Buzz by Olumide Iyanda
Email: oiyanda@yahoo.com Twitter: @mightyng
D’banj began the celebration of his 10 years as a solo artiste with a concert featuring trouser troubling American model and socialite, Amber Rose on January 31, 2014. Held at Ocean View on Victoria Island, Lagos, the show drew a crowd of people who came to see the former stripper twerk. Well, that never happened. Amber only appeared at the concert for all of seven minutes. The ‘fraud’ reminded Nigerians of the 45 minutes appearance by Kim Kardashain at a Valentine concert put together by Darey Art Alade in February 2013. The January 31 concert might have been a flop but D’banj’s 10 years cannot be so described. And he has the songs to prove that.
It was tough selecting 10 of D’banj’s best songs. Do let me know what you think of this compilation.
Tongolo
From the 2005 album, No Long Thing, this is the song that introduced D’banj to most Nigerians. It starts with the delightful sound of his harmonica, which a pop music fan might want to compare to the haughty sound of Miles Davis’ muted trumpet at the beginning of the late jazz legend’s Time After Time. D’banj wasted no time in introducing himself, telling his listeners “I don get degree for womanology. I don study the woman phisinomy”. Those words continue to define him. And who can forget the two girls in the Tongolo video directed by DJ Tee? If it were today, what they did will qualify as twerk. The song features cameo appearance by Don Jazzy who also produced it.
Mobolowowon
Another song from No Long Thing. It chronicles fictional escapes from two ladies who discovered he was cheating on them and from policemen who wanted to arrest him for credit card scam. Like Tongolo, Mobolowon was produced by Don Jazzy. The sound of the harmonica was very present in the song, proving that Dban’j could handle the instrument like a good mechanic handles his tools. Like he boasted in the song, done mostly in Yoruba, it is impossible to catch him. Ten years after, many artistes have not yet caught up with the popularity of the song.
Why Me
The lead single from his second studio album, RunDown Funk u Up, the song was instrumental to the rise of Wande Coal who featured in it. It is a dismissive song about a girl who became clingy after what D’banj had planned to be a one night stand. You can still hear his harmonica in the track. The instrument was his acapella after he sang “Dunno what I am gonna tell her.” The stand out track in a 2006 album of barely there new songs and others lifted off No Long Thing probably released to keep the D’banj frenzy going.
Pere
From the 2007 compilation album titled Curriculum Vitae by the Mo Hits All Stars. Pere, like all the other songs in the project, was produced by Don Jazzy. But unlike in the past when the super producer sang bit parts in songs and made cameo appearance videos, he actually sang a full verse in Pere. The other two Mo Hits artistes featured in the song were D’banj and Wande Coal. Not even the girl in red lingerie in the video excites as much as listening to Don Jazzy take the third verse.
Booty Call
Perhaps the closest Mo Hits song to the present Don Jazzy led The Mavins’ Dorobucci in terms of personnel involved. It featured D’banj, Wande Coal, Dr SID, D’Prince and K-Switch. It is a tough choice deciding if the song’s selling point is the lyrics and beat or the girls in the video.
Fall in Love
If anyone had thought D’banj was about to lose his spot as the ultimate showman, Fall in Love from 2008’s The Entertainer killed that notion. Produced as usual by Don Jazzy, the song did not only have the freshness of Yemi Sax, the video by Sesan must have made many Nollywood directors green with envy. Released on May 4, 2010, the video – starring Genevieve – began another round of ‘D’banjmania’. Before its released, there had been rumours that the two were dating. Giving D’banj’s image as the man with the Koko, many could only imagine what he got up to with Genevieve behind closed doors. Then the two kissed in the video. D’banj’s stardom went higher than the tallest building in the country. It didn’t matter that insiders have long hinted that the romance tale was a gimmick to sell the song, D’banj still rides on the popularity of locking lips with one of Africa’s finest. The video won the Most Gifted Afro Pop Video at the 2010 Channel O Music Video Awards and was nominated in the Best Male Music Video of the Year (Artist & Director) category at the 2010 Nigeria Entertainment Awards.
Igwe
Also from The Entertainer. A strong contender was Gbona Feli Feli. But the thought of my 72-year-old Yoruba father-in-law singing Igwe as recently as January this year tilted the scale in its favour. It is also my good friend IK Amaechi’s favourite D’banj song. East and West Igwe won.
Mr Endowed
Released as a single on May 23, 2010, the song was listed to be on an album of the same title but that never happened due to the break up of Mo Hits Records. A remix featuring American rapper, Snoop Dogg, was released but never found its way into any album for the reason stated above.
Oliver Twist
Produced by Don Jazzy, the song found its way into D’banj’s 2013 D’Kings Men album which was released in the post Mo Hits era. It recorded significant success in Europe, debuting at number nine on the UK Singles Chart in May 2012, having first been released as a single in the United Kingdom on May 11 that year. It was the best received in an album in which D’banj and the men he assembled for his DB Records did more huffing and puffing than create good music.
Top of the World
The other redeeming bit from the D’Kings Men album. The song was the official SuperSport anthem for the 2013 African Nations Cup hosted in South Africa. It also brought D’banj one of his biggest moments of glory. Millions around the world watched him perform it live at the closing ceremony of the 2013 edition of Africa’s biggest football fiesta at the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg on February 10. Nigeria went on to defeat Burkina Faso by 1-0 in the final match to emerge champions.
