Kida Kudz toasts to his African roots on ‘Top Memba’ [Pulse Mixtape Review]

Kida Kudz is an Ibadan boy who blew up in Nigeria after winning the second edition of Peak Talent Show. At the time, he was sounding like Lil Wayne and shared close ties with ID Cabasa and Coded Tunes.

A few years later, he moved to the UK and refined his style. He’s at his best whenever he’s on Afroswing records with a certain type of double time bounce. It aids his Rap-esque cadences, breath control and technique to produce a sung-rap style, aided by auto-tune and his deep voice.

In 2020, he released Nasty, a 10-track album. Now, he’s followed it up with another 10-track mixtape titled, Top Memba. Some circles have intimated that ‘Top Memba’ is a play on words inspired by Ebenezer Obey’s ‘Board Members,’ but those claims are largely unproven.

The 10-track EP falls in line with Kudz’s aforementioned style. While a large part of the EP centres around topics like women, sex, drinking, partying and all-round hedonism, tracks like ‘Animalistic,’ ‘Makaveli,’ ‘Redemption’ and ‘Never Saw Us’ underline Kudz’s ability to expand his topical conversations and excel on a myriad of topics.

It also feels like Kudz is at his best when he’s articulating a wide range of topics like he did on those four tracks. His delivery feels more effortless and his words resonate - they feel personal and deeper for him than hedonistic face-value topics.

Credit must also go to his songwriting on those four topics as well as his features - especially standouts like Bella Shmurda and Gemitaiz.

The fusion of EDM melodies with Afro-pop on ‘Ball Till We Fall’ is also impressive.

While Kudz is now based in the UK and ‘Top Memba’ sonically reveals those influences with Afroswing records, Kudz still manages to drag some of those records into his African roots.

In fact, he proudly sings about being an African boy on the Studio Magic-produced ‘Animalistic,’ sings in Yoruba on ‘Nobody’ and interpolates Lagbaja’s ‘Baby Tani Ko Fewa’ on ‘Problem.’

A lot of that strong Nigerian appeal is because Kudz mostly uses Nigerian producers like Studio Magik and Major Banggz. While all the tracks on the mixtape are impressive, ‘Ghetto Riddim’ is slightly forgettable.

However, Jesus Christ was not a black man - we black people need to stop trying to die on that tree.

Ratings: /10

• 0-1.9: Flop

• 2.0-3.9: Near fall

• 4.0-5.9: Average

• 6.0-7.9: Victory

• 8.0-10: Champion

Pulse Rating: /10

6.5 - Victory