WHAT IS TEMS TRYING TO SAY ON HER DEBUT EP
It is not customary for a mother to choose a name for her child in the Yoruba culture. This is a role assigned to the husband’s father and relations. So when a woman adopts a name for her unborn child in a way that makes it clear that she’s defying not only tradition but also family aspirations, she raises a frisson of wonder. How could she express so much confidence about the child?Because she’s a special baby.
Twenty-five years afterwards, Baby Temilade is flaunting her giftedness and projecting her individuality in a fiercely competitive industry. Now here’s the gist: when you first listen to Tems, you aren’t quite sure what she’s singing about or if she’s Nigerian even. With her voice and style of music, she instantly commands your attention. In the remix of Khalid’s Know Your Worth, for instance, she lends a powerful appeal that’s all the more enchanting for its brevity.
Since Mr Rebel, her first single in 2018, Tems has enjoyed genuine popularity with a certain class of listeners — those who fancy their tastes urbane and superior to the noisy and more common Afro pop breed. While Tems continues to tailor her music to this fanbase, she hones her contrast to popular sounds, subtly rebelling against mainstream music. Could that be from where the Rebel Gang is derived? We’ll come back to this.
On For Broken Ears, her latest — and first — EP, Tems drives you on a personal journey, through sifting emotions. Singing with piano accompaniment, against distant humming, that builds up a somber atmosphere, she pulls you into a vortex of emotions on Interference:
This is a place with no shame/ This is mind with no frame…/
This is the life with no pain/This is the place with no shame/
Things steps up a gear on Ice T, which rides on a simple harmony of drum and chords. Quite fascinatingly, Tems demonstrates a vitality of imagination with an eclectic choice of words that achieve the combined effects of making a vivid impression and delivering a melody.
Escape. On Free Mind, Tems expresses her longing for freedom. Escape from the turmoil and frustration that darken her mind. Aided by soft percussion and a murmur of chants, she sings:
I really need, I really need time now/ I really need, I really a free mind now/
I really need, I really need mine now/ I really need to free my mind now
Midstream, the drum beat stops short and the record segues into a progression of chords that peters out to a surreal end. The protracted intro does little to sustain anticipation.
Even as the EP recedes to a sedate pace, the theme of escape recurs in the following track, Higher. She soaks you deep in her anguish deepening the intimacy. Away from a tempestuous relationship, she’s fleeing to the ‘land of discovery’:
‘Going way beyond the noise and feelings…/
Turning back from all the pain and violence.
If Higher is the mushy ballad of love lost, Damages is the chorus of freedom at last. Supported by the symphony of chords and throbbing drum beats, Tems expresses her respite from an uneventful relationship.
‘So tell me what you need from me now/ I’m not what you need to be now/
Cause I’m done with it now/ No more damages now.
With her newfound bliss comes a strong belief in self. There’s a new confidence about her; there’s a quickness in her voice as she spits the lyrics on the final track, The Key:
Listen when they call, they call my name/ I found the voice within me/
No man can curse what God has made
More than anything, this energy is built from confidence in her musical prowess. Tems, as it appears, wants you to share you in her self-belief and promising future. This, perhaps, explains why this track is reserved for the last. And, candidly, that’s the resounding theme of FBE: the dashing confidence of a Rebel Gang queen that’s blazing the path with her fierce creativity. And speaking of her Rebel Gang (I’m sure you don’t remember this) Tems is only too ready to project this distinction from mainstream music.
Except for percussion and chords, For Broken Ears doesn’t so much employ a wide array of instruments. Even with its sparse instrumentation, FBE draws on the fine mesh of vocals and chords to create beauty and melody for the Rebel Gang.
With FBE, Tems unfolds an enchanting confidence that implies that you can’t get enough of her — maybe just not yet.
