Review of Paapa’s “Technical Difficulties Vol. 1” EP by AlexRepGH

Paapa has not done any major work after releasing the highly acclaimed ‘Songs for Kukua’. All his fans were more than excited when he announced his new project, “Technical Difficulties” on his Twitter page.  I mean who wouldn’t be? In his new project, he releases them in installment, and the first one is a 5-track EP. Paapa does nothing but classical, soulful music, which touch the soul, reverb and leaves an everlasting impression. And I bet you, his new project is nothing different from his usual.

He starts off with a great love song. It’s very difficult, perhaps a technical difficulty, to find out who really loves you in today’s world, in which the clause ‘I love you’ means nothing anymore. On ‘How will I know’, Paapa tries to address this difficulty; he tries to solve it maybe. Today, love has turned to be mere lip service. This is what Paapa meant in the opening line of ‘How Will I Know’- ‘Oh I heard you say you love me.’ He goes further to warn that, those are very heavy words and that we should be ready to keep your words in difficult times. ‘Would you be ready to carry these heavy words when they start to hurt?’ This rhetorical sum up what real love is supposed to be. ‘How will I know’ addresses one difficulty. This is not the only difficulty Paapa addressed on his new project.

Another very popular one, which could be right in front of you, is also addressed. On ‘Infront Of You’, Paapa talks about how dreamers stay dreamers. Today’s world is made of millennials who keep wake, dreaming big enough to change the world. Some of them are kept busy with their dreams such that ‘their pillows have been kind to them, but their mind won’t let them be.’- They are sleepless, ‘anxiety [about the future] so loud’ that they ‘can’t hear GOD’s symphony’. This act of most millennials is changing the globe for the better, but Paapa warns the millennials, and all dreamers alike, that they should be careful of the dreams they dream. He implies the possibility of never achieving one’s dreams, probably due to lack of focus. The words of a wise man that ‘Don’t let dreams blind you’ ‘Cause you go miss what dey infront of you’, were just the perfect choice of words to get the warning across effectively.

Back in high school, there was a book which could literally solve all mathematics questions. On the third track of Technical Difficulties 1, Paapa wants someone to call Aki Ola to answer certain questions. The questions posed have nothing to do with mathematics however, but everything to do with broken homes resulting from wars. Domestic wars, civil wars have undoubtedly created more broken homes than fictional love has created broken hearts. For this, Paapa calls on Aki Ola, who’s the king that Paapa presumes knows everything to answer all his whys. Aki Ola could also be any father who leaves a mother helpless and a child fatherless. The latter is not uncommon in today’s world, and Paapa could technically be using Aki Ola to address this issue.

Even though ‘Losers’ sounds like the result of all the difficulties addressed by Paapa so far, it has another theme on its own, which likewise addresses another difficulty the globe is facing. In a world where everyone thinks they are right, no human value- respect, honesty, obedience, and others, is left. Everyone is trying to win, in the end we will all be losers. He addresses scorn and pride on this track. You know, I know. We know we both would lose everything if we all try to win, but we try still. We can solve this, definitely by being together.

This brings us to the last track on the EP, ‘Together’. So let’s sing it together. Let’s dance together. ‘Let’s do this life together’, ‘Eat cake and have icing together’. Paapa suggests on the last track of the first instalment of his new project that, unity does the impossible. He admonishes everyone to forgive and forget and break bread together. He believes that if we do everything together, the world would be better- perhaps he would not need to address all the difficulties the world is facing, as he has done in the first four tracks. The best place on this earth is together!!!!

Without any doubt, the first instalment of Technical Difficulties is a masterpiece. Talk of JaySo’s mastering and that Adomaa’s mellifluous voice on ‘Infront Of You’ completes the work as nothing but a classic. Hope you enjoy it too.

Please make it a point to cop it when it drops!

Written by: Alexander Kwakye