Nina Shezz debut EP “Wonderfully Made” emerged as a shocking statement to the gospel scenes of Nigeria, South Africa and Ghana in the fall of 2022. Screaming I am here to take over as the album comprises of 5 (five) tracks which enables you to feel the rudiments of musical instruments used in the composition of the songs.
Each song in the album brings alive biblical wordings. Though not quoted but fervent believers would be able to highlight these books and chapters with verses—which would enable them to applaud verse as a profound curation.
Unlike the popular methods of gospel music in Nigeria which classifies sounds as either English language or Native languages. The artiste exposed her sounds to a wavelength that contrast between English language and a Native language to enhance the connectivity between her listeners and the message she is passing.
This album has earned the artiste two nominations and as at the time this was written it was at the 2023 Kingdom Achievers Award where she was nominated as Afro Gospel artiste of the year and rising star—she won the rising star of the year award. Showing the quality of the album is outstanding and displays the artiste talent in juxtaposing words with a mellifluous vocal to revamp on instrumentals.
The essence of Nina Shezz album denotes the importance of faith towards the life of those associated with the religion “Christianity” and shows how necessary it is to stay connected in practices.
On an average the album gets spotify monthly play of about 80,000 streams proving that many people enjoy the album. But I have to admit there was a song in the album which made it not connect with others and it was the first song “Call.”
Two producers were responsible for the curation of the album and they were Olly Mix, and Princewill Agbazue. With Olly Mix dominating major creations, a producer who has worked with numerous gospel artiste including Ibitayo Ojeje, Dare Justified, Quadplay band, Elijah Daniels, and Adura Sings. And Princewill Agbazue who produces mostly his own songs and just this song “Be anxious for Nothing” for Nina Shezz.
I can testify both producers had the credibility needed to deliver the album and it was no surprise the extended play (EP) won an award at the Kingdom Achievers Award 2023 Edition. “Call” as earlier stated introduction was not so pleasant because of the mixing and it is the only error spotted.
“Call” which was produced, mixed and mastered by Olly Mix—starts off with the beating of snares, and the tempo went off tune in-between. Although this may not be the fault of the artiste but rather the sound engineer who could not fine-tune the decibel (dB) ratio between amounts of acoustic and electric power, creating an unusual loudness at the start of the song.
In “Call” the chord progression was on the minor key, and snares dominated every other component of drumming and the tom was rarely used thereby making the sound of the acoustic guitar prominent. I enjoyed the hook, the words were perfect for the interjection and later on everything seemed fine.
The next track was “Wonderfully Made” produced by Olly Mix. The use of tunes makes it a very lovely song to listen to. It talks about a believer who was praising God with the knowledge of his promises upon their life that he would deliver them from whatever they find themselves in— this serves as a track of reassurance to those believers who may be doubting the existence of the promise made in their holy book.
The proceeding track “Be anxious for Nothing” was produced by Princewill Agbazue, the instrumental was strikingly good, progression of chords from acoustic guitar were apparent, backed with use of words by the artiste. It was a very good song and it represents the title, it brings alive the confidence that just as God answered the prayers of others yours too would be answered.
The second to last track “Ayo” produced by Olly Mix shows profound working in the instrumental. It is a solid amapiano gospel song. This is the best song in the album, sends you off your feet dancing to the tunes and connecting to the artiste.
The last song was “Unconditional Love” in which the artiste uses 1 Corinthians 13:4 to buttress her point that Gods love is prominent to humanity and him sending his son Jesus the Christ to die on the cross proves his love was a sign of an unconditional love—this song was also an amapiano gospel.
The artiste practicalized something that has never been done such as moderating amapiano to suite english words and gospel genre at it. Amapiano like Afro beats genre was an original creation of South Africans but only the Nigerian artiste Nina Shezz was able to use it to bubble her gospel album.
