Mo' Hits, Mo' Money, Mo' Koko - D'banj and Afrobeats' Sexual Revolution
D'banj came into the game brandishing virility. His debut single kick started the afrobeats sex revolution
To celebrate D’banj’s 20th anniversary since the release of his official debut single ‘Tongolo,’ I have decided to publish this piece, which is from my forthcoming book (From Ojuelegba to the 02 - The Story of the Afrobeats Generation) here.
What you are reading is an edited version of D’banj’s role in the acceptance of Afrobeats in England in a chapter called ‘God Save Afrobeats’ and how he ushered in a sexual revolution in the genre.
From Ojuelegba to the 02 - The Story of the Afrobeats Generation will be out in the last quarter of 2024.
MO’ HITS, MO’ MONEY, MO’ KOKO
The new music revolution in Nigeria was booming by 2003, with a new generation of artists emerging. In London, two young men sensed the shifting tides and returned to Lagos to be a part of this burgeoning movement.
2Baba had blown the gates wide open with his seminal classic debut 'Face 2 Face.' Psquare raised the bar with its sophomore magnum opus 'Get Squared.'
The ambitious pair of D'banj and Don Jazzy, who had struck up a friendship and music chemistry in the studios of JJC Skillz in London, decided it was time to go home and partake in what was bubbling in Lagos.
D'banj and Don Jazzy landed in Lagos circa 2004, and they struck with a hard blow.
Music Africa, a music TV show owned by Philip Trimnell was crucial in exposing young Nigerians to the sound of Hip-Life that was reigning in Ghana at the time. It also aired music videos from Nigeria’s promising pop scene.
On one certain day, the show's producer, Joke Jaiyesimi, decided to premiere a brand new video from a relatively unknown artist.
His name was D'banj, and the single was 'Tongolo.' The track starts with a harmonica rendition of Florida State Marching Chiefs Chant, famously used in ‘Shake Yo Tailfeather’ by P Diddy featuring Nelly and Murphy Lee in 2003.
D'banj's intro at the beginning is bizarrely as commanding as Fela Anikulapo Kuti's intro in 'Shuffering and Shmiling.' The difference in both acts is that while Fela welcomes us to the spiritual 'on-the-ground' and lampoons the hypocrisy of organized religion, D'banj tells us his secret phrase to get women.
This difference here underlines the difference between Fela (Afrobeats rebellious patron saint) and Afrobeats. Afrobeat speaks truth to power, and Afrobeats is about having a good time.
With 'Tongolo', Afrobeats deviates from 2face's ballads and Psquare's dance-driven pop mega singles. D'banj brought lust, virility, rawness and unbridled energy into the game. It was the coming of the Afrobeats sexual revolution.
Repurposing the Yoruba word 'Koko' and making it sex-related, and introducing the word 'tongolo,' which contextually means to copulate, D'banj unknowingly ushered in the sexual revolution in Afrobeats.
He wasn’t the first generational act to be risque but with him, he polished his act to be palatable to the mainstream. His pitch was foreplay, not the full act.
He tore the toga of pretence, ripping the curtain of conservatism with Don Jazzy's menacing beat, which was awkward for a pop single then. With a heavy bassline, a thumping drop and sharp snaps, D'banj floats as he narrates how he gets 'kokolettes' to lay with him.
His 8-bar rap verse is straight to the point. He boasts that his male member can lift his lust interest and leave her hips shifted.
He knew how to titillate the women folk with his muscular frame. Like Elvis Presley, who had young women screaming when he swung his hips, D'banj had a move that made the women go gaga.
Sometimes topless, sometimes with his shirt on, D'banj would spread his legs and stretch his arm downwards, like he was inserting it into a hole. Yeah. Women loved that sh*t.
At the debut edition of the Headies in 2006, D'banj strolled on stage with nothing but a white towel performing the ‘Tongolo’ remix. This was aired on national TV across the country.
Oladapo Daniel Oyebanjo was born on June 9, 1980, to Daniel Duro Oyebanjo and Faith Olubukolola Oyebanjo in Zaria, a city in the northwest region of Nigeria.
D'banj is the son of a retired military officer who commanded an artillery regiment and a mother deeply rooted in the church, originating from Shagamu in Ogun State.
His father's profession led to frequent relocations between Nigeria and India. D'banj pursued a military career like his father and enrolled in the Nigerian Military School at eleven.
He grew up with an older brother, Femi Oyebanjo and twin siblings - Taiwo and Kehinde Oyebanjo.
Growing up in a comfortable household in upper-middle-class Nigeria, young D'banj gravitated towards music.
On November 13, 1995, tragedy struck the Oyebanjo household. Femi Oyebanjo died in a fatal Nigeria Airways Boeing 737-2F9 plane crash in Kaduna, which killed nine people.
Here, D'banj would intensify his love for music, practising daily with the harmonica that was introduced to him by his late brother. The friction between D'banj's parents and him kicked off from here as they wanted him to pursue a military career instead.
D'banj attended the Lagos State University (LASU) and quickly made a name for himself as a funny and entertaining young chap. He was also known for music. With a burning desire to be a professional singer, he released a song titled 'Kiss Me Again,' produced by the late OJB Jezreel, featuring a yet-to-be-known LASU rapper Ruggedman, released in 2002.
Despite his strict and religious upbringing, D'banj sