Secrets, we all have them. That part of us we never want to unveil and so tread carefully when we finally do because we fear that these hidden parts of ourselves could deviate so much from the persona we have presented that it could open us to either ridicule or praise. Such is the case of Folarin Falana popularly known as Falz the bahd guy in his new album “27”.  At first it looked like the entertaining, if rather lightweight artist, was being his old comical self. With the way he served us mainstream culture, by pulling a Beyonce and emulating Adele’s style. But two songs into the album, one would realize it is an important record, with equally important messages.

The 17-track album, which contains some pre-released songs, the likes of “Something light” ft Ycee, “La Fete”, “Bahd, Baddo, Baddest” ft Olamide and Davido, touches on a whole lot of social problems.  While giving us traces of that light-hearted artist, who caught our attention in 2015 with his album “Stories that Touch”. And held it with “Chemistry” an EP with Simi. On 27,  he raises the issue of internet scamming in “Confirm”as he ridicules,  “no work but you wan chop” and challenges these scammers to rise up and do better, all the while, reminding them that success in life is a gradual process. He also goes in on internet bullies and braggarts, who leave threatening comments, perhaps forgetting they could end up in prison.

Amongst other notable tracks, the obvious touchstone that many have pointed out is “Child of the World”. A song which throws light on the struggles of single parenting, and victims of sexual abuse. Where he urges the said victims to not feed their integrity to the slum, by clinging to immoral life, as he sings “ don’t be a fool now, don’t go astray”. He goes further to persuade the people life has dealt a hard hand, to stop living in reckless abandon and do better. These messages coming from someone who for quite some time, has thrown around his jolly bahd guy facade In 27, Falz allowed us see if only but a glimpse, a socially woke artist with a vision to create awareness through satire with his platform.  But this album doesn’t transcend the common goal of commercial rap music, as it looked like he targets discotheques [the core demographic for Nigerian mainstream] featuring quite a number of acts like Maleek Berry, Sir Dauda, Burna Boy, Wande Coal, Terry Apala.

For an artist who has a couple of awards to his name, including BET’s “Best Internatonal Act” and City People’s Entertainment Award for “Album of the Year”.  It is rightly expected that Falz’ sonic and visual aesthetics blend in like a brilliant paint, on the rather colourful wall of  Nigerian culture.  And as we witnessed the lyrical progression on “27”, it is likely this artist has got a couple of tricks up his sleeves

Listen to 27 below

“Ifunanya is too queer to live and too rare to die” Tweet at her @Iphynaya

Watch Falz go french on new single “La Fete”