This being the first official token of recognition we’re dealing out to artists in our scope, we’ll list out some disclaimers & guidelines to set the tone. For one, we acknowledge a presence of in-house artists back here on our team. They’ll be ineligible & unranked/unweighted for this typa thing, just ’cause it’s tackily comical to conceive of an honor & consider awarding it to oneself😂! Secondly, like the honor’s name suggests, this isn’t about songwriting broadly as to include melodic composition & arrangement. But we’ll mainly concern ourselves with *words*, lyrics, that is. The sophistication, layeredness, tact, elegance, and versatility thereof. And our considerations won’t be assessments of artists’ full career arcs, but of output dropped from the dawn of last year to the present moment.
That out of the way, let’s cut to why we’re here. “Who the heck’s bagging the first ever virtual gong of The Culturing’s inaugural ‘The Wordlies’ 2024/25?” you ask. Well… 🥁🥁🥁… without dragging out the dramatic pause for too long😅… the answer is *mwami*! Isaac Bugimbi Sekalala, guys. ’Cause you know, for some reason, the business of words evokes a certain formality that causes us to call people by their full names. We found the rules that way, didn’t make’em up (<chuckle>).
That’s right, mwami’s ’24/25’s ‘wordlie of the year’, better put; he bagged the year’s ‘wordlie’. “Why say the same thing in two different ways?” you dare ask. Again. See, we’re dangling the phrases before y’all’s eyes so you pick them up. First time typa thing, get with it. And enough with questions, you imaginary reader (save for the fact that we’re making them up ourselves in a bid to break this down😆). But foolery aside…
mwami’s been a wordplay maestro from the go, and the past year was no exception. A lot to say there, but we’ll fashion our commentary around “olympean”, his debut album.
To a minor extent, we’ll also touch on his contribution on “EA Open”, an Agent Mgumbe-helmed 5-track joint.
That & more in our next feature. For now, kudos to our main man, immaculé!
