How do you review a Terry G album? Behind the cacophony of grunts, howls, screams, auto-tuned wails and stuttered phrases, is there something musically tangible to hold on to, evaluate, to admire?
Terry G’s latest album is titled Terry G’zuz. So into Terry G’s world I must go to make sense out of his songs which I jokingly created a new genre for ‘Ghetto Techno’.
The disc starts with the thumping ‘Change Am’. This is typical Terry G with freestyle flow which doesn’t make sense but in the essence of making a record fits with the beat he created for the track. You don’t need Nostradamus for you to know this is a hit…as a matter of fact it already is. The Terry G virus is back in town I see.
On Akpako he tweaks the beat of the hit he made for Side One, ‘One by One’ to create a bigger hit for himself. It’s the Terry G way, tried and trusted. I won’t lie, two tracks in I am already bored. I am drowning in the sea of Terry G’isms. The title of his album might point to messianic aspirations but right now he isn’t saving me or showing me the way.
Spirituality is a strong theme on the album with numerous tracks dedicated to the man above (Not For God featuring Timaya, God Guide Me) which will no doubt be one of the major reasons why the masses will gravitate towards the album.
There are songs however that reveal the inner musician in Terry however unpolished or crude like the Hip-Hop influenced ‘Rundown’ feat (a rejuvenated) Faze and Dee Money which boasts of a chopped and screwed hook or the solemn worship-like ‘Ori Mi’ featuring 9ice. ‘This Life’ featuring Naeto C is another surprising cut.
Terry G’zuz is an album solely dedicated to its fan base and makes no apologies about it. His fans understand and most definitely go gaga over this LP.
At the end of my listening I discover that Terry G’zuz is like an abstract painting. You see brushes, strokes in different colours and tones all jumbled up, splashed and sprayed on a canvas. You don’t know what it is or represents but you admire it because of that. The beautiful mystery in the nothingness, that’s what best sums up Terry G’s new LP- the beautiful nothing.
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