Written by Louis Pelingen

Ever since its creation, Careless Music Manila has been in a state of constant growth as it became independent in 2019, allowing the signed artists creative freedom when it comes to their visual and musical aesthetics. While the last two years have restricted these artists to tour around the world, it did allow them to focus on their musical projects that will push their careers through the door even more. This year, one of the artists in that label has put out their debut record and that is ‘Lahi’ by Massiah.

To put it simply, it is a breezy and tropical record that centers on Massiah’s half-Filipino, half-Ghanaian heritage as well as his success in recent years. While it showcases Massiah’s talent and skill on the door, it doesn’t exactly showcase what makes him stand out.

But before I discuss my personal nitpicks on this record, I would love to point out the positive aspects of this record. For one, the production is consistent for the entire runtime as afrobeat and trap beats are weaved throughout, supported only by chilly synth tones, chiming piano textures, and enough low-end presence that acts as a solid groove foundation for a lot of the tracks. And for how tropical this album is, it does make sense that Massiah tries to be loose and chill with his vocals to convey different tensions on most of the songs. And when the production and melodies are at their polished results, we get songs like ‘Frequency’ with its magnetic melodies and charming performance from Massiah and ‘Stay With Me’ thanks to the woozy synths and synth horns, low-key vocals that are elevated with multitracking and backing vocals that are nested at the best timing.

However, there are multiple pushbacks in the production that don’t work well. While I loved ‘Paid for It’ due to the Spanish guitar chords playing amidst the trap rattles, the vocal mixing gets haphazard as it shifts to the back of the mix quite often and is not helped by the bass that swamps Messiah out of the picture. ‘Island City’ is also a mixed bag as well as it provides an interesting drill-esque beat that is coming from the sputtering trap drums and low-end presence, but it gets odd as the track suddenly transitions in slowed and pitched down effects which only makes the back half of the song to end in a jarring way. The production on the other tracks are mostly fine, ‘Higher’ with its hypnotic synth presence amidst solid trap and low-end grooves, the stable tropical afrobeat presence on ‘High off Life’, ‘First Time’, and ‘Tourist Chick’ with the latter having some horn accompaniments, and the sparse synths and bass presence on ‘Silhouette’.

While some tracks could’ve used more of the guitar and brass instruments utilized in the album, I think my biggest issue here is the writing, the melodies and flows, and some missed opportunities that Massiah could’ve done in the record. While Massiah is a solid enough performer that showcases different sides in his vocal range, there are tendencies where he wears some influences on his sleeves when he raps and sings, especially from the likes of Amine, Drake, and Ty Dolla $ign. It’s also a missed opportunity for Massiah to have more interplay with his guest features especially when he is trying to different things in the record. He could at least try to play off with Because on ‘Island City’ and provide vocal harmonies with Fern. Official and Cavill on ‘Silhouette’. And while there is some vocal interplay in ‘High off Life’, there could’ve more opportunities for interesting vocal dynamics in the song.

When it comes to the writing, I do get and understand the thematics of success and fleeting love that is in the record, but Massiah could’ve done more here. While the flexing is not really in the record, the constant mentions of the hustle and hard work just got stale and Massiah could’ve branched out in this topic, possibly towards introspection and how that success really means for him and those that he truly cares about. And then there are the love songs, which felt a bit flirty on the first track only to derail into unappealing tangents in the next couple of tracks. Massiah tried to sell that loose tropical vibe in the writing and production with his vocals, but it still doesn’t compensate for the bland and uninteresting songwriting and the melodies that can be stiff and derivative.

Massiah’s brand of tropical afrobeat is fine and dandy, but treating this as a victory lap on his debut album may demand some folks more attention on what else he can do next after that hustle. Personally, it is a flawed record, especially with the influences wearing on Massiah’s sleeves, the production that stumbles on certain songs, and the writing that just doesn’t showcase his unique flair and ends up being one-dimensional as a result of it.

While I applaud him for reaching that success and celebrating it on this record, I’m going to pay close attention to what else he can do in his future releases. Because now that he has showcased his victory lap, he will need to do more than just hustle bragging to sustain that audience.

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