song has an unconventional Amapiano sound good for grooving.

Wizkid started the song well in terms of lyrics, melodies and pitch but missed a lot in the slow/mid-tuned Amapiano chorus.

The fast tune with the rhythmic lyrics by Wizkid in the intro for the first verse- Highway, Myway, Your way, Don take, and Migraine shows the fast pace probably better if tuned down a bit.

Pre-chorus- “Lose my way, oh
This kind, this kind love, yeah
Wey dey make me want more, woah
Come my way,”

The pre-chorus reminisces Wizkid’s usual melodious love vibe with the word ‘This kind love’ in Joro and other love songs like True Love, Sweet Love, Fever, Love My baby, and others .
This time even better with the line ‘I dey want for the night
Make I know how you feel, how you want’. That was a superb rendition.

Immediately the beat becomes slower, the singer also slows down lyrics to groove and sings,
‘Lady, girl, say your body bad to me
Bad girl addicted to me’
Though melodious in “Only you know as e dey do me” which was repeated in the Amapiano chorus but it would have made more meaning to play an upbeat tune into the Amapiano chorus rather than slowing it down as listeners would expect a fast tuned chorus than what followed.

The beat starts to show more signs of unsynchronized form and Wizkid decided to groove rather than consider lyrics and melodies.

The backup underneath for the post-chorus wasn’t ranged perfectly.

Casamigos for my Amigos makes lyrical and melodic sense in terms of groove/party as it shows love for his friends.

The name Casamigos comes from the Spanish casa (house) and amigos (friends), thus meaning “house of friends or homies.

However, the lyrics look disjointed for the rest of the chorus with Wizkid almost repeating the same lines with backup underneath that does not suit his style of music.

‘Ee-ye, ge-ge (Ee-ye, ge-ge)
De-mah, ge-ge-ge-ge (Oh yeah, ge-ge)
Baby, wa jogede (Wa jogede)’

A better line would have made more sense and pitched with an upbeat Amapiano rather than the slower range he sang with.

The repetitive pattern would have worked if it wasn’t an Amapiano tune.

Wizkid has done that well with better lyrics in a plethora of hit singles. An example is his golden hook for Grammy- nominated/Billboard top charting single “One Dance”

Wizkid: One Dance- ‘Back up, back up, back up and wine it
Back up, back up and wine it
Girl, just back up, back up, back up and wine it
Ooh yeah, very long time
Back, up, back up and wine it, girl’

Also when he melodiously repeated the same words for almost 30 seconds in the hit single ‘Come Closer’ ft. Drake.

‘Come Closer’ ft. Drake- ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Baby, come closer
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Baby, come closer’

Another example is Fever which is famously remembered because Tiwa Savage was the video vixen.

Wizkid: Fever- Uhn uhn, yeah yeah
Starboy dey for you
Ooh, oooh
Starboy dey for you

The sin here is that an Amapiano chorus is expected to be upbeat and more groovy than the ‘E ye ge ge’ style used here. Wizkid has proved that a couple of times with fantastic lyrics and melodies especially in Sponono and Soweto Baby.

Of course, Wizkid redeemed himself again in the next verse of ‘Bad to Me’ even if he had an imperfect chorus.

The love theme ran again and he gave the best melodious rendition in the second verse with beautiful lyrics.

‘All for you baby
If that money dey too much say make you talk
Cause you know the money long, ooh, yeah
Break your back with it
Yeah, na me and you dey talk, no one involved
Baby girl, make I indulge you, yeah’

Superb rendition as the wonderful ‘This kind, this kind love,’ hook/pre-chorus turned in one more time.

Pre-chorus- “Lose my way, oh
This kind, this kind love, yeah
Wey dey make me want more, woah
Come my way,

Then the ‘Bad to me’ pre-chorus and chorus followed, this time it is a bit more fast-paced and upbeat compared to the first time which explains the groovy nature of the song and how it grows with replay.

All through the song, we can see the good sides and the creative imperfections and how P2J, Sammy Soso, and Wizkid restyled Amapiano to Afropiano in a love-themed manner for groove rather than the usual upbeat tune.

The songwriting is quite good but could have been better especially in the chorus and the funny ‘E ye ge ge, Baby ma jogede’.

