Album Review: The Rebirth - Obiora Obiwon

I waited for over one year for Obiora Obiwon’s sophomore album ‘The Rebirth’ and when it finally came out this month, I grabbed a copy as soon as I could locate a CD retailer who stocked the album. However, after a couple of spins, I daresay I was disappointed. My disappointed was because I was totally ‘lost’ on the album.


I have followed Obiwon as an artiste since his days as a member of a loose ensemble of artistes in Enugu who went by the name ‘Coal City’s Finest’ to his stint with the self professed Hip-Hop purists, ‘Thoroughbreds’ and onto his emergence as a solo artiste or worthy note. His debut LP ‘Overture’ was excellent and spawned the hit song ‘Onyinye’. I also loved the collection of singles he put together as forerunners to ‘The Rebirth’ in the CD ‘Overture Plus’ which had beautiful songs like ‘Joli’, ‘Nigerian Girl’ and ‘Believe Me’. Then Obiwon ‘disappeared’ for a while and it is in this brief period of hiatus that I guess the change began.

At about the period he dropped ‘Overture Plus’, the artiste formerly known as Obiwon changed his name to Obiora Obiwon signaling a new phase of more originality in his music and brand. Up till this album, I sincerely regarded Obiora Obiwon as an R’n’B artiste considering his previous works but ‘The Rebirth’ marks a shift in genres for the artiste. Out of ten songs on the album, 6 are clearly gospel music, 2 are everyday feel good songs (‘bless you lady’ and ‘birthday’) while ‘obi mu o’ and it’s remix are the only R’n’B tracks on the LP.

‘obi mu o’ featuring Guchi Young is a duet with strong vocal performance and an everlasting message ‘Everlasting Love’. ‘obi mu o the remix’ shows why the original is such as good song from the ease with which the rappers featured on it delivered stellar verses, Blaise sets it off with “Let me get a little deeper/boy you’re a keeper/I need to assure you/how you dey give me fever”, passing the Rap baton to M.I who delivers on of his best verses of the year spitting “Girl, let me write you a story/you and I are going from the guts to glory/getting married on top a 40 storey…you took the simple dude and made him clear/it’s like you changed a skateboard to a Beamer..”. Ibo Boy Ill Bliss takes it a notch higher putting his recent real life experience in prose “I found a wife, found a friend, found a sister all in one…thank God I found you/got another man all trying to wife you/Yes I go build my life around you…I’m a man of my words/took a little time but I’m back for you…”.

On ‘F.A.T.H.E.R’ Obiwon combines his own rich vocals with a mini-choir background of voices to support in delivering a danceable gospel tune. This is one of the album’s best songs. The lyrics, arrangement and instrumentals all play out creatively.

Phat E & Obiora Obiwon are credited with the bulk of production with Jay Martins providing one track.

While ‘The Rebirth’ is definitely a ‘rebirth’ for the former R’n’B artiste, I’m not so sure this is the comeback album the market was expecting.