Daniel Benson, the famous Nigerian singer, who is also known as BNXN, has revealed that he quit singing when he gained admission into the university.
He said he only went back to making music after he was inspired by Burna Boy and British rapper, J Hus’ songs.
The ‘Finesse’ crooner disclosed this in Hip TV’s programme, Trending, hosted by reality star, KimOprah.
BNXN said, “When I got into the university, I dropped everything that had to do with music.
“What inspired me to go back to doing music was that I started listening to Burna Boy and J Hus. I started listening to real music. And I was like, I think I can do this.”
He added that his peers also played a huge role in his decision to go back into doing music.
Habeeb Okikiola, the controversial Nigerian singer, who is popularly known as Portable, has lambasted some o this colleagues.
He lambasted Ruger and BNXN, fka Buju, for “always singing about women.”
The Zazu Zeh crooner berated the duo for not singing about any theme other than women.
In a viral video, Portable was seen telling the singers to come and learn music from him.
He also berated award organisers for giving awards to Ruger and BNXN whom he claimed lacked good lyrical contents.
Portable said there are many singers who sing better than Ruger and BNXN.
He said, “You no sabi sing make we talk truth. Make una help me tell Ruger and Buju [BNXN] make them come learn music from Dr Zeh [himself] hand.
“Them no sabi sing o. All those music wey dem dey sing, we no dey hear wettin dem dey talk well well. No be say we no dey hear English o, their wordings no dey comot.
“Make dem come learn music. No be to dey sing for woman, woman, woman, woman…And dem go carry award give them. Can’t you praise God? Can’t you talk reality things? Can’t you say wise wordings?”
BNXN, a popular Afropop singer, revealed that his current iPhone was purchased for him by his ex-girlfriend, Peggy Bramor.
buju
The singer took to his Snap to share a video of himself which he had recorded in what looks like a lavatory.
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He showed off his iPhone 14 while recording his mirror reflection as he revealed that the phone had suffered cracks after falling from his hands.
According to the “Finesse” crooner, the phone had been gotten for him by his girlfriend who got jealous after another girl had initially gotten a phone for him.
He however added that she and his girlfriend are no longer in a relationship.
A fan had questioned how it was possible for his ex, Peggy to buy him a phone of 1.9 million naira when most girls are buying singlets for their men.
He replied with a one single powerful statement that all women are not equal.
The music industry is in uproar as Blaqbonez joins BNXN in criticizing three strategies used by artists to boost their streaming numbers without attracting genuine listeners. Here is the rapper’s tweet:
Blaqbonez, a rapper from Chocolate City, has added his voice to BNXN’s criticism of the ways that artists and record company executives artificially boost music streams without attracting actual listeners.
Blaqbonez tweeted about it and stated: “All of you who use streaming farms will soon be exposed soon. awon hushpuppi”. This was in response to BNXN’s tweet in which he stated unequivocally that record company executives pay for music to be played on automation or robots in order to inflate streaming figures.
These tweets come soon after Ruger’s tweet in which he posed a riddle addressing a specific artist who employs influencer marketing strategies to keep a stranglehold on the scene.
Following his most recent cryptic social media post about artists, BNXN has launched further attacks on Ruger, a fellow artist.
Award-winning performer and singer BNXN, often known as Buju, responded to Ruger in a message he published on his social media account today, November 23, 2022.
Ruger had cryptically posted on his social media platform that some musicians force people to listen to their songs by using ads and by paying influencers to make the song popular on those platforms. The singer had responded to Ruger’s post.
His post read:
“I am something. For years now, I have forced my songs down people’s throat whether e sweet abi e no sweet either by too much ads or by paying every influencer to make noise about a song they don’t even like. Or by speeding my song on TIKTOK. WHAT AM I ?”
This prompted BNXN to release a reply in which he called the singer out and revealed that he also used this strategy to market his album.
BNXN’s post read:
biting the fingers of the hand that fed your boss enough to feed you ?? Even when you and your boss use the same strategy?? After all those streaming-farm payments?
Additionally, according to BNXN, musicians who work hard to create top-notch music don’t always get paid fairly. A few of the streams, he added, don’t actually result in fans attending the musicians’ shows.
