I can’t help but draw attention to the fact that kokomaster, D’Banj is finally rising up to ‘the occasion’. Over the weekend, I was engaged in a heavily opinionated discuss with one of our hottest music femmes who happens to be an ardent fan of the eja nla sensation. Call her kokolet! And she brought to knowledge a variety of things that space will not permit me to share with y’all. But what she succeeded in getting me to do, was to believe again in the star power of D’Banj.
Dammit! Age has a way of driving a 6 nail into one’s aspirations especially when your profession is the kind that gives you a timeline to do and be all that you’ve dreamed to be. After watching the D’Banj performance at MAMAs 2015 and saw him win the Evolutionist’s Award, I mused on the series of events that led his sexcellency to this place. Just like football stars, music heads (males especially) have an age benchmark of their mid-thirties to cease prominence… well unless you’re delving into evergreen classics and high life the order of Pasuma, KSA and Osadebe. Looking at the how D’Banj spiraled out of ranks by a series of bad attacks (stunts, if you may) it was safe to say there wasn’t more left for him to do. He only remained popular based on glories of the past to which he continued to attain newer feats of credit in this present. So could D’Banj (already pushing 36) really be the man to break this superstitious belief?
Enter 2015! Oga told us we were in for a rollercoaster ride when he kicked off his year long celebration of his decade of achievements. I honestly wondered what was there to celebrate seeing as he had doubled-down to an almost screeching halt. Let’s skip to May and in the process, forget everything we heard. D’Banj’s surprising switch-up has seen him release hotly anticipated materials in the last one month – Sextraordinaire, Confidential, Koleyewon and Salute (which features Ice Prince). He has revamped his style, his sound… the entire package is quite the unusual. But sadly, the only reason why it appears we don’t seem to care is because he doesn’t have the names Kiss Daniel or Olamide, perhaps Korede Bello labeled on it considering they’re some of the guys we’re paying terrible attention to. Regardless, I think D’Banj has woken from his slumber and the thought alone gladdens my heart. The guy man is staging a big comeback and he’s not sparing resources at his disposal to doing them. Since he pioneered this new afropop trend that has become common place, he just might be the very person to shoot it up another notch. And from what we’ve seen, his visual EP might be something actually worth anticipating.
My earnest hope is that he doesn’t fall our hands… yet again, ‘cos at this point he’d be way past redemption.
Written by Jim Donnett
@jimancipation
