Stephen Uche
BNXN is gifted with the pen and on this LP, he flexes that muscle, demonstrating why he shouldn’t be compared with a couple of other Nigerian artists, but does he show range in style ?
A key facet in the making of a great body of work is the presence of a general theme and BNXN did a good job infusing one into this album. The title ‘Sincerely, Benson’ implies it was written in the form of a letter, a letter addressed to himself – where he sings about his shortcomings combined with an array of self-affirmation records.
BNXN’s pen game places him on the list of top songwriters of his generation and following the theme of the album; that is an invaluable skill to posses. However, if that’s the major highlight of your album, it means there’s still more work to be done as lyrical prowess alone doesn’t cut it.
As good as the music might be in terms of its quality, the whole essence of the album feels like a cover-up. In my opinion, the entire concept seemed like a convenient way to dodge the criticism he’s been getting for not being able to create a “Hit” record without the aid of his industry colleagues. In trying to dodge this bullet, he claims he’s currently focused on making music that makes people feel confident about themselves whereas, he’s made several conscious efforts at creating these “Hit” records with tracks like Kilometer, Traboski, Right Energy, Sweet Tea(Aduke), etc but only succeeding with Gwagwalada, again a track that features verses from Kizz Daniel and Seyi Vibez.
This is BNXN’s debut album but the third major project and if I were to place these projects side by side, It would be easy to cancel out songs for having the same delivery pattern.
He had the opportunity to reveal his range and versatility in terms of delivery with this album but flunked which is a major concern for his fans.
If BNXN decides to stick to this RnB/Afro-pop type swing melodies and become a maverick in that genre, great, but if he’s looking to break borders by exploring different sounds during the span of his career, he’s going to have to work on his flow, comfortably switching it up if there’s a need to.
He has to be willing to leave his comfort zone and create music he’s never created before. That way he escapes the box he’s unknowingly created for himself.
Unlike his mentor, Burna Boy – who has the unique ability to flow quite effortlessly on any beat he’s given – BNXN tends to slow down the tempo of any song he’s on – confirming him to be an RnB artist posing as a pop star – to suit his style of delivery and that’s where the talks of him being monotonous are springing from. When you’re trying to make a song suit your style rather than change your style to suit the beat, then there’ll always be monotony.
‘Sincerely, Benson’ is an ingenious body of work and I enjoy listening to it. The melodies are beautiful, sequencing – spot on -, but examining it based on the artist’s prominence and talent, the LP would have been a lot better if he stretched himself thinner not just in his penmanship but also with the sounds he explored.
