Album Review: Falz Navigates the ‘Lagos Bachelor Life’ on Highly Collaborative Album “BAHD”

Artist: Falz or Falz The Bahd Guy

Title: BAHD

Genre: Afropop, Afrobeat, Afrorap

Date of Release: June 9, 2022

Producers: Blaise, DuktorSett and more…

EP Art:

Length: 12 Songs; 32 minutes

Guest Appearances: 7; Tiwa Savage, Chike, The Cavemen, Timaya, Boy Spyce, L.A.X, BNXN fka Buju

Label: B.A.H.D Guys Entertainment Limited

Rating: 3/5

This is a succinct review of BAHD, album by Falz.

Nigerian rapper, singer, and actor Falz The Bahd Guy or Falz, as fondly called released his fifth solo album BAHD on June 9.

The 12-track eponymous project features an ensemble of top artists including Tiwa Savage, Chike, The Cavemen, Timaya, Boy Spyce, L.A.X, and BNXN fka Buju.

It had been almost 3 years since Falz last dropped an album, 2019’s “Moral Instruction.” In the build-up to the release of BAHD, Falz had promised this was going to be different from his prior projects, he didn’t lie.

Experimentally, Falz does more singing on BAHD than he customarily does, a remarkable shift from Afrorap to the more appealing and progressive Afropop and Afrobeats.

However, like his previous albums, all the songs on BAHD are intentional. The sounds are original, the mixing and mastering are also pristine.

Falz recently revealed that he’s never fallen in love, but perhaps he’s ready to open up to love like the petals of a rose flower. At least the songs on BAHD are suggestive of a love story blooming somewhere.

The album opens with the soulful-rap “Another Me,” an enchanting introduction to this tender, love-ready, love-seeking Falz The Bahd Guy.

On “All Night,” Falz channels his inner Lagos party boy, before the feel-good Tiwa Savage assisted “Beautiful Sunflower,” which is easily one of the best duets you will hear this year.

More like the old Falz, is the Fela Kuti inspired “Parampe,” the album’s fourth track. “Parampe” is littered with those one-liners and punchlines that endeared us to Falz, as the drums hit, and the sax is stylishly infused with an acapella-inspired backup and chorus.

It’s never easy to find love in Lagos, Falz and Chike revisit that topic on “Knee Down.” But it’s also never easy to find love anywhere, and usually the ones we love don’t want us until we don’t want them either.

Yet, something must kill a man, and for Falz, it is Jemima on “Pull Up.” Whereas on “Gentleman,” a love drunk Falz is ready to be loyal and perhaps ready to take the next step with a certain love interest.

Falz and Hi-Life duo The Cavemen had been teasing their collaboration on BAHD via social media, making “Woman” one of the album’s more anticipated records. Its mesmerizing Hi-Life inspired beat and squealed chorus from Falz’s collaborators will certainly make it a fan favourite in time to come.

“Tender Love” takes over from “Woman,” before the duo of Timaya and Boy Spyce lend their skills on the Duktorsett produced “Inside.”

BAHD’s penultimate track “Roger Mila,” features singer L.A.X, as Falz exhibits some braggadocio over the snare drum and lush piano. “Ice Cream” with BNXN fka Buju closes the curtains on BAHD and confirms there’s not one bad song on the project.

On BAHD, Falz navigates the Lagos-bachelor-life, with each song painstakingly put together to sound different whilst maintaining the project’s central theme. Like American rapper Kanye West’s experiment with 808’s and Heartbreak, BAHD is a successful experiment. However, time will tell how well the fans receive this radical Falz the Bahd Guy.

Have you listened to “BAHD” by Falz? You click HERE to start.