Are you ready for Season 1? Photo:THE ARTIST

Xamination: Dry Season

By Obidike Okafor

Terry G

Ginjah Your Swaggah Season 1

(TPG Recordz/ Moon Walk Entertainment)

With swagger being street lingo for carriage, it appears that Terry G calls this album Ginjah your Swaggah in an attempt to get the streets to step up it’s whole persona. Also, the steady rise in viewership of foreign TV series on DVD seems to have encouraged the artist to add the suffix, Season 1 to the title of his latest effort.

The entire 20 track disc was produced and mastered by Terry G, and this solo run is also the source of the album’s repetitive drone. Though his appearances on songs like AY.com’s “Pass Me Your Love” with and Illbliss’ “Aye Po Gan” made those songs monster hits, he fails to save himself on this album. The collection is a missed opportunity for the artist to show his true powers as a musician, if indeed, there are any.

Terry G’s album is scattered and contains a lot of rambling like on “Trowey” and “Free Madness” which happens to be a club fave as Nigerians are more interested in banging beats than actual substance, which Terry G provides in abundance. On “Halleluyah”, he uses words similar to Kelly Hansome’s “Maga Don Pay” except that he adds a popular Nigerian gospel chorus. The similarities in the music become twin-like when listening to “Beauty” and “Free Madness 2”. The former also has the same sounds as Illbliss’ “Aye Po Gan”, creating second thoughts about Terry G’s creativity.

By the time the listener gets to song number 12, there is a detour into Afro beat territory on “Ojukokoro”, which is a breath of fresh air for the album. Besides this song, “Ginjah Seduction” and “So Fine” also take a different turn, making the album worth listening to. Ginjah Your Swaggah Season 1 also features the uncrowned king of collabos, Timaya, who adds some bite to this seemingly weak effort.

Exclamations are a norm in Nigerian music, and Terry G exploits that frontier with impunity. “Free me now!”, “Terry G on the Beats!” and “Chei!” are some of the words and phrases he belts out repeatedly on almost all his songs. Regardless, Nigerians still love Terry G because most music lovers are not crazy about lyrical depth anyway. As long as they can dance to it, they can never get enough, saving Ginjah Your Swaggah Season 1 from gathering dust on the market shelf.

Grade: P7

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Reader Comments (10)

Posted by Chimddy on Sep 29 2009

Just another artiste who keeps dumbing it down for the masses and killing our music!

Posted by Okocha U on Sep 29 2009

I am a fan. Like it or not he may not be a lyricist, but he sure makes some tight beats. Besides he has really cool concepts, imagine "testing the microphone". And his brilliance in singing is also commendable.

Posted by badguy on Sep 29 2009

terry g got no freakng lyrics,very soon nigerians will be tried of him and his drug use,three times he only talks about is yansh,marijuana,tile tile,lol but nigerians likes dancing mso that dats why terry uses a beat he has sold to another artist to do that song called free madness but people dont care,they dont mind.....anyway i like some of his bullshit for real

Posted by Ese on Sep 29 2009

Listened to the album already..Poor Production and far far from wat i expected..gues hes better wiv collabos

Posted by AUSTYNZOGS on Sep 29 2009

Pls can the man named Reuben Abati step forward to whack some canes on the back of this Egugun called Terry G for proving him right that modern Nigerian Hip-hop is all nonsensical noise? Too bad that Nigerian music has become an all and any comer's affair.You only need to know how to spurn out obscenities and all that stuffs.Chei,see what these trying times has caused-the evolution of emergency 'stars'

Posted by Jeremy Emmanson on Sep 29 2009

Terry G's music sucks, but anyhow Nigerians love it. once ur tipsy ur dont lay interest on the lyrics, but the beats, he's beeter off with collabos. he is not tight.

Posted by Femi Morgan on Sep 29 2009

Just before i read this, it crossed my mind that we are now in a neo-modernist times, where the psychological wars of people find an escape through the creative and uncreative ramblings of artists-either poets or musicians. I will classify Terry G as the Lil Wayne of Nigeria. Lyricists are not doing well in Nigeria. There is no music industry, what we have is just some youths trying something out. There are no song-writers,no strong census board. So lets cope with the SWAGGA.

Posted by Toronto(Swagga) on Oct 04 2009

I think there is no artist as swagga like terry himself becos he is the king of all swag.Infact if u dont have swag as a street boi means you are notin but a Jonesman becos me mysef love swag and ginjah. Meet me meet Terry G the Jr

Posted by MIchael Aina on Dec 16 2009

Terry G is my No 1 Artiste in nigeria.my mentor,my everything,couz i love hime so so so much and i will keep luving him,anytime am in the club i keep GINJAHRING AND SWAGGERING even dancing his style.terry g u are too much.BAD BELLE FREE ME RIGHT NOW. WE LUV U HERE IN ABUJA

Posted by Emmalead Sap-side on Jan 07 2010

What i've 2 say about Terry G is dat he is doing tremendiously wel in d creation of his beats but his lerics does'nt really make sense 2 majority of his brother Nigerians. He should try and improve on his lerics. Wel, left 4 me alone, man... I gbadu d guy so much...