Kill’n Me Softly: Naeto C oversimplifies on comeback song

The rapper has returned with lyrical simplism, adopting a rap-singing style, with heavily auto-tuned voice and weak lyrics, features which doomed his badly received 2015 album Festival.

“God bless the day you go come and give me chop o / Asawan, na you I go need...you listen up,” he sings on the hook, before adding more sloppy lines on the first verse.

Featured guest Sarkodie tries to save the song with his verse, but fails. Instead of sticking to the theme of the song, he spends the first five lines thanking Naeto C for "choosing" him and rambling on about Ghana-Naija collaborations. The song is itself based on the trending sound using Ghana and Nigerian elements.

Naeto C, like MI Abaga, has blamed the Nigerian listenership for his insipid lyrics and music production. “The issue of conforming is a serious issue,” he said in an interview about the vapid Festival, “because we have regular fans who didn’t get the chance to get basic education, and sometimes we have to dilute our music for them to appreciate.” But he is the artist.

Simplism is no crime in pop music, but Naeto C has oversimplified his music to shambles. The new single belongs to the ephemeral, to a flitting phase in Nigerian pop. It will fade in a few weeks.

Artist: Naeto C
Song: Kill’n Me Softly
Label, Year: Cerious Music/WKG, 2017