Black Sherif – The Villain I Never Was (LP)

Album Info Hide Show Artist: Black Sherif Album: The Villain I Never Was Released: USA, 2024 Tracklist: A1 The Homeless Song 2:44 A2 Oil In My Head 2:29 A3 45 2:52 A4 Soja 3:01 A5 Prey Da Youngsta 3:01 A6 Sad Boys Don’t Fold 2:40 A7 Konongo Zongo 2:41 B1 Wasteman 2:31 B2 We Up 2:27 B3 Toxic Love City 3:12 B4 Don’t Forget Me 3:37 B5 Oh Paradise 3:07 B6 Kwaku The Traveller 3:05 B7 Second Sermon 3:14 Info About Buying Vinyl From Our Record Store We are a small independent record store located at 211 High St, Preston in Melbourne, Australia (North of Northcote, between Thornbury & Reservoir) We buy and sell new and used vinyl records – if you have a collection you’d like to sell please click here . We ship Australia wide for a flat rate of $10 for standard shipping or $15 for express post. Free Shipping for orders $150 and over. You can also pick up your order in store, just select Local Pickup at the checkout. We also ship internationally – prices vary depending on weight and location. We ship vinyls in thick, rigid carboard mailers with a crushable zone on either side, and for extra safety we bubble wrap the records. In stock vinyl is usally shipped next business day, please check the availability field at the top of the product page to see whether the record is currently in stock or if it is available from the supplier as well as estimated shipping times. If you order an in stock item together with a pre order or back order (listed as available from supplier rather than in stock) then the order will be shipped together when all items arrive. If you would like the in stock items shipped first please place two separate orders or contact us to arrange shipping items separately. We are strongly committed to customer satisfaction. If you experience any problems with your order contact us so we can rectify the situation. If the record arrives damaged or doesn’t arrive we will cover the cost of replacing or returning the record. If you change your mind you have 30 days to return your record but you must cover the cost of returning it to the store. You can contact our Melbourne record shop at (03) 9939 3807 or at [email protected] Happy Listening! Description Hide Show Black Sherifs debut album, The Villain I Never Was, lands like a diary cracked open mid-journey. Released on 6 October 2022 through Blacko Management and EMPIRE, it catches the Ghanaian star at full sprint, trying to make sense of the speed. He came in hot off a run of essential singles, and the album doesnt temper that energy so much as frame it, giving the restless voice behind Second Sermon room to breathe, pray and reckon. If there was a global entry point, it was Kwaku The Traveller. Produced by Joker Nharnah, the tracks first line became an instant street proverb: Of course I fucked up, who never fuck up, hands in the air. It wasnt just catchy, it felt lived. The song went on to top charts across the region and even hit No. 1 on the global Shazam chart in April 2022, which speaks to how far his voice carried. The album sets that moment among a broader narrative of hunger and consequence. Where Kwaku throws its hands up to the sky, other tracks circle back to the ground, to the corners and courtyards that shaped him. Part of the magic here is how Black Sherif holds space for both Ghanaian drill and older textures. You can hear the pull of Kumasis Asakaa scene in the 808s, then suddenly a highlife-leaning guitar figure softens the frame. He moves between Twi and English like its a single language, flipping from confessional lines to rallying cries. Soja arrived a few weeks before the album and flagged that duality nicely. Its a warning wrapped as a pep talk, heavy with the pressure of eyes on him, but its sung with a hand on your shoulder. He rarely names places without intent, so when a track like Konongo Zongo turns toward his hometown in the Ashanti Region, it isnt nostalgia. Its a study in how a place can love you and doubt you at the same time. Oh Paradise feels even closer to the bone. He has spoken about the loss behind it, and you can hear the ache in the way he stretches the hook, letting melody carry what words cant quite handle. Then the temperature lifts with Oil In My Head, where the drums stomp and the ad-libs grin. Hes never shy about faith, or luck, or the fact that both might desert you when you need them most. The sequencing pulls you through that push and pull. Early on, he lets the room go quiet and leans on raw vocal takes, then the middle stretch snaps back with tighter rhythms and bigger hooks. The Burna Boy feature on the Second Sermon remix works as a bridge between eras, nodding to the spark that took Black Sherif beyond Ghana while keeping the urgency intact. Nothing here feels like a graft; the blend is his, and its why he felt new even to listeners already deep into Afrobeats and drill. By the time the cycle around this album wrapped, he had pocketed major recognition at home, including Artiste of the Year at the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards in 2023. Awards only tell part of the story, though. What sticks is the voice. Grainy, elastic, edged with smoke, it cuts through big club mixes and small-room speakers alike. On quiet nights in a Melbourne record store, Ive seen people stop mid-crate when it comes on, even before they know the name. Thats a useful test. As a piece of storytelling, The Villain I Never Was works because it lets in contradiction. Hes both the penitent narrator of Kwaku The Traveller and the steely operator of 45, both the kid from Konongo and the headline act racing between festivals. The production team keeps the palette tight, leaving space for his phrasing, and the monochrome cover art suits the mood, a stark portrait that suggests the albums focus on face-to-face confession. If youre the sort who lines up albums by feeling, this sits near the records you play when you need resolve. And if youre hunting for Black Sherif vinyl, keep an eye out, because The Villain I Never Was vinyl would be a weapon on a good system, all sub-bass and grit. Plenty of folks try to buy Black Sherif records online already, and Im often asked about Black Sherif albums on vinyl by customers picking up new Afrobeats arrivals. Its the sort of title that would move fast in the vinyl records Australia scene, whether youre shopping local or visiting your favourite Melbourne record store on a Saturday. Debuts dont need to be definitive, but this one feels like a line in the sand. It captures a young artist charging forward, head high, heart open, trusting that the truth of his story will carry. So far, it has. Product Reviews Hide Show Write a Review