A Review Of Jovi’s Highly Talked About Album God Don Kam

By Nkiacha Atemnkeng

If God was a rapper he would rap like Jovi Le Monstre. On February 16th  2019, the rap god trended on Cameroon Twitter and transformed mobile money transactions in the country into a serious Rond Point Deido road traffic. Reason… Jovi had just dropped his fourth album aptly titled, “God Don Kam”. It was the resurgence of Cameroon’s premier emcee, who a few weeks prior had heralded his fourth coming with the release of a seven track EP titled, “God Di Kam“.

The fourteen track album costs an unbelievable one thousand francs CFA on New Bell Music’s shop online, a sale facilitated by MTN Mobile Money and Orange Money. The witty marketing strategy sent hip hop fans in Cameroon diving onto the site to buy the cheap album which is worth silver and gold. Therefore, helping to create a lot of buzz around it. “God Don Kam” also quickly shot up the charts to become the best selling hip hop album on Bandcamp, just two days after its release. Early projections suggest that it has sold 50,000 copies already.

This was not the first time Jovi has gone viral; his debut single, “Don 4 Kwat” did. Neither was it the first time he had something to do with a virus; his debut album was titled “H.I.V“. Not that lethal virus that causes AIDS, but “Humanity Is Vanishing“.

“H.I.V” remains Jovi’s magnum opus and a game changing classic that really elevated Cameroonian hip hop.

The record also proved that the new, self-assured emcee with street credibility could deliver high voltage rhymes, a plethora of punch lines and a wildly inventive flow – with bars afters bars after bars. Kondengui style.

In his sophomore album, “Mboko God“, Jovi cemented his legacy as the god of street rap and paramount producer of eclectic gong and bell sounds which has now become his signature. He also presented his new crew at New Bell Music, his newly formed record label. After a couple of EPs and a third album, “16 Wives” which barely delivered, many critics stated that the Jovi era was finally over. His recent hits were not as hard hitting as his early hits.

t is an issue he addresses in songs like “Piss am” and “God Don Kam”. It seems Jovi is back once more to prove his doubters wrong in this album; that he cannot only still rap well but can also produce songs incredibly well. Unlike “Mboko God” where his artistic approach is laid back (he gives room for his crew to express themselves), Jovi steers the ship almost solitary this time. Reniss and Tatapong Beyala are only minimally in the background. The wide range of the songs is remarkable. The tunes mostly sound different.

The sampling is genius. Jovi has long known that the magic in sampling is in picking the right sample. He is not only great at picking the best Makossa, Rochereau, Eko and Fela song(s), but also great at reworking the samples so rigorously that they work well in almost every song.

However, he does it more clinically in this album. Every sample is ample. And they are not easy to decipher, unlike the ones in his previous albums and EPs. Also, most songs have background vocals; some weepy, some unique, some downright indescribable. Some tunes incorporate auto tunes. Some songs have his signature gongs. Other songs flaunt funk and flutes and xylophones and traditional music.

Jovi has always been a polyglot rapper, but he serves a bigger English, Pidgin, French, Camfranglais, Limbum, Bassa and Eton bowl of salad in this album. However, there is more Pidgin and English in “God Don Kam” than in “16 Wives”. And just like its rich language mix, “God Don Kam” is also a concoction of different musical styles and influences; Mboko rap, socially conscious hip hop, club bangers, 808, nineties American hip hop, trap music, funk and jazz.

The album opens with the fourth sequel of a song which appears on every Jovi album. In the best episode of “Man pass man” yet, Le Monstre’s entrance is marked by a grand beat sounding like royalty, with a xylophone accompaniment. The Jovi sung hook is embellished by Reniss’ background vocals in Limbum and a bass note behind that bats gently like Thundercat’s. The rapper then races out of the stable with punch lines of great horse power… No son should ever live to pay for the sins of their father. I would lie if I say I never did this shit for my daughter. I space walk on the beat like Jupiter was my mother.

He also proceeds to deliver a bold and insightful second verse that traces his lineage to every corner of Cameroon. He unapologetically dissects his thoughts on being Cameroonian, and from an interlocutor’s position. He muses about identity in a way that gets the listener thinking deeply. Apart from when he’s vulgarizing or delving into hedonism, it is the general philosophical tone of the album. His verses sound more like reflective sermons, with the aforementioned paradox. Jovi also preaches peace, while creating scenic imagery through his rap lens where one can “see” the Anglophone crises.

Sometimes, he disregards syntax for rhythmic effect…Tu est Francophone or you be na Anglophone? Tara, I be na Cameroon. Isn’t he supposed to use a single language in a single sentence? Which should even end with…Tara, I be na Cameroonian? But how can the line achieve its punch rhyme effect with all that grammar intact? Well, it is pop culture, not a grammar class, so Mr. Artist bent the rule.

Interestingly, it is the line’s altered syntax that delivers its profound effect and puts it in a poetic class of its own, whether the listener agrees with the Jovi politics or not. Plus, check out the witty way he uses both languages in that single line again. Baam!

Jovi raps the refrain of the second song, “Pissam” in Bassa. He bends a few words so they can rhyme well too. The word “bangle” is sort of pronounced like its Pidgin version, “bangu”  so that it will rhyme with the name, Django. He also uses word repetition to killer effect, when he rhyme-repeats the word “change” in several sentences and even the sentence opener, “Yi easy for…”. “Piss am” also flashes an undecipherable background auto tuned chant and a unique mid-tempo beat. It is one of the album’s finest songs. A fan tweet even describes it thus “a time travel tune from 2035”.