Dbanj Vs DonJazzy

D`banj & Don Jazzy : Who Is Winning?

Don Jazzy
The acclaimed producer was
the first to hit the ground
running, literally.
Immediately after Mo’Hits
was pronounced dead, Don Jazzy unveiled his new record
label, Mavin Records, with a
formidable line up of artistes
including Dr Sid, Wande Coal,
D’Prince and surprisingly, Tiwa
Savage.

Subsequently, he released the Mavin Records’
collaborative album, Solar
Plexus. If he thought the album would
typically send music fans
dancing a storm, Don Jazzy must be rethinking its timing,
which has been panned and
pilloried by critics as a
hurriedly put together job. Not
even Wande Coal and Tiwa
Savage’s combined talents could rejuvenate the album’s
stillbirth. In view of the lukewarm
reception Solar Plexus
received, the producer has
been reaching out to fans by,
on one occasion, doling out
money on twitter and visiting media houses in a sustained
publicity drive . For a producer who has built a
lot of myth and reverence
around his persona by evading
the media, his visits to media
houses and clamour for
interviews these days smack of desperation.

In the intervening period, he has
implied that his deal with Kanye
West’s GOOD Music might no
longer work out because he can
not give his 100 per cent to his contract. “Kanye has over 100 per cent
lined up at his beck and call
and it is not like I am priority.

So, I will be spending a lot of
money staying in the United
States when I can return home and be making money as well
as grooming more artistes.
And it’s very easy these days,
I can work here and once I’m
done, and feel it’s something
that would suit Kanye West, I’ll just email it to them.”

Things might be a bit bumpy
now, but without undermining
Don Jazzy’s genius and mastery
of street hop, there is no doubt
that he will still have his time in
the sun. Whether he would still be as revered and financially
buoyant is what is now subject
to conjectures. But, it is just a
matter of time. D’banj One of the causes of the duo’s
split in D’banj’s reckoning was
that his partner edged when
there was an opening for them
to break into the international
market. Now that the encumbrance of the other guy
has been cleared, the
Kokomaster is solely committed
to realising his dreams of going
international alone. And he has
rapper, Ikechukwu, who has subjugated his own career to
help push D’banj’s, seemingly;
bulky hype man, Special ED and
his younger brother, Kay Switch,
to open up the frontiers of his
music. With a home in Atlanta and London, D’banj now shuttles
between Nigeria and these cities
as he hopes to achieve what no
Nigerian-bred artiste has –
fostering a flourishing
international career. He has been lucky. His single,
Oliver twist, has been such a
cross-continental hit that its
acceptance must have
humbled the successful
entertainer. As an artiste on Kanye West’s Good Music
label, he has also been quite
visible in the international
showbiz circuit and has
covered a couple of
international magazines. However, history is not so much
in D’banj’s favour as even more
talented acts like Majek Fashek
(well, he did himself in with
drugs), Ras Kimono and Mike
Okri, who all scampered abroad at the height of their fame, are
back home now with no
breakthrough abroad and a loss
of homeground. But the circumstances are
indeed different because
D’banj has a deep pocket and
he is still very much loved at
home. He has performed at
several concerts and shows where Don Jazzy’s artistes
didn’t have a look-in; and
even where they did, they
were subsumed under D’banj’s
halo. In order not to lose his fan
base at home perhaps, and
with Don Jazzy gone, he
recently signed producer, Jay
Sleek, who has worked with
Tuface Idibia, Sound Sultan, Wizkid and Timaya among
other artistes, to his DB
Records as in-house producer. In just over five years, Jay Sleek
has gained considerable
popularity for producing great
music for these artistes and
many more. “This has been a
long time coming so, we are really happy to see Jay Sleek join
the D’banj family. It’s exciting to
be working with one of the best
in the game. Jay Sleek is a
fantastic producer,
hardworking, humble and immensely creative. I’m so
certain that he will carve a niche
for himself here and inspire us to
even greater music,” D’banj says
in a statement during the week. This has resulted in the
release of the single, O yato
(The difference is clear).
Unlike his last single, Oliver
Twist, O yato got mixed
reviews. That the song trended worldwide on twitter
on the day of release was a
pointer to people’s views
about it. Many fans urged him
to return to Don Jazzy,
lampooning what they perceived as the wateriness of
the lyrics. In the midst of the conflicting
and critical reviews of O yato,
D’banj sneaked in with a
sterling feature on the remix
of Naeto C’s Tony Montana.
And that swayed arguments again in his favour once again.
With Let’s Get the Party
Started, a Tuface Idibia song,
featuring him, MI, Wizkid and
Tiwa Savage, the entertainer
rose to the challenge. He is not leaving his flanks open for
potshots. But the ultimate
barometer to gauge his post-
Don Jazzy era would be the
release of his album which
had been in the works before the split. If it tanked, woe
betide his career; but if it
became a chartbuster, it would
be a pointer to the fact that he
knows what he is doing after
all. As he trudges on, D’banj is
especially trying to launch
KaySwitch’s career. The latter
released a single, Sister Caro
featuring D’banj recently. It is not
doing badly. It is indeed a good start for the Covenant
University dropout who never
had a single to his name
during his years in Mo’Hits.