By Otosirieze Obi-Young
Attitude Rhap new album Street Survivor features the usual suspect (FedasWRLD) as a producer and co-writer on some of the songs on the album, songs accompanied by his usual cadence and street-inspired themes. Is Attitude Rhap the new voice of the street? The new rapper Olamide passed the baton to? Is this the Dagrin rebirth? These are the kind of questions that come to mind when you begin to listen to this album. But the answers seem to be somehow hidden in the details and how the songs come together as a body of work.
The songs on Street Survivor are far from what you’re used to hearing on the radio. You might not even find it on a DJ’s laptop at Quilox or Secret Palace. Yet, Attitude Rhap has been consistent in carving his own path. He’s not one of those rappers who drop songs every other week, his release pattern is strange, almost ritual-like. A single here, then silence, then suddenly a new project. And one name that keeps coming up beside his is FedasWRLD.
One of the standout songs on the project, “Going Wayward,” was produced and co-written by FedasWRLD. The song opens with a soft piano played by FedasWRLD, from the first few seconds, it is calm, it draws you in. Then Attitude Rhap jumps in with “Aii, gbo mad flows.” From that point, you know you’re in for a Lagos street sermon. The beat is the kind that gives a rapper room to tell stories that the audience can feel and relate to as it remains calm, the kicks sit well on the gentle strings and slow drum elements.
This is a rap song that anyone who grew up in similar situations in Lagos will connect easily as it is themed around hustle and bustle, survival, and the everyday grind of a Lagos boy trying to make ends meet. The lyrics carry struggle and pride, like danfo ride is cherished in sango ota bus stop and NEPA with power outages.
But the problem with “Going Wayward” is that it feels too plain. There’s no hook, no chorus, no bridge. Just straight rap from beginning to end. While that kind of thing might work for hardcore hip-hop heads and yoruba rap listeners, the average Nigerian Afrobeats listener needs something catchy to hold onto. Without a chorus, hook or a break in verses, “Going Wayward” starts to feel like one long verse. After the first minute, it begins to sound repetitive, even though FedasWRLD ensured the mix and sound quality are clean.
Another thing that stands out is how dry the beat feels. Compared to other songs that have previously been produced by FedasWRLD, this one lacks life. The piano and strings sound the same from start to finish, no switch-up, no twist or any addon strings. Even though the kicks pick up energy halfway and every few bars, but it’s not enough. Did FedasWRLD hold back on this one?. Normally, she adds little vocal samples or ad-libs to give her beats more flavour or choir-like feel, but here, there’s nothing. Not even a whisper. It ends up sounding flat, like something that could’ve used more imagination.
A two minutes and thirty seconds rap verse, “Going Wayward” isn’t a bad song, but it’s just a ‘okay’ type of song, not great, not terrible, just somewhere in the middle. If they had added a hook or some kind of chorus, it would’ve helped a lot. Even a short vocal break from FedasWRLD would have made it richer. The way it is now, it risks getting skipped after a first or few listens.
When you compare it to their previous collaboration, “No Love in Lagos” from 2024, you can feel the difference immediately. That song had a melody, character, and has deeper meaning of message. FedasWRLD sang the hook herself, and it was catchy. The production was full and sounds complete, you could hear the clean guitar, the bassline, and how everything worked together. The theme was clear: Lagos life, love, and self-preservation. It was the perfect balance between street and soft. That’s the standard we expected them to keep up with.
So it’s surprising to see them take a step back here. Maybe it was intentional, maybe they wanted something raw and stripped-down, a pure rap record like dave or olamide would do sometimes. But even with that excuse, the song still feels unfinished.
A closer look at FedasWRLD’s evolution in the Afrobeat scene shows she’s not “one way style” typical producer. She’s been floating and switching between genres, part street, part experimental and slowly building her sound identity around different peoples mood and emotion. She’s that type of producer who prefers to let the beat tell a story, not just fill space. From her early work producing “Adura” to her recent collaborations with underground artistes, you can see how she tries to merge street vibes with sweet melody. But the Nigerian rap space is tricky. Producers like Pheelz and Young Jonn evolved by jumping into Afrobeats to stay mainstream, while FedasWRLD has stayed rooted in the hip-hop underground, still trying to find the balance between production depth and replay value in today’s industry.
In a scene where most producers now chase amapiano dance beats or mid-tempo Afrofusion, FedasWRLD still leans on simplicity, street realism, standing with the rap culture, and clean instrumentals. It’s a risky space, but she seems to be intentionally building her sound for the kinds of fans who still care about bars and lyrics, wordplays, not just “vibes and inshaallah”. Street Survivor shows that she’s still in that phase of experimenting the intention, sometimes hitting gold, sometimes falling short, but always trying to be unique and never sounding like anyone else.
Overall, Street Survivor might still appeal to those who love underground or yoruba rap and Lagos hardcore rap that use storytelling style. This one feels mid, if you’ve heard what Attitude Rhap and FedasWRLD are capable of together. Hopefully, the rest of the album picks up the energy, because as it stands, this song alone doesn’t carry the fire as it should. We can see FedasWRLD’s growth, but she needs that next leap, the one that makes her sound unforgettable and respected.
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