Minz has gone from an underdog to an Afropop viral sensation. He has come a long way. From the 2016 SoundCloud era to the snappy 2022 release, wo wo, which climbed Top 5 on the Apple Music chart and bagged a remix with BNXN and Blaqbonez three months later.
wo wo became a motivational jam for aspiring high-class citizens and a background sound for IG stories and TikTokers. This is the moment he has prepared for. Gunning for the zenith, Minz sets out a 42-minute-long album that exhibits his styles.
In less than two years of releasing the momentous wo wo and its remix, a Davido-assisted song titled wap, and a 15-tracker album, By Any Minz, his style, story, and success have become the narrative of a promising popstar.
By Any Minz is the culmination of a decade of grind, getting dreams out, and fighting to make them count for something.
Minz holds the vision of pop star status, profitable talent and an undeniable dream, and is bullish on serving a purpose. Like typical Nigerian events, this album begins with God, destiny and supplications, then heads straight into cool braggadocio and the enticing, sinful strobe lights of mundane desires. If revelations, the album opener, acknowledges his faith, recounts the prophecies of his great future and echoes them into new prayers, shadow (the second track) boasts his confidence. Rephrasing the Nigerian big boy yarns, Minz sings, “We no dey force vibes if e no dey.” Bars as smug and honest as this don’t land harder than this if it doesn’t sport a bouncy beat like this.
His hedonistic side shows on the wap with OBO. They’re both cunt-struck, they admit it. They’re finished men. Davido’s appearance on this extends his long gesture of guest support for rising artists. It’s a good feature that runs into a polarising diallo with Tekno. The production template follows Tekno’s up-tempo style. It’s a party-starter and ladies’ jam, for sure. As Tekno croons “Diallo, Diallo, oh-oh”, I wonder who the beautiful Diallo, his love interest, is. For me, the name Diallo always conjures with the Guinean police-brutality victim immortalised in a song by Wyclef Jean’s The Ecleftic – 2 Sides II A Book album in 2000. The extraction of Wyclef’s tributary “Diallo, Diallo” diminishes into a shallow, unrelated, repetitive groove that brags about money as the only value they (men) have to offer women.
The next track, ja, means “cut” — a naughty remark for an intense sexcapade that rips even the tightest waist beads. Minz hasn’t forgotten to throw his money at women. It’s arguably a flex of financial stability but also a mirror to our expensive dating scene that requires spontaneity. Because what’s spontaneity without standby money, like the kind Minz brags about? Borrowing the same attitude, do featuring Blaqbonez laps on log drums to say they’re capable guys — as men, professionals, and particularly providers. It may be true that Nigerian men make money their personality.
The Moliy-assisted drama bounces about avoiding unnecessary drama. Its production softly hits on kwete blues, a sound reminiscent of Marvellous Bengy’s, Kosere Master’s and other Ajegunle music veterans’ Konto. It’s a gyration.
Nine songs into the album, distractions peel from his eyes on lon3ly, and he begins to write applications for love upon the realisation of zero-committed companionship. A couple minutes later, on f.u., he states his horny intentions. Jamaica’s Projexx and Gabon’s Yo Trane join him on the sensual ask. The next song is low, an afro-swing song seeking discreet relations. sokoto (meaning “trouser”) featuring Zinoleeksy cues in to paint a picture of a lustful woman delighted by the drop of his trouser from his waist down.
disembark plays next. This song is giving “Stress me, and I’ll put you on DND.” On mo de ma [by any minz], the optimistic and confident attitude that breathes in the first two tracks circles back to close the album. “Mó dè ma dé bè, fa bè ya ò” — a Yorùbá figurative expression for leaving an impact — simply say, “Minz waz ere.” His conversation during the meeting with Angelique Kidjo ended the song.
Closing out By Any Minz on a memorable note, the remix of his hit wo wo serenades with BNXN and Blaqbonez’s voices. In 15 songs, Minz’s album translates his music ambitions to popping records. He may not be diverse in subject matters, but he indeed sings what he knows. Dedication, persistence and perseverance have preserved Minz to make music still and break with it.
This is not Minz’s first rodeo, but he sure as hell has the people’s attention now.
