4 takeaways from Show Dem Camp’s Clone Wars IV

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Heeding a demand on Nigerian hip hop to be more inclusive, Show Dem Camp released two palm wine projects. Those projects had simple verses with simple hooks and simple beats—so unlike the lyrical gymnastics that dominate the Clone Wars series.

Home, however, is where the heart is, and just about a minute after putting down the gourd for another Clone Wars, one-half of the duo, Tec, proclaims, “Since Clone Wars 3, I’ve been impatient. Too much palm wine will leave you intoxicated”. The album, at a robust 14 tracks, is striking: from the immensely thought-provoking cover art to the lyrical showcase. Here are five takeaways from the rap group’s latest project.

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1. Tec is more than a rapper

Once, in a reply to a Twitter post, someone suggested that Tec as a rapper is technically lazy. He liked Ghost’s unpredictability and often Tec is second (lyrically) in songs.

Ghost is a more complex rapper building verses with the intricacy of a maze, Tec draws upon social/cultural constructs and the oral tradition of Nigeria to deliver well thought out verses, project after project.

In the Palm Wine series, Tec was the major beneficiary of a sound which was instantly African. Doing away with the traditional boom bap preference of hip hop, the series built upon African instruments and the easily discerned bars of Tec. Simply: Clone Wars is for Ghost, Palm Wine belongs to Tec.

But on CW4, Tec’s first words are a gauntlet thrown to me. Across 13 songs (excluding the bonus track), he adopts a wide array of personas: the braggadocio rapper (‘Savage’ and ‘4th Republic’) and the social commentator (‘Duade’, ‘Epigenetics’ and ‘Shadow of Doubt’), among them.

2. The album is well-timed

The independent act Boogey Odey, a collaborator on the tape, once admitted that putting out his debut album Nouveau Niveau so early in 2018 hurt its commercial reception. Show Dem Camp, too, are their own bosses, but they have proven expert in timing their releases. Going into an election year, what better way than to reawaken the collective consciousness of the masses with 14 rounds of political punches to the brain?

Rather than addressing their views explicitly, they turn towards a novelistic blueprint, painting a bigger picture with generous brush strokes. They don’t just decry the frustrating corruption tendencies of the government (‘Tipping Point’) but also investigate masculinity (‘Duade’). One could also argue for the culture that Show Dem Camp has done Nigerian rap a solid by setting the bar so high, so early in the year.

3. The art direction is exceptional

From the album art to its sequencing to their collaboration with We Talk Sound (which cumulated in the provision of the album’s lyrics on Genius) to the music, Clone Wars IV is arguably the best Show Dem Camp project.

4. Producer Spax is special

Last year, the producer Ikon released his debut project Hungry To Live. It was sold as autobiographical. A solid project by all means, but even stronger as a metaphor. In an industry where producers are placed in an anonymous role, relegated just to name tags and an almost inexistent award system to reward their art, Ikon put a face to his work.

Surely, he had gathered clout as a member of the group Three Wise Men and his numerous collaborations with Show Dem Camp and The Collectiv3 (of which he is a member) but a solo tape is a different deal.

Instead of a face, we get the ‘classic’ Spax sound. Over the past year, the man has created for artists such as Funbi, Poe and, now, Show Dem Camp. Whereas the rational advice to SDC would be to diversify the sound in CW4 (using an array of sounds from different producers), Spax jumps in the middle of such a conversation and knocks it down with numerous drum packs, exotic instrumentation and a kids choir.