Why does life love to hit below the belt? That’s what man asks himself sometimes when it seems the world is in vendetta with him, or mimics it. The situations of life are always in contrast: bounce back or bounce backwards. You have to choose. But first, you need to be informed or reminded.
The cover art for Fecko‘s “Make Sense” almost works against the song. A man, just like life, has two identities here: one half dressed in rags, the other in the trappings of money. This is an illustration of the “grass to grace” arc the song is chasing. It doesn’t fully grasp the substance of the song, but the intentional creativity is appreciated.
A casual listener could pass this one over on the strength of the artwork alone, which would be the real loss here, because “Make Sense,” featuring GT Da Guitarman, earns its title before the first verse is even over.
The song has a mellow pace but it’s danceable, though it’s built more for late-night reflection than the dancefloor. Fecko takes the verses and sits with the parts of life that do not flatter anyone: from the bills that do not wait to the plans that fall apart before they can pay off. His delivery stays moody and unhurried, closer to encouragement. His voice is cloaked in a weariness about commitment and staying the course, the sense of someone still in the middle of the climb, and looking back at it from the top.
“Superhumans cry too, I know ‘cause I do”, Fecko breaks into vulnerability, as he wades through the heavy topics of life and perseverance.
With difficulty comes ease. GT Da Guitarman’s voice cuts through the tension like a butterknife. It is hope after every one of those verses. Where Fecko sits in the difficulty, GT brings warm closing to each section on a note of reassurance. His chorus insists that the hardship is not the end of the story. The half of the song leans into a warmer atmosphere against Fecko’s grit — perhaps can be deemed that the contrast between struggle and comfort is what gives “Make Sense” its shape.
Fecko has been building toward a moment like this for a while now. His stage name is short for Formidable Emcees Can Knockout Obstacles, and across a career that started back in 2010, that name has mostly held up as a mission statement. In his music journey and performance across the continent, from Kigali to Accra, he has picked up a string of firsts along the way, including being the first Nigerian rapper to perform in the African metaverse. These days his base stretches past Lagos into Birmingham, where he’s currently cultivating a new music community.
GT Da Guitarman’s presence on the hook means something on its own. He came up in the same era as Naeto C, Sasha, Vector and the late Dagrin, back when that generation was setting the terms for what Nigerian hip-hop could sound like. After the better part of a decade away doing strictly live music performance, he returned in 2024 with the studio project “Elody,” — and “Make Sense” is the first feature to follow it two years later. Fecko has said, on Radio2Funky in Leicester, that GT was one of the few Nigerian artists he actually listened to growing up in the early 2000s, which turns this feature into a full circle moment for him.
For this writer, it’s also the reason GT Da Guitarman has been on top of mind lately. His classics hadn’t rang in my ears for a while, with no incentive to return to it, and it took hearing him show up on someone else’s record to send me back to give his discography its due rinse-and-repeat.
The production, orchestrated by Lagos-based Primium, born Emmanuel Chinedu Kalu, is a befitting ambience. The mellow tempo has room to breathe, but the tension is just as thick.
The idea running through “Make Sense”, that the hardest stretch of anything is not the whole story, plays out just as much in the two men who made it. Fecko is still building toward the version of success he has been chasing since he has had a dream. GT Da Guitarman is easing back into the music scene he stepped out of for the better part of a decade. Whatever sentiment this song’s cover might suggest, the music already makes its case: it makes sense.
