“I have my album ready and in the next few weeks, I would be releasing two songs; one features Phyno while the other is with the legendary DJ Oskido from South Africa."
It’s happening again. We have another D’banj project which has been announced, and promotion on it has commenced. Just like many years before this, this news does not inspire excitement, nor make fans smack their lips in anticipation. Many could even be forgiven to have disgust as their reflex expression.
Ever since his split with Don Jazzy in 2011, there’s been a steady decline of D’banj’s musical powers, even though his celebrity went the other way. Each year brings another D’banj power move and endorsement deal, but the quality of the music takes a hit. 2013’s compilation album “D King’s Men” was a fantastic project which still stands as his best DB Records LP, but it failed to catch on, with many attributing it to the lack of love from core fans who still blame him for splitting the indomitable Mo’Hits Records.
But subsequent singles have found plenty of marketing yield little fruits, and the dissent from critics and listeners have always been felt. A few bright spots have made his case salvageable; ‘Top of the world’, ‘Feeling the nigga’ and 2016’s ‘Emergency’ have still kept his case for music credibility alive, but he manages to find new ways to come up with less-inspired sounds.
2016 has had his record label undergo severe changes, and almost fallen apart. His producer DeeVee split from the group, so also did his joker, Tonto Dikeh, who is seeking fulfilment from motherhood and other familial concerns. His other signees, 2kriss, have been without buzz nor content.
But he is coming through with two new singles for an album. And you begin to wonder if he still has enough juice left in the tank to push through another album release. This year marks his 11 year in the music industry. Three studio albums, two compilation albums, and an EP is a good run for the Nigerian music industry, but he intends to change that number with another project.
D’banj this year is championing a new initiative; CREAM. The 'Oliver Twist' singer entered a venture (via his record label DKM) with MTN to create a platform for creative people called CREAM. "A partnership with MTN and DKM to launch a platform of Visible hope for the creative industry where Creative contents will be found , housed , financed , nurtured , published , marketed , distributed and Sold with track-able Monitoring by Content owners without leaving their comfort zones. Supported by Bank of Industry" D'banj explained on his Instagram page.
The CREAM platform is being sold as an avenue for people with talents to showcase and maximise their potential, also a means to getting resources for those with ideas. CREAM which stands for 'Creative, Reality, Entertainment, Arts and Music' was launched on August 1, 2016, and talent scouting is ongoing for the project. The eventual people picked will get the chance to score a recording deal which consists of recording a track, shooting a music video, a collaboration with any artiste of their choice, talent showcase, talent branding, promotion and marketing.
With all of these activities on the project, you begin to wonder if he has enough time to focus on the music. No information has been released on the nature of the album, but it appears he is dead serious on dropping this project.
"We are not releasing music for YouTube or for the sake of being popular; we are releasing music to provide money and food for our family", he told Punch, unveiling the underly
A fair reason for dropping this project is due to the financial rewards. D’banj, for all the vitriol he gets offline, is a digital sales champion. His numbers are phenomenal online, with very few artistes able to compete with his earnings on digital stores and distribution platforms. That goes against popular perception about the efficacy of his music.
The singer’s album will be purportedly be dropping before the end of the year, and plans are already underway to commence the rollout of singles, and other promotional materials. With a bashed musical credibility, and a fanbase that pretty much has very little contemporary reason to follow the new music, only time and the content of his album will be determinants on if there’s enough left in D’banj for another D’banj album.