Best Day of My Life (Finding Happiness with Paybac Iboro)

Describing Paybac Iboro as the dark, yet safe side of the Nigerian millennial is not far fetched. He is one of such rare figures that have managed to own their insecurities and speak freely about their inner demons. This uncommon openness has turned his fans into a hybrid of friends, support group and as TheNative pointed out last year, a cult.

The last time I reviewed a Paybac project, I called him a man-child – this is because he fearlessly undulates between both the immature and the morbid grounds the bravest of us are too jittery to test. The project was Frank Ocean Type Beats and a lot has happened since then — both in his life and mine. I was an early-writer then and I scored the album (facepalm, art is too subjective to conform to figures).

Frank Ocean Type beat carried a subdued aura around its delivery. Mixed in low frequency with quasi-processed vocals whose echoes felt like a troubled mind screaming through an abyss. He broached topics like loss, love, identity and emotion within 5 songs. Seemed short, but was well-ladened with dark clouds.

One of the most striking songs on Frank Ocean Type Beat was Best Day of My Life Demo. A grunge rock/hip-hop blend where he basically described where he would want to be emotionally. He starts out with a prayer that Abasi – the Efik term for God should do it for him. And with piercing guitar strings, Paybac ascends from a sad croon to a shouting cadence that energized his fantasy.

Line by line Paybac describes this utopia. Drawing parallels to fertile sources of Nigerian hedonism. From the grandeur life of a Yahoo boy(Internet fraudster) to the simple satisfaction of a cold drink after a day of hard labour. He visualises his feelings in metaphors that closely resembled both extremes.

Happiness is an elusive concept. While initially, I believed it was a destination. During draining and tiring pursuit, I learnt that happiness exists only in the present and the second best we can settle for, long-term, is contentment.

Fast forward 3 years later in 2017, Paybac released his debut album – The Biggest Tree. A collection of 12 Afro-hip-hop songs that truly documented not only his pain in great detail, but his growth as well. For someone who desires so much happiness, it seemed he dwelled a little too much in a box of his own dark thoughts and offered melancholic perspectives to even the most mundane of concepts.

After 11 songs of grueling soul-searching, The Biggest Tree ends at Best Day of My Life. Naturally, I was drawn to this since the demo is a personal favourite from his entire discography. I skipped the courtesy of listening in order and jumped straight to the end of the album. 

In contrasts to its predecessor, this version was mixed for clarity, fitted with robust instrumentals and was generally… less cloudy. It showed a cleaner sense of awareness and purpose. This could mean a different audio engineer but it seems there’s much more to it than that.

Starting out with

“I

 Feel

Like

a

million

bucks.”

Paybac sings himself out of depression with assistance from Bella Alubo— whose voice was served as a reassuring echo that he will truly be fine. There were no parallels in this version, there were no references to trending Nigerian concepts, there were no paintings… infact idealistically, the song seemed empty when compared to the demo.

In those 3 years, Paybac’s perspective on happiness greatly shifted from a personal utopia to something we can find in others. Something we can see in the people we hold dear– a more realistic concept deeply rooted in vulnerability, love and fear.

The rap verse at the end very much relayed this fact.

“And my sister she just finished school mehn

And my brother he just bought a new whip.

And I don dey wait I don dey wait I don dry wait (till fade)”

Rather than equating fulfilment with a successful grind to fuel his drive. Or even, forcing himself to secrete the required dose of happiness needed to keep him going. Paybac thrusts his happiness into the little positives his family experience and for a moment, it looked like everything will truly be alright. The song, and the album ends with a voicenote from a lady checking up on him. A truly satisfying ending to the tumultuous and engaging experience that was The Biggest Tree.

At the end of the tunnel, there was a glimmer of hope.


Listen to "Best Day of My Life (Demo) off Frank Ocean Type Beats

Listen to "Best Day of My Life (feat Bella Alubo)" off The Biggest Tree