By Ferdinand Ekechukwu
Eight days back, Superstar artiste Ayodeji Balogun popularly known as Wizkid dropped a 7-track Extended Play (EP) titled Soundman Vol. 1. This comes when his fans were already expecting his much publicized Made in Lagos album. The new body of work consists of songs like ‘Ease Your Mind’, ‘Thankful’, ‘Electric,’ ‘Mine,’ ‘Cover Me,’ ‘Blow,’ and ‘Jam.’ Jamaican artiste Chronixx, Blaq Jerzee, DJ Tunez, and Kel P are super guests featured in the EP. He further announced that Volume 2 would be out soon: “Vol 2 soon touch before MIL.”
MIL is an acronym for Made in Lagos, his upcoming album. October 1st, Wizkid dropped his single “Joro” and some weeks before that had released another single, “Ghetto love.” The announcement was received with surprise as there was nothing towards that prior to the release. Yet, opinion exists that whether he tells fans new music is coming in several weeks or in just a few hours, Wizkid can always count on his fans’ support whenever he has new projects to offer the world. The 7-track record is packed full of Afrobeats.
With a couple of singles released this year, fans had been awaiting a new drop and more extensive project from the artiste. With it being so close to the end of the year, it didn’t look like a new body of work from the artiste till 2020, but he proved otherwise when he took to Twitter, shortly after release, to quietly share streaming links for the new project.
With more than a decade spent at the core of the industry, Wizkid has adopted a sedentary approach to music in the last couple of years. The self-proclaimed Starboy promised his dotting fans an album last year, rinsed and repeated the same promise this year but failed to deliver.
However, he has left his fans parched and hung up on the earlier released Ghetto Love, Joro and his quotable verse on Beyonce’s Brown Skin Girl track in the Lion King: The Gift album which earned him a Soul Train award.
As he no longer requires a run of the mill promo campaign, and to that end he shared ‘Soundman Vol. 1’ at wee hours of the said date and since then has been trending on Twitter. The 7-track EP is released under his own label, Star Boy Entertainment records, and though he’s contractual obligated to only release music under his RCA imprint, but he pulls a smart one by tagging himself on all the tracks. The EP release is coming 15 days after Davido released his sophomore album, A Good Time’.
This is the first extensive project Wizkid has worked this year. For most of 2019, Wizkid’s activities included releasing singles and features, stealing stars away from the 2019 Headies same day he was performing in UK and selling out the O2 arena in London for the second time and performing all over the world.
The Nigerian pop star also appeared in several memorable collaborations throughout the year, including “Gbese” with DJ Tunez, “Dis Love” with DJ Spinall and Tiwa Savage.
Wizkid has become a household name in the music industry, with several national and international awards to his name.
He rose to prominence after releasing “Holla at Your Boy” the lead single from his debut studio album Superstar (2011). “Tease Me/Bad Guys”, “Don’t Dull”, “Love My Baby”, “Pakurumo” and “Oluwa Lo Ni” were also released as singles from the Superstar album.
In February 2014, Wizkid became the first-ever Nigerian musician to have over 1 million followers on Twitter. Ayo, his self-titled second studio album, was released in September 2014. It was supported by six singles: “Jaiye Jaiye”, “On Top Your Matter”, “One Question”, “Joy”, “Bombay” and “Show You the Money”.
