Music | Song Review: Girlie O – Patoranking feat. Tiwa Savage

What would be your reaction if an acclaimed female artiste registered interest to remix a song you only released a couple of months back? Grant the request right away? Ask for payment of sorts? Snub the request? That is the kind of question only Patoranking can answer best.

The original version of Girlie O had been released in February 2014. Tiwa Savage – a self-confessed admirer of Patoranking – approached the singer with an idea of redoing the song a couple of weeks later. The remix would be released in May, 2014.

Girlie O has an RnB feel. The beat is different from the usual reggae-dancehall tempo that Patoranking has grown to be associated with. But it retains the same signature production heard in a good number of his other songs. Only you, a song featuring Uganda’s Jose Chameleone springs to mind. This could be down to having the same producer – WizzyPro.  

Girlie O is essentially a love song about two lovebirds that just cannot seem to get enough of each other. Like in the original version, Patoranking does the introductory verse. Tiwa Savage chips in with infectious vocals in the second, painting a perfect picture of a smitten adolescent.

{Tiwa Savage

Hmm ole ole

See him stealing my heart away

O tun bere sho le, sho le

Je ka jo ma wo le, wo de

Me love you very long long…long long

So pass me your love like a ping pong…ping pong

Cos you ring my bell like a ding dong….ding dong

Wooo hoo hoo-oo

Cos this love

Aint no go trouble no one

I know the feeling is strong

But you is a bandit

Never love another like….

Go tell my friends them, go tell my friends them, that he will die for me

Go tell my mama; go tell my papa that he will die for me

Go tell my friends them, go tell my friends them, that he will die for me

Go tell my mama; go tell my papa that he will die for me

Make way…make way}

Patoranking slots in on the next verse with a confession that just confirms the kind of feeling he has for the current love of his life. He talks about how long he has admired her, and shows willingness to surrender his all if that will make her stay glued to him.

{When me give you this, you give me that

Me girl so real, not a copycat

Baby, whine it like that

Me loving it when you giving me like that

Boom ba

You are a blessing

You came into my life, no more stressing

Say the smile on your face is impressing

Everything around you seems interesting

Do re mi fa so la ti do do do

Take you anywhere you wan go go go

Teach you everything you need to know know know

Show you that I love you so so so}

The response from Tiwa Savage is the typical dialogue between two lovebirds still at that stage of the relationship where one’s belly flips at the sight of the other. Her style of delivery is deceptively laid-back, but she manages to hold her fort. She is no Soprano; But Tiwa Savage does things to people’s music. One would have to revisit Oyi (The remix, with Flavour N’abania) to see the kind of things she is capable of.

In this verse, she tries to hit the high notes in what turns out to be her last major contribution on the track. The two combine in the second last verse, in a manner typical of high school lovers on a prom date.

{Boy you know you drive me insane o

Girl me wan take away your pain

Take it away so I will never be the same o

Sugar, your fire can’t cool

Tiwa Savage is good for your soul

Patoranking is a ruler

And I can be your one and only queen Sheba}

Patoranking returns solo towards the very end, probably to sign off his bit. He mutters the same plain words in pretty much way he does in the opening verse, mentioning his name a couple of times as the song fades to end. 

Dan A.