Percy Onyeka
Chike and Mohbad’s latest hit song “Egwu” has proven beyond doubts that both relevance and credibility in a highly competitive music industry like that of Afrobeat are, to a large extent, enshrined in the quality of output from an artist and his or her craft, having spent three weeks on the number two spot on Apple Music’s Nigerian Top 100 songs.
This may not be a surprise to those who understand the value of creating and listening to evergreen songs that resonate with human interest and, at the same time, create an atmosphere of pleasure and sensationalism through their rhythm and captivating lyrics that stand the test of time, like Celine Dion and Michael Jackson of old did during their heydays.
Even the legendary Fela Kuti, Bongos Ikwe, and 2face Idibia have all left distinct legacies in the music industry, and all of these were built upon the value and substance of their music.
This further defines them and still gives a hint at their individual musical prowess.
On its part, “Egwu” by Chike and Mohbad was released nearly two months ago on December 15, 2023, and has since its unveiling captured the hearts of numerous music lovers, listeners, and critics across the globe, received applause beyond measure, recorded huge achievements, and broken records while setting an agenda for public discourse on various media platforms, having amassed millions of streams on multiple digital streaming platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, Audiomack, and Boomplay, amongst others.
Recall that the duo’s hit song, which was released as one of Mohbad’s posthumous releases, clinched the number one spot on Nigeria’s highly glorified Apple Music chart for Top 100 Nigerian songs.
It was eventually displaced from the peak to the second position on the music chart by Kizz Daniel’s “Twe Twe” remix, which featured Afrobeat heavyweight and DMW Boss, David Adedeji Adeleke, popularly known as Davido.
It could be true that Davido’s influence on the remix gave the song its edge, as the original version, which featured only Kizz Daniel, was merely struggling somewhere around the fifth position on Apple Music’s Nigerian Top 100 songs chart. We do not know what you think about this claim yet. We would love to know!
Meanwhile, Egwu’s long stay on the number two spot three weeks after being blown by the joint forces of Kizz Daniel and Davido suggest that both artists did their homework well.
The displacement did not in any way refute its relevance to Nigerian music listeners as one of their current favorite trending songs; hence, it maintained the position for three weeks and is still counting. Would it eventually get back to being number one? What do you think?
Nigerian music singer Chike released “Egwu” on September 12, 2023, three months after the unfortunate demise of Mohbad, a former signee of Naira Marley’s Marlian Music record label, which he left in 2022 after a series of misunderstandings prevailed between him and the record label’s management.
Mohbad, who was originally known as Ilerioluwa Oladimeji Ajoba, eventually founded his own record label, which was called Imolenization, and managed it till his unfortunate and controversial demise.
Techrectory with AFP
