Progression, collaboration and growth – Young Preacher Album Review

On 28 October 2022, Blaqbonez released his latest album titled Young Preacher. This album has been on repeat since my first listen. The progression and growth is so clear on Young Preacher, cementing Blaqbonez as one of our most interesting and exciting genre bending artists.

On Young Preacher, Blaqbonez is inspired by multiple genres rooted in black culture. He takes inspiration from dancehall on HOT BOY and his interest in afro-swing is evident through his collaborations with JAE5 on FASHIONOAVA and BACK IN UNI. Although Blaqbonez is not an afrobeats artist, he is clearly inspired by the genre as seen through ESS MAMA featuring Tekno. The album demonstrates that “Newer artists…consistently demonstrate versatility in the ways they merge Afrobeats with other genres and how they sometimes move away from Afrobeats entirely.”

Blaqbonez has a hedonistic approach and outlook to creating music because it’s important to him that the music reflects his lifestyle. Blaqbonez has been very open about how he does not believe in love and relationships. On his previous album– ‘Sex over Love,’ this was made clear, with no explanations as to why he has such deep rooted trust issues. On Young Preacher, the growth is not solely artistic and musical but also emotional, as Blaqbonez opens up and lets the listener in, providing an introspective take on why he is so avoidant when it comes to love, romance and longevity in his relationships with women. On the introductory song, YOUNG PREACHER, he discusses how his father left him and his mother at a young age, declaring that if he ever has a child he would never ‘dip like [his] daddy.’ On HOT BOY, which is the second song on the album, Blaqbonez goes on to say ‘Maybe its abandonment issues/Might need therapy, someone to see to…’ For the first time, Blaqbonez is opening up about how his relationship with his father, his upbringing and mental health might be contributing factors to his pessimistic outlook on love. Such honesty might not be the main focus of the album but it is difficult to ignore. It is the first time Blaqbonez has addressed his personal life or issues so blatantly in his music. This presents Young Preacher as Blaqbonez’s most vulnerable project so far, demonstrating his development, progression and growth as an artist.

Another great quality of Young Preacher is the album’s collaborative nature. Every featured artist is a valuable addition to the album. Asides from sounding good musically, some of the features also showcase certain artists in a different and interesting light. On RING RING, Tay Iwar is clearly experimenting with trap in a way I personally haven’t heard before, as he harmonises and sings in a different cadence to what listeners of his music might be used to. On MAZOE which is one of my favourite songs on the album, Bien (from the band Sauti Sol) and a Zimbabwean musician, Takura make the song feel very different from anything I’ve previously heard from Blaqbonez. Bien’s voice on the chorous shines through and makes MAZOE a really great song with elements of afrobeats, r&b, pop and rap blending together to create an effortlessly catchy record.

The samples on Young Preacher are impressive to me because they are intentional and provide an additional layer of sophistication which is absent from Blaqbonez’s previous projects. On I’D BE WAITING, Blaqbonez samples ‘360 °’ from Asa’s self-titled release in 2007 and names the song after the repetitive ‘I’d be waiting’ lyric from ‘360 °’. On FAKE NIKES featuring Blxckie & Cheque, Blaqbonez samples ‘Session 32’ by Summer Walker and this is one of my favourite beats on the album. The sample choice is an unconventional pairing with the artists on the song and it is also detached from the premise of the song itself. However, this doesn’t detract from how well the sample complements the lyrics, cadence and flow from Blaqbonez, Blxckie and Cheque.

On Young Preacher, each song transitions into the next with an effortless ease, making this an album which can be left playing without necessarily having to skip to the ‘best’ songs. Each song flows into each other but also feels very distinct and memorable. One of my favourite transitions on the album is the smooth change from LOYALTY to SHE LIKE IGBO. On the latter song, Blaqbonez blurs the lines between ‘song’ and ‘interlude’. SHE LIKE IGBO ends with a skit which feels like a short break from the music, in order to showcase Blaqbonez’s sense of humour, as well as his natural flair for comedy and creating storylines.

Five solo projects deep and Blaqbonez continues to prove that although his subject matter is fun and light hearted, he is an artist who understands himself, his audience and what good music sounds like. These key factors were evident on ‘Mamiwota’ featuring Oxlade and on ‘Bling,’ featuring Amaarae and Buju – two of my favourite Blaqbonez singles. However, Young Preacher shows that Blaqbonez has elevated his approach to creating music since these two singles and his previous projects. Young Preacher feels like a self-explanatory message to people like myself who have listened to Blaqbonez’s music for a very long time. He is telling us that he’s still on a journey of self-discovery and there’s much more to uncover, but he is enjoying the ride and understands what he needs to do to get where he wants to be artistically. This is felt throughout the album and particularly on the last song – I’D BE WAITING, which serves as a great conclusion to this impressive body of work.