Critical Breakdown:- Gedes – The Waiters Theory [Mixtape Review]

Artiste:- Gedes
Album: The Waiters Theory
Record Label:- Unsigned
Distributed By: – Soundcloud
Guest Appearances:- VeeDee, Butafly, Yana, AQ, Lord T.R, Fecko, Toni Code, Camerizi, MC Skill Tha Preacha, Phlow, Patogen & Blaq Bonez
Producers: – Eclipse, Sean ML Tha P, Wizdomination and Interpolated Beats
Release Date:- January 16th, 2016

Critical Breakdown

Underground rapper Gedes appeared on NS last year with a cover of Ice Prince’s single N-Word, an alliterative freestyle, showcasing his lyrical abilities and rhyming prowess over Mr Zamanis’ instrumental, and then he followed it up with Rap God, another freestyle performed over the instrumental of the hit song of the same name released originally by American rapper Eminem. He followed the pattern and delivery on the original song with his rapid-fire flow, which caught my attention and placed him in my subconscious. By the time he released Apology Accepted Freestyle at the end of the year and announced his mixtape The Waiters Theory, I had already become invested in his music and was eager to hear what he had to offer in a full body of work.

The 20-track mixtape was released last month and comprised freestyles and songs over a few original beats, but primarily it’s a combination of original tracks, freestyles over other artists’ songs, and modified covers of others, assisted with a host of features by established rappers like AQ and Terry Tha Rapman, as well as fellow up-comers like Phlow, Fecko, Toni Code, Patogen, and MC Skill Tha Preacha. “Stick to the message; I preach verses with an open Bible,” he raps on the first line of As I Walk, the first song on the tape, performed over the bassline of the Kanye West-produced, Grammy-winning song Jesus Walks, which served as the intro and gave me an idea of the type of listening experience I was in for. The next track is the aforementioned Rap God, on which he outlined his favourite MCs, some of whom include Efa, Boogey, Five Mics, MC Skill Tha Preacha, Lord V, Phenom, AQ, Paragun Blao, MI, Ice Prince, Eva Alordiah, Cyrus Tha Virus, King Gaya, and Overdose. He also name-dropped his favourite pop acts—P. Square, Blackface, Timaya, etc.—and also called Terry Tha Rapman his mentor. The mixtape continues to Let The Drummer Kick, a solemn song laced with biblical references and lines about the struggle and pain that comes with the journey to Hip-hop super-stardom spitting “I’m trying to let it out, give me a mic with a wire and a verse to lift up my worries high up into the Heavens / Above the Earth, I should be walking the streets of Gold, so if this verse be my last, let it be known that I tried / Even if you didn’t get to see the best of me, let it be known I waited long to see you long for this“. Alternative Igbo rapper VeeDee who came to prominence on the award nominated single G.O.D which he performed alongside Terry Tha Rapman makes the first guest appearance on Sumthin’ Nu ( performed over the instrumental of Like Toy Soldiers by Eminem ), another song which addresses the decadent state of the entertainment industry ( especially hip-hop ), the politics, smokescreens and lies, which are slowly eating into the fabric of the mindframe of the average Nigerian youth; I expected a whole lot more from Veedee going back his performance on G.O.D, But the hook was utterly poor, did not compliment Gedes verses and reduced the overall value of the songs final output. ‘Immortal’ (Waiter’s Theory) is a title track of sorts, with a theme that revolves around the ‘Waiter’ serving timeless hip-hop music and walking the path of immortality. It’s a befitting song that encapsulates his rap ideology and mission statement, which led on to the Eclipse-produced, Butafly-featured Perfect Love Story. The chorus, which sampled “It’s My Life” by American rock band Bon Jovi, provided a strong musical foundation for Gedes to open up to his love interest. It’s the first original song on the mixtape and provides something for his female audience. In the next song, “Black Metaphor,” he declares that the human race has lost its humanity and goes on to address racism, tribalism, nepotism, religious violence, and other ugly characteristics of human existence. Wait For Me Featuring ‘Yana’ is the next track which goes the motivational route, but the poor mixing and his sometimes inaudible, muddled-up lyrics on the song made it non-palatable to me. His Ice Prince cover N-Word is next and led on to the AQ featured For My Team, which starts off with a brief intro in which he explains that he “raps to educate people” and goes on to trade bars with AQ, who delivered possibly the hardest verse on the mixtape. He quipped, “The funny thing is I don’t really like rapping; I just like the look on rappers’ faces when I out-rap them,” which led me to try to guess the look on Gedes’ face while AQ delivered the verse.

He gets a voice note endorsement from his mentor, Lord T.R., on The Skit and recruits Toni Code, Fecko, and Camerizi for the next song. The Bible, which happens to be one of the better songs on the mixtape, has three unique verses that are sure to appeal to different spheres of hip-hop appreciation. On the next song, Record Me, he raps, “Too fly for this music; angels sign me,” but once again it turned out to be another mixtape filler that failed to capture my attention. Apex Predator Featuring MC Skill Tha Preacha follows the disappointing route set by the song before it; the song is all over the place, underwhelming, poorly mixed and has a disorganised chorus. They Should Fear Us featuring Blaq Bonez comes next and makes if a hat-trick of poor music in a row, as both rappers failed to make the song an appealing one, and it was so badly mixed it should have been left on the cutting room floor. On the next song, Nerd For Free, I simply could not make sense of what he was saying (an extremely rare occurrence ) despite listening to the song repeatedly. The mixtape continues with “Under Pressure”, which featured budding Str8buttah femcee Phlow, whose verse was the main attraction and further solidified her status as a rapper with potential. British singer Sam Smith’s hit song ‘Stay With Me’ gets the mixtape treatment on the next song. ‘Write A Song’ is a track on which he waxes philosophical and states that he wants to be a legend like Modenine and be remembered like Da Grin. It’s the first song in six on which I resonated with his performance. Conquer The World is another disappointment for me, and even though featured guest Patogen delivered a decent verse, the chorus was appalling, the mix was bad, and the song ended up being a total letdown. The mixtape comes to a close on After Life, a 5-minute song on which he raps for a little over a minute and ends it with a series of near inaudible sound bites by different people who support his movement, some of whom called him the best and the others wished him the same in his musical career.

Listening to and reviewing this mixtape was a tedious affair, and saying that he made me a fan with this mixtape will be a big lie, Gedes simply failed to pass across his “theory” strongly and pungently; instead, he left me with a bitter taste in my mouth and an unwillingness to listen to his music in the future. His Eminem impressions are a tad bit tiring, the mixing on the project was extremely poor; his cadence, delivery and music structuring need work; and ultimately the entire presentation lacked the basic essence of musical excellence. Out of 18 tracks, I can barely stomach 5, all of which had guest appearances on them; that’s a poor return anyway you look at it. You may listen to The Waiters Theory and like it more than I do, but as a longtime student of Nigerian hip-hop who has reviewed over 100 Nigerian musical projects, I stand firmly by my conviction that Gedes needs to go back to the drawing board and work on delivering the type of rap music that can contend with most of his peers, some of whom he featured and also mentioned on this mixtape.

Beats/Production:- 3/10
Lyrics:- 4/10
Flow:- 4/10
Composition/Arrangement:- 4/10
Best Verse:- AQ On For My Team
Standout Track:- NIL
Overall Rating:-  4/10