Olamide Abule Sowo is a visual Yoruba delight

olamide Abule Sowo is a fab song about his Midas touch,but the triumph is the video.

olamide Abule Sowo

I don’t always like being responsible for reviews on Olamide’s songs for Viva Naija. It is no secret that I think the young man is a genius of a wordsmith and I do wonder if it is still possible for me to remain objective. Well, I’ve watched and listened to Abule Sowo and I have mixed feelings but I still maintain that Baddosneh can do no wrong when it comes to the spoken word.

Let me get my main gripe out of the way: the swear words in the chorus. It goes:

Omo abule sowo (omo abule sowo)
If anybody fuckup (if anybody fuckup)
I go put them in their place (omo abule sowo)
I no do real estate and management but
(omo abule sowo)

Abule Sowo means someone who can make money out of earth he’s scooped out from the ground. Someone who can literally make money out of anything. A Midas of a man.

This isn’t exactly true. Olamide makes money out of something he is spectacularly gifted at, which is the only reason why I dislike the fact that there are swear words in the song. I’m no prude, and the odd swear word here or there in the verse wouldn’t have bothered me at all, but his lyrical dexterity could have come up with something that would have made the chorus gel so much better. But then again, I guess he’s streez and this is streetz speak, so…

There are still some lines in the song that are pure fire, but my main love affair with this song is the video.

Choi! This video!

Olamide makes me want to break out into dance. To listen to poetry and oriki as accompanied by the bata drum. I feel a longing for the open hills of Ekiti and the rusty zinc roofs of Ibadan. And I am depressed that I do not own an aso oke agbada. Olamide makes me proud to be Yoruba.

I’ve read some naysayers talmbout how the song cannot appeal to non-Yoruba speakers as it is so intensely Yoruba. Well, I luuuurve Phyno’s Connect and I have absolutely no idea what he’s on about. Angelique Kidjo sings in Yoruba a lot and is a Grammy winner. Take a seat, haters. This song is fiyah! ???

He’s told you what to do:

Elo beere l’owo mama re (Go ask his mother)
E le puro m’omo re (She can’t lie against her son)
Ko le ye won bi omi she wo inu agbon (They can never understand how water enters the coconut)
Ma pe l’aiye bii ti Ebora Owu (I will live long like Ebora Owu – a nickname for Olusegun Obasanjo)