The songwriters are Ibrahim Ayodeji Balogun (Wizkid), Richard Isong Olowaranti Mbuk Isong(P2J), and Samuel Awuku.

Wizkid isn’t new to Amapiano or a similar style as he has hit songs in the past with better lyrics. 2020 Amapiano Africa hit single, Sponono ft. Kabza De Small, Burna Boy, Cassper Nyovest and Madumane was led by Starboy’s rendition, especially in the Intro.

Wizkid: Sponono Intro: ‘Amadu ko deka deka
Duma de ki deka
Duma de ki deka
Wo, wo, wo, wo (Repeated twice)
Yeah yeah yeah yeah’

A similar South African vibe, DJ Maphorisa’s 2015 hit song, Soweto Baby was heavily chorused by Wizkid.

Wizkid: Soweto Baby- ‘I say wait
You most become my lady (Oh yeah eh eh)
You drive me crazy (yeh)
I can’t explain this feeling
See girl my Soweto Baby (My Soweto baby fire)’.

‘Bad to me’ by Wizkid will surely grow on you as its groovy vibe suits a party mode and a club anthem.

A big lesson from the song is that the Afrobeats megastar, Wizkid has reformed Amapiano to suit his regular Afrobeats style in “Bad to me”. Whether, It’s Bad to you, or Bad to me, Wizkid’s groovy Jam ‘Bad to me’ has explored the various forms of Amapiano hit and miss simultaneously and it’s one of a kind.

Expect it to be a chart-topping single as its huge replay value works well for streams, airplay, and marketing.

Wizkid released his first 2022 single,  ‘Bad to me’ on September 14th and, in just 24 hours, the new single became the number one song in Nigeria – on Apple Music Charts and other steaming platforms. It was able to pull the most ‘listen’, with 182,360 streams on Spotify alone( a record) and also debuted on the UK, US, and other international music charts, the song currently has over 1.5 million views on Youtube.

The song is expected to do well as it is the first single of 2022 by The Grammy-award winner superstar, Wizkid. The imperfect misses might be forgiven and the hit makes the song a groovy anthem loved by music fans who are expecting the release of Wizkid’s fifth studio album, ‘More Love, Less Ego’ hopefully on October 29th, 2022.

Is Wizkid’s “Bad to Me” Good or Bad to you?

Making and Market Value of ‘Bad to Me’

Wizkid released his first 2022 single, ‘Bad to me’ on September 14th and, in just 24 hours, the new single became the number one song in Nigeria – on Apple Music Charts and other streaming platforms. It was able to pull the most ‘listen’, with 182,360 streams on Spotify alone( a record) and also debuted on the UK, US, and other international music charts, the song currently has over 1.5 million views on Youtube.

The song released on September 14th was produced by British record producer, Sammy Soso, and British Nigerian producer P2J. Fans were happy to see Wizkid release his first single of 2022 and the first since his grammy-nominated chart-topping album, ‘Made In Lagos’. The song also stirred conversations on social media about how ‘Amapiano’ made its way into Nigeria.

The beat isn’t perfect and upbeat as usual but it explores another range of Amapiano fusion with Afrobeats which Wizkid is unarguably its maestro. P2J and Sammy Soso make an unusual form of Amapiano which might not stick at first but with groove would grow on the listeners.

P2J is renowned for making hit songs but not necessarily Amapiano which explains why the sound used here is slightly different from the regular South African upbeat Amapiano.

He has a great relationship with Wizkid and his hit songs include ‘Beyonce ft. Tems’ Move, Beyonce ft Wizkid ‘Brown Skin Girl’ and 6 songs from The Lion Gift Album., Burna Boy- Anybody, Stormzy, Omah Lay and executively produced Wizkid’s Made in Lagos Album(co-produced Wizkid’s Ginger, Essence and other hit songs).

This also tests Wizkid’s versatility. Give him his flowers, as he has in his hand for the song cover photo. A love-themed song with groove seems unusual, especially for Amapiano and the chorus didn’t do perfect justice to the genre though the verses were lyrically rendered in Starboy’s love song manner.

Listen to “Bad to me” here: