Mr. Eazi, a global popstar from Nigeria known for songs like “Skin Tight,” “Bankulize,” and “Leg Over,” revealed in June of last year that he will be working with prominent African visual artists for his upcoming debut album. Mr. Eazi’s artistic project, in which he makes visual artwork for each song he delivers on his next album, Legalize, continues with Personal Baby. He works on Personal Baby with the acclaimed Beninese artist Dominique Zinkpè, who painted the appropriate piece, L’amour en tête, by hand. (Love in Mind).
Eazi has achieved global recognition as the creator of Banku Music, a blend of Ghanaian highlife and Nigerian chord percussions. Eazi was nominated for Best International Act by the BET Awards in 2019 and won a Latin Grammy in 2020, and has collaborated with megastars like Beyonce, J. Balvin, Bad Bunny, Nicki Minaj, and Major Lazer, along with other Nigerian stars like Burna Boy.
For the album rollout, Eazi will work with contemporary artists to create unique art pieces to accompany each song. The pieces will be tokenized and shared with the public through specially-curated metaverse and physical events.
According to ArtNews, while visiting the Noldor Artist Residency, Ghana’s first independent artist residency and fellowship program, Eazi reportedly came up with the idea for the cooperation. Eazi established the talent incubator emPawa Africa the year before to help budding African musicians.
“I started to see the similarities between the music space and the art space in terms of the business model my company emPawa does … [which] finds artists, musicians and works with them, nurtures them and their careers, and gives them the opportunities to break into the world,” said Eazi.
While visiting Noldor, Eazi met artists and purchased pieces and talked with the residency’s founder, director, and his “good friend,” Joseph Awuah-Darko.
“The more I thought about this and started to record my album, the more I started to think of a way that I could capture the essence of my music,” said Eazi. “I just was thinking how do I tell this story in every way? I wanted to tell the story in the music. I wanted to tell the story in the video. I want to tell the story in every way possible.”
That idea gave Eazi the idea to work with artists in each country where he records the album.
According to Eazi, the album represents a journey into new territory, an immersive experience where you look at this album and think, Eazi’s album was a beautiful exhibition.
The first single on the album, “Legalize,” features artwork by Beninese painter Patricorel, who painted the piece live during the debut performance of the song at an intimate, invite-only concert in Lagos. The pair met when Eazi visited Cotonou, the capital of Benin, while recording the album.
The song, a heartfelt ode to his partner, Nigerian actress Temi Otedola, is one of Eazi’s most personal tracks yet. Eazi and Otedola got engaged in April while shooting the music video for “Legalize” in Venice.Eazi said that he hopes the fine art collaboration, like his music videos, helps tell the story of the music.
The collaboration builds on Eazi’s ongoing initiative to support African creatives through his platform as an entrepreneur and a global music star and to “build cultural capital for creatives across the continent.”
Kelvin Ansong and Festus Kehinde Algabe
Noldor Residency, Ghana further announced the contribution of their visiting fellows Kelvin Ansong and Festus Kehinde Algabe to Mr. Eazi’s album.
When creating, painter Festus Kehinde Alagbe reflects on his childhood memories and dreams, as he grew up in an African home, He engages the viewer’s imagination and emotions. Festus, skillfully achieves a balance of realistic and abstract passage in his work. Festus’ works with oils, acrylic and charcoal to create large scale canvas(es) of predominantly bisected faces combined with floral and abstraction elements. He captures and depicts black bodies bursting through with flower elements, to refer to the optimism that lies within the pain of being black, depicting a sense of growth and resilience in the face of ubiquitous racial prejudice and adversity largely faced by people of color. And the flowers bursting through different genders, captures different emotions and expressions.
Kelvin Ansong is an emerging Ghanaian Artist, ambitious and passionate while possessing a classic work methodology. As an inspiring African creative fine artist, Kelvin aims to shed light on societal issues through his art. He’s best known for using distinct shapes and curves to create abstract, landscapes, wildlife and portrait pieces. Kelvin believes in the visual depiction of emotions as another way to grasp the complexity of human nature hence the creation of kescorism which is his main art style.
Hopefully, the musician will continue to work with more emerging and professional visual artists to produce more authentic and unique works and have an astounding album exhibition.