His post added:
Be organic or get the fuck out of my face!! How you got a million views and less than 5k on Spotify ? Are you whining me ? You’re top of the charts and you’re not choking me in the streets like Asake? just tiktoks? Are you silly ?
Since the turn of the new decade, however, there has been a manic insurgence of albums and the industry has once again returned to being an album market, since the eras of CD’s and mobile Mp3 players. This contrasts with the previous decade where there were sparse releases of albums from A-list artists and premier labels. Now that music is more widely available because to DSPs with millions of tracks in their collections, we are in the era of streaming.
Additionally, social media has encouraged debate and constant comparison regarding albums and their inherent value. Unfortunately, a significant portion of this discussion is driven by personal bias and non-objective opinions; as a result, the arguments made are barely persuasive. This simply highlights how critical it is to identify the criteria and measurements that constitute a great record.
Let’s first bust some myths about what constitutes a great record before finding the important measurements. Some people fervently believe that an album’s brilliance lies in its capacity to deliver hits that would rule the charts. Some believe that exceptional albums receive the most playlists and stream traffic. And for some people, it’s the range of sounds and auditory diversity included in the body of work. All of these are reasonable justifications for what a great album may accomplish, but they are not the only ones. The music itself still has grandeur.
The art of creating a great album is not only lost on fans, but also on some of our A-list artists. So the question of what makes a great album arises once more.
There are five key metrics that an album must meet before it can be considered an overall great project, and they are as follows:
Sonic cohesion.
Unharried transitions.
Expansive & pristine production.
Excellent songwriting.
Topical progression/optimal track sequencing.
To help readers relate, we’d be breaking down each point individually with real-world examples from well-known albums.
Sonic cohesion
An album should feature tracks that sound like they were made from the same sonic material and have a common theme in their production and vocals. By encouraging a sense of unity, an album with strong sound cohesiveness helps to invigorate the experience and make the project more wholesome. Great musicians are aware of the importance of album coherence, which is why some of them choose to have one or two producers who share similar viewpoints produce the entire project.
Pheelz and Type A on Fireboy DML’s Apollo, London and Andrebeatz on Rema’s Rave & Roses and Ayra Starr’s 19 & Dangerous, Kukbeats on Ruger’s EPs, and most recently Magicsticks on Asake’s Mr. Money With The Vibe are some examples. By employing specific concepts in the song production, such as using common riffs, chords, and percussions across the board, the aural coherence is achieved while ensuring that each song has its own unique sound and feels like a cohesive whole with the other songs.
Even with many producers working on the project, excellent sonic cohesiveness is still possible. Omah Lay’s Boy Alone, one of the best pop albums released this year and with excellent sound cohesiveness, is a wonderful example. Despite the project having more than ten producers, the sound cohesion is still strong, which is a credit to the project’s A&R team’s efforts as well as Omah Lay’s vision.
Boy Alone production credits, via the artist’s Twitter.
Unharried Transitions
On an album, it is crucial that the transitions between songs don’t sound hurried, forced, or harried. Why? When the transition is unpleasant, it detracts from the whole experience since it serves as a reminder that a change has been made and a new music is now playing. The best albums have transitions that are so smooth that the listener is so engrossed in the satisfying experience that it nearly doesn’t register when a song changes.
On Rema’s Rave & Roses, the transition from track 1 (Divine) to track 2 (Hold Me) is one of the best I’ve heard on a Nigerian album this year. The varied instrumentals in Divine’s final few seconds make it seem like a scene from a movie, and they seamlessly transition into Hold Me’s first few beats such that the change is barely audible. This album does have some flaws, but when it comes to transitions and even sonic cohesiveness, it really shines.
London oversaw the production of Rave & Roses and is one of the most talented producers in the current generation.
Expansive & Pristine Production
I mentioned earlier that some musicians choose one or two producers solely to guarantee the coherence of the album. On the other end of the decision-making spectrum, some musicians choose a variety of producers to guarantee a vast and flawless production. Utilizing multiple producers would encourage variety and diversity in sounds, which would help make the overall experience more enjoyable as opposed to being monotonous. It only makes sense because different producers have different strengths.
