Sarz ft. Asake & Gunna – Happiness Lyrics Translation and Explanation

[Verse 1 – Asake]
Alaye mi ba mi soro kan, ki lo n lo? (ki lo n lo?)
(My guy talk to me, what’s happening?
For my area oro mi lon so (lon so o)
(In my area/hood, it’s my matter they are talking about)
Won ni mo give them pressure, pressure
(They said I’m giving them pressure, pressure)
O je ma lo sun, shishe lo
(You better don’t sleep, continue hustling)
Omo iya, pawo lo
(My brother, continue making money)
Nobody go dey when sapa don too much
(Nobody will be there/stick around when poverty becomes too much)
Eni toba ba s’ohun sa lo mo
(It’s the person that it has happened to that will know)
Kabo kabo lo, om’oba sin lo
(Welcome, welcome, welcome the prince)
E still dey lit, but e still dey hot
(It’s still lit, it’s still hot)

In this first verse, Asake started by saying that the people in his area/hood are talking about him and they are saying that he is giving them pressure. That is, his success is pressuring and making them feel like they are not doing well for themselves.

There’s a saying that ‘Misery loves company’, when a group consists of failure, they all will be comfortable, as they will feel like the failure is general and not their own fault but when one person in the group starts doing well, most likely and in most cases, the other members of the group will start feeling a type of way and feeling pressured that someone who had the same resources and opportunity as them was able to find success.

So Asake too is happy that his success is pressuring them and he goes ahead to encourage them that they better not sleep, that they should make the most of the pressure and stay up and hustle for money and success.

Then he continues ‘Nobody go dey, sapa don too much’

Sapa means extreme poverty, so here Asake is saying that when poverty becomes too much, nobody will stick around, even your closest friends will forsake and abandon you.

And he continues saying that ‘Eni toba ba s’ohun sa lo mo’ meaning it is the person that it has happened to that will know. When you meet someone who has never experienced poverty in his/her life at all, those kind of people probably believe that they have ‘For better, for worse’ type of friends who will never abandon them, the only way this people will ever get to understand how cruel life can be is if they eventually experience failure, that is when they will know that success has many friends and failure is an orphan. So he is saying that it is the one who has experienced sapa, that is poverty, that will know that, that kind of situation chases away friends.

[Chorus]
Happiness, e ri finesse
(Happiness, you see finesse)
My life no stress, fine boy no ex
Happiness, e ri finesse
(Happiness, you see finesse)
My life no stress

Fine boy, no ex doesn’t literally means that Asake hasn’t dated anyone in the past or have previous girlfriends. For guys especially, as a guy continues to better his life and become successful and better looking, he will eventually start dating better looking girls and even girls that didn’t give a damn about him back then will want to try to sneak back into his life and some previous lovers may go about bragging that they once dated this guy.

Like this girl from same University as Asake, she blatantly refused to give him her number back in the day when he was interested in her but as soon as Asake started doing well for himself, now she is full of regret and wished she gave him her number, the post on Twitter was also a kind of subtle brag that Asake used to once admire her.

So in that line, ‘Fine Boy, No Ex’, Asake is saying that he belongs to no one and no one should lay claim on him and tag him as their ex, kind of saying, yo, I don’t know you, all that love and history was in the past, and I have no previous lover, you are completed forgotten.

[Post-Chorus – Asake]
O tutu, o tutu, o wo yin o
(It’s so cold, you can feel it in the teeth)
Ma gara si mi, alakori o
(Don’t be proud to me, fool o)
Ohun to n se yin ko lo n se mi o
(What’s doing you is not what’s doing me)
E je lo mo’hun te n se, I no be novice
(You better know what you are doing, I am not a novice)
Yepa yepo, asamodi (this one is a slang)
Oga no dey form over sabi o
(Mr Man, stop acting like you know it all)
Michael Scofield, as you can see
I be zombie Sir, ko kan mi
(I am a zombie sir, it doesn’t concern me)

[Verse 2 – Gunna]
Got your birthstone, you’re a earth tone
I miss you, I need you bad, baby come home
You want me to make it happen baby I know
You want me to keep you happy, baby I know
Penthouse, condo
Gunna Wunna, amapiano
You want me to make it happen baby I know
I’m here to make you smile when you feel low

[Chorus]
Happiness, e ri finesse
(Happiness, you see finesse)
My life no stress, fine boy no ex
Happiness, e ri finesse
My life no stress

[Post-Chorus – Asake]
O tutu, o tutu, o wo yin o
(It’s so cold, you can feel it in the teeth)
Ma gara si mi, alakori o
(Don’t be proud to me, fool o)
Ohun to n se yin ko lo n se mi o
(What’s doing you is not what’s doing me)
E je lo mo’hun te n se, I no be novice
(You better know what you are doing, I am not a novice)
Yepa yepo, asamodi (this one is a slang)
Oga no dey form over sabi o
(Mr Man, stop acting like you know it all)
Michael Scofield, as you can see
I be zombie Sir, ko kan mi
(I am a zombie sir, it doesn’t concern me)