Fredo Bang – Lover Boy

In Nigerian conversation the label can go two ways. It can be a compliment for the man who is good with words and always has somebody calling him. It can also be a teasing jab at the one who cannot stay with a single person for long. The same two words can start a laugh or a quarrel, depending on who is saying them and where.

That double meaning gives the title more depth than it first seems to have. A rapper from Baton Rouge could use it as a boast, as a confession or as a way of looking back at his own habits with a smile. Lover Boy does not tell you which, and I like that. It leaves room for humour as well as regret, which fits an album built around laughing now and crying later.

Relationship records like this tend to travel well because the subject is so common. Somebody in every group chat has a friend who fits the description, and somebody else is secretly that friend. It is the sort of song you can imagine being played on a drive home while people trade stories about who broke whose heart first.

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