Is Sugarboy’s “Believe” Album A Good One?

Album – Believe
Artiste – Sugarboy
Record Label – G-Worldwide (2017)
Duration- 78 minutes

Within Sugarboy, there’s enough talent to make him a pop star. But it is not being manifested at the level that he thinks it is.

After spending many years in the music industry under the name A1, he found a new lease of life under G-Worldwide, and has gone on to benefit from the attention on his colleague, Kiss Daniel.

Piggy-backing on his shine by proxy, he has been able to score many eyes looking at his brand.

But on the music front, he is yet to become consistent with the quality of his releases. His debut single ‘Hola hola’ was a club and dance hit, which provided a little upward movement for his brand. He has since failed to follow that up. Subsequent releases – ‘Double’, ‘Dada Omo’, ‘Legalize’, and ‘Kilamity’ – have not maintained the winning quality or received the same love.

But that has not stopped his ambition in the present, or tempered his bloated sense of celebrity.

Backed by the deep pockets of his record label, he comes through with an album, which appears a little bit too early.

The project contains no external collaboration with other acts; a move that has worked well for Kiss Daniel, failed considerably here. Dynamism was sacrificed for a company policy that requires him not to have guests on his records, hence only Kiss Daniel appears twice on the 22-track album.

This album almost sets itself up to fail in the mainstream market: a shaky upcoming artist, lukewarm singles, unreasonable length, no guests for dynamism, and no defined concept. It’s a poisonous cocktail, designed to work against the release.

And it worked perfectly against the music on the project.

Sugarboy comes off as flat. All he offers on “Believe” album is fluffy pop songwriting layered over his light vocals. Opener ‘Stunt Gidi’, is weak and without a gimmick, and it leads you into the most unimaginative set of singles. ‘Informa’ feels like yesterday’s Caribbean vibe, and it leads the dour creativity on a lot of singles about popping bottles, female adoration and more.

When he dabbles into conscious music, he almost covers himself in some glory. ‘Tomorrow’ nearly stands out, but the lack of dynamism is shoots it in the foot.

Kiss Daniel shows up in ‘Kilamity’ to add desperately needed dynamism to the record. But he could not escape this project unscathed. His value and skill level drops on ‘Ekene’, where he comes across as ordinary. And as each track goes by, every new record begins to lose their individuality, it slides down to painful monotony, until it hits the point where everything becomes a mindless drone.

“Believe” album came too early for Sugarboy. If it achieves anything, it is the disbelief at how a project lacking in musical coherence and dynamism can pass through the label which provided “New Era” album just a year ago. When held up against that project, this falls flat on its face.

Sugarboy has enough to talent to do better than this. He is an experienced industry man, with artistry that has been honed over the years. This is beneath him. This should never have been released.

Based on this “Believe” album, it is extremely difficult to believe in Sugarboy.