Artists/DJ: Big Nuz
Album Title: Undisputed
Genre: Kwaito
Year of Release: 2009
It's that time of the year when the music industry starts gearing up for the festive season and music lovers start having to keep up with all the projects coming out. But one thing is for sure, the festive season is a time for good and equally bad projects. Let's see if the saying, "early bird catches the fattest worm" will apply to Biz Nuz, one of the first few groups to release projects aimed at entertaining people during Christmas and New Year.
Having monitored the trio closely since their first release, allow me to say that their move to join Afrotainment, which is owned by DJ Tira, was a wise step. The group's sound has matured impressively and there is no doubt that their previous release that had a massive hit, ‘Ubala' did put them on the map.
Now that they need to live up to the expectations of their previous release, let's see what their new project has to offer. Ready or not, Big Nuz has released their fresh project titled, ‘Undisputed'.
It took me a while to make up my mind on this one; I spent about two weeks listening to it purely based on the fact that I had to get my ducks in a row. After such a long listening session, I have come to a conclusion... Honestly, I am not completely sold here.
The opening song, ‘Newlands West' carries good energy but the lyrics are monotonous. The chorus comes in too many times and when Tira comes in with his rhymes, he does not lift up the song. There are songs like, ‘Superman' where I have no idea what's going on! With all due respect, can someone explain to me what the deal is with this song exactly?
The song, ‘Ungesabi'; is just another lazy production. It sounds like a cut and paste production. There is nothing much happening and again, the lyrics are not gelling well with the beats.
There is one song in particular that I strongly believe will rescue this project. ‘Umlilo' is one super fine jam that will definitely keep party people damaging the dance floor until we cross over to next year. The song starts with a provoking kick accompanied by catchy percussion. Before the melodies start dancing, one of the three members throws a little line saying, "Afro, afro, afro". The energy here is right and the bass line comes in heavily and complete its mission perfectly. The instrumentation just takes the song to another level. The chorus further makes one forget about everything and just start chanting, "Durban Rocks"! Coming to the boys' individual flow, they haven't disappointed on this one. ‘Umlilo' is a well done job boys.
But the overall feel of the project is not really a mind blower! I do respect all the work done but I feel that those in charge of production have not really done a good job of fully blending the beats with the vocals. In future, I would really like to see Big Nuz and its production team paying more attention to making songs that flow well and work perfectly with all the components in the song. Otherwise, I am not impressed; this could have been tightened up.
Cover/Art: 4/5 | Sound/Technical: 4/5 | "I like it factor": 4/10
MIO Rating: 2½/5
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