In the build up to his new album; King Don Come Kokomaster D’Banj released a new song “It’s not a Lie.” Going back to his books on what made him Africa’s biggest musician and pushed him into GOOD Music and a SONY Music deal from his Mo’Hits days, he came back with a textbook D’Banj song.
The only problem now is – DBanj might have grown past his best before date, and our relationship with him is much like a teenagers’ with breast milk. We know it’s good, but we don’t quite care for it. The song was really good, but it seemed set in a parallel universe.
The magical Wande Coal known to be “Mr. Steal your shine” didn’t steal any shine but made out a pretty good performance on the record. The high pitched Wande Coal from his Mushin 2 Mo’Hits album seems to be dead and it’s particularly sad because he was a real Nigerian gem. Harrysong became a Wande Coal/Don Jazzy hybrid on the song with his deep and beautiful chorus that was repeated enough to force remembrance. D’Banj called out his resume on the song and it’s pretty impressive. His presence on his song was not impressive, much like the time Skales made the mistake of featuring Burnaboy on his Temper remix.
“It’s not a Lie” takes a Ghanaian highlife baseline essentially riding on the wave of the Ghanaian sound that has laced songs recently. Meant to be a big rebrand or reboot or reintroduction of D’Banj into a market he seemingly ignored years ago for GOOD Music and glow sponsored by the American atmosphere, D’Banj will need to get back in and rework his image. His largely forgettable lyrics and lack of presence on his song makes it seem like a Harrysong project.
The KING DON COME album doesn’t seem like it will be a strong body of work without the proper features. Dropping off the high wave he was from Oliver Twist, D’Banj at this point is an upcoming musician and Nigeria has moved on from him and his style of music. He will have to do his pre Mo’Hits work from scratch to get his Legend status back.
Oluwatosin Adeshokan is a freelance journalist and writer reporting stories about West Africa. He was previously the Culture Editor for YNaija. He tweets at @TheOluwatosin
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