Don Jazzy The image maker

Posted on 13. Feb, 2009 by Omega Eee in Latest Gist(Movie + Music), The critic

Talk about the greatest thing that has ever happened to Nigeria as a country, you come close to the effect a single guy has made to the music industry. Don Jazzy came onto the scene when Kennis music (mainly owned by Keke Ogungbe) was dominating the whole industry. Most upcoming stars had to look up to making it on Kennis Music label and this was a tough task to accomplish. With the arrival of Don Jazzy, the industry saw great quality in terms of music production and the publicity that was attached to it. Back then, Kennis only went for the already known stars and promoted them. He was criticised for not being able to make stars out of fresh talents. An example includes Tuface from plantation Boys, Eedris and Tony Tetuila from Remedies, Sound Sultan, Olu Maintain and many more. This is where Don Zazzy strives well. We have seen stars like Wande Coal and others make it to the top.

The Don is seen as the Dr Dre or the Timberland of Nigeria and Africa as a continent. Without a doubt, he meets the hype. His combination of highlife, afro beats and modern hip hop in his beats takes him to the top. One great thing about him unlike Kennis, is that he works closely with his signings. You don’t just find him in videos but you hear him flow too. He contributes to the success of most tracks and every album. The question remains whether the days of Kennis Music is coming to an end as most of their signings are not doing great. It’s like G Unit signing great guys like Mob Deep, Young Buck and Tony Yayo who were known names but couldn’t live up to the expectations.

We now have Idcabas (discovered 9ice) a great producer doing great things with other producers. The future now looks bright for the industry as the competition will move the industry to a new level.