What a time to be alive for Nigerian music. 2016 has been fraught with more sadness than the happiness that we deserve, but Nigerian music still keeps up its ‘shining light’ act. Wizkid gets a collaboration with half the stars in the US, Davido found Sony Music to cool his exuberant heels, Dremo and Mayorkun are growing everyday, and Humblesmith stopped his sale of moi-moi, to chase his dreams from God. See how far that has taken him.
But the real wonder from all these emotional stories has just arrived. Move aside Wizkid and all your arrogance, tumble down Davido and Dele Momodu, a story so strong, and powerful is here to take the throne as the 9th wonder of the universe. Who can believe that in this lifetime, B-Red has released a body of work?
Who can believe it, goddamnit!!!
But it’s a reality now. B-Red has an EP out. After three years of toiling behind the shadows of Davido, and being content with just being a part of HKN Gang, B-Red has begun to chase individuality and glory via content releases, as opposed to being a big fine boy. His debut project, “All The Way UP” EP, a 14-track effort is out now and we can all finally have a project to gauge the talent, and often vaunted skill that he never fails to remind everybody of.
We knew this year would be special for HKN Music. After Sony Music breezed in with a gift-wrapped deal for Davido, there were alarms going off in some heads about the fate of his supporting cast – Danagog, B-Red, Sina Rambo and Deekay. Davido himself did not disappoint. He quickly created a new record label, Davido Music Worldwide, and spirited himself and his light away to his new acts. With advanced PR and marketing systems, DMW has shown more verve as a unit on the music front, than the HKN collective have mustered in the past three years. Mayorkun’s ‘Eleko’ video, due to steroidal promotion ramped up 1 million views in 10 days. A record for an act who is known only for being ‘Davido’s new artiste’.
B-Red was the one to react to the foul play – foul because such an arsenal was never afforded them -, and he was rightly enraged. A small scale social media war resulted in a family gathering that settled scores, and let sleeping dogs lie. But B-Red’s dog didn’t just lie, he sneaked into the studio, and created more than just a single. He put together a body of work, which has now being released. That’s how you react to adversity. You go down, work your way up, and hit them with substance. “All The Way Up” EP is that substance.
For B-Red, this EP’s benefit transcends the music. It is a personal statement of intent, and reorganizes the singer’s career, transforming his image into something of a serious talent, and begins the extremely long and arduous process to get him off the shadow of Davido. With the release now done, focus should not only shift to promotion, but also thought should be given to the recording of new songs to create an album in the short term. That’s the only option available to him.