Music Review: Identity – Bahati Joe Mzka

The guitar is coming back into being the vogue instrument of the music industry, and along with it, R&B. And with it, of course, a bunch of new artistes.

Bahati is one of those new artistes riding on the wave of the guitar and the mini revival that R&B is going through, and Identity is the first song he is hitting the market with.

I like many things about this kid – I bumped into his material on social media while browsing, and was intrigued out to reach out and ask him for any recorded material he had put out for release. Identity was what he gave me.

I have a horrible habit of speaking frankly when it comes to music, and that hasn’t changed. Bahati has the vocals for R&B – he has the inflections down part, as well as the vocal flexibility that the genre demands. But he is going to need a lot more than what he has put out on Identity.

R&B as a genre struggled around 2005 because production trends focused more on percussive and stylistic approaches instead of a focus on melody and arrangements. You know, the things that made Babyface, Jam and Lewis, R Kelly and Jermain Dupri household names. And that is what Identity is struggling with – it is a neatly produced song that is barely memorable, and has almost no melodic aspects to it. It taps into an approach that took R&B to the grave in the first decade of this century.

It would do Bahati well to follow some foundational basics, the ones the masters horned: have you got a defined, memorable melody, one whose musicality is undeniable? Then add your percussive flicks and stylistic flair.

The kid’s talent is obvious – he needs the right team in his back room though.