Bitter as it may for anti-Iyanya fans, they’ll hopefully tell themselves the truth of the surging melodies the artist carries with him, how joyous music escapes from his space and the ecstasy of his craft, which revels highly in his music promotion. Iyanya, grew from being the youngling who won MTN project fame from over a decade ago to being an established artist in the Nigerian music industry.
When Iyanya dropped Kukere, the Nigerian music space shook for sure, feeling the tremors from an artist we knew for sure was going to take music lovers for a spin, how rhythmic the Kukere track was and with it, came a sultry dance move that until this moment, is enlisted as one of Nigeria’s own created dance steps.
True to the energy with which the artist dropped Kukere, Iyanya went ahead to drop songs such as Ur Waist, Lekwa Ukwu, Sexy Mama and even Jombolo in the space of a year in 2013, the realization that Iyanya came with a different type of energy was telling. It became the story of the Project Fame winner whose music was murky in the music space to becoming an endeared artist, with every track different from the other and his alluring waist movements that accompanied his songs.
The Iyanya era from 2012 to 2015/2016 was a massive era, safe to say it was an undeniable era where we were sure to have felt his presence in the music scene with rolling out hit songs in a very reckless manner—starvation was the one thing not known to Iyanya fans in this era, where he dropped in the back-to-back style, songs such as Mr Oreo, Applaudise, Okamfor, Gift, Up To Something, Iyanu, Flavour, amongst many others. Iyanya’s era was indeed a colourful one, with projects swimming in and testaments of how indeed, he was a worthy winner of the MTN project fame.
Contrary to people’s very wide opinion of his absence in the music scene from between 2017 to 2022, this artist has still very much been in the music scene, although with a tempered energy of dropping music as he did during his prime, Iyanya remained active with melodic music, that you can quite conclude appealed to avid lovers of his music.
With a strong wave of making yet again, a well-known emergence into the music scene, Iyanya has made conscious effort to drop music deliberately structured to target a very wide audience in today’s revolving music space for over a year now; through featuring Ayra Starr, Davido, Kizz Daniel and now BNXN, you can say Iyanya’s intentionality is top notch and there is the dire need to make a loud comeback to the music scene he once allegedly faded off for a period of time.
Featuring Kizz Daniel and Davido in Like which he dropped last year, was a reminder of how much talent this artist has—we often tend to forget that Iyanya carries a very fluid and flexible melody with him, which he ensured to sprinkle in his music, his vocals distinct and coming with a body-moving energy—his transition from making music in the pattern of Love Truly and entering the dawn of Kukere and moving ahead, Iyanya has made music that no matter how mellow the energy is, still causes you to move a limb or two.
Like which combines the vocals of the legendary Davido and the ever distinct Kizz Daniel, is such a silky production for Iyanya’s announced comeback and the intentionality of featured artists selection definitely did not wash down the drain as moving ahead with the success of the track, the artist dared even more to drop One Side—this time, dwelling in the music all on his own, and bringing to the surface, the nostalgia of his rhymes and imprint in his songs—his austere use of pidgin, English and mostly rare sprinkles of his mother tongue, a fine vivid depiction of his artistry.
All in the space of 2022, Iyanya made the perfect comeback with these two records and the drop of his EP, The 6th Wave, featuring artists such as 5ive Rings, Kuami Eugene, Yung Alpha, Ayra Starr and others. The truth in this writer’s opinion was the comeback the artist envisioned with Ayra Starr on Call when he dropped it last year, March, was achieved beyond expectations with Like which dropped the following months.
This year 2023, it seems as though Iyanya has made a pact to not give rest to lovers of his music as in less than six months, the artist has dropped two solid tracks, Plans and Sinner featuring BNXN which I must say, puts me in the area of understanding or attempting to understand what the artist is up to for the year.
Commenting on Sinner, it makes only so much sense how unlike Like, or Plans or Call, this track follows an entirely different route—seductive, slow and easing, it has no rush in entering the crux of the song, highlights properly the beauty of BNXN and his musical maestro skills on being the number one artist to call when you need a banging feature. It becomes even more spectacular to hear BNXN singing in his mother tongue, as it is the only explanation for the part where the actual language is not deciphered.
Iyanya’s meandering flow is even more magnificent, where his vocals take a syncing nature with that of BNXN’s and a chemistry is ascertained through this. The gliding energy of this track is impeccable and of a truth, Iyanya is a beast who regardless of his long-short hiatus, remains an intricate part of Nigerian music industry, the evolution and incorporation of dance steps with music as well as being flawless at being a lady’s man!
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