It is in fact a very fine line to walk because a diversity overdose could damage the album’s cohesiveness. Playboy by Fireboy DML is an album that does admirably well in this regard. Playboy aims to be a diverse showcase of sounds, which worked well in enhancing the album’s quality. This is in contrast to his previous albums, which had fewer producers and were more sonically cohesive as a result. Although it was not the most well-organized effort, neither the songs nor the transitions had the impression of being rushed.
Playboy had a large-scale production that aided its diversity theme, and like Boy Alone, it was the creation of many producers. Despite not being as unified as Omah Lay’s effort, it had tremendous vast production.
Excellent songwriting
Simply simply, good songwriting and solid execution are required for an album to be great. It doesn’t have to be the most complex and original writing; it only needs to be good enough for the songs and relevant to the genre. For instance, the most profoundly philosophical lyrics shouldn’t be used in a pop song. It is first and foremost a feel-good genre that should be groovy and entertaining. No matter how impressive the songwriting, it doesn’t work for it if it would hinder that.
Hip-Hop, of course, should have a more impressive songwriting structure overall because the beauty lies in the bars, punchlines, double/triple entendres, comical analogies, tight rhyme schemes, and so on and so forth. The R&B genre could benefit from more empirical songwriting because its core is primarily related to love stories. Songs of the same genre shouldn’t be approached in flows and rhymes in the same way; instead, great songwriting should be layered.
In terms of sheer technicality, Boy Alone and Bnxn’s Bad Since ’97 boasts some of the year’s most brilliant songs. The style of Fireboy DML in Playboy is more straightforward, yet it is very profound and features emotional and precise rhyme schemes. Although not very innovative, Asake’s MMWTV features some outstanding songwriting that successfully carries out its intended purpose.
Bnxn is one of the top songwriters among the current generation of performers, right up there with Omah Lay and Fireboy.
Great music ultimately aims to make listeners feel good because to its pleasing harmonies. Great songwriting with poor sonics and melodies would always lose out against simple songwriting with excellent sonics and melodies. Don’t get me wrong, amazing songwriting can be found on some of the best albums, and every artist should want to achieve that. However, such writing is useless if it cannot be used in relation to the music or if it takes precedence over other, more important matters.
Topical Advancement/Track Sequencing at its Best
First and foremost, what exactly is topical progression? It’s simply an album’s inherent quality to have a track-by-track progression that makes sense topically and isn’t scatterbrained. It doesn’t make sense, for example, for an album opener to have themes about the artist defying all odds and coming out strong, and then in the second track, they’re already talking about cowering under pressure.
Not every album will provide a straight-forward, linear narrative like a book. Some albums have so many facets and layers that several interpretations and stories can be derived from them. While others only have a hazy development of subjects and don’t actually attempt to tell a tale at all. Whatever the situation, the topical progression should be logical and seamless. This is when the subsequent, concurrent point of ideal track sequencing enters the picture.
The order of the songs on a great album is ideal, with the topics complementing one another both sonically and thematically from the first song to the last. This is one of the key differences between an album and a mixtape or playlist, which are typically essentially compilations of songs with no real connection to one another. When played alongside the rest of the album, pre-released singles from a fantastic album make even more sense because of the excellent track sequencing.
Albums that successfully meet the aforementioned criteria are immediately regarded as classics. While some albums gradually acquire their classic status as a result of both their endurance and innate greatness. However, it is a reality that an album that checks off all the necessary criteria encourages its longevity and replay value because it delivers an excellent listening experience at an exceptional value.
Made In Lagos achieved gold status in the US last month. It is the first album to accomplish this accomplishment by an African artist.
Some albums have earned the title of “classics” throughout time due to their influence. Made In Lagos by Wizkid is the classic illustration. The album is excellent and has aged well, but it isn’t quite of the “classic on arrival” caliber. The making of this claim does not negate the album’s deserving classic status. It simply implies that today’s standards for what constitutes a classic album are significantly more complex. As is practically any discussion of what makes a great album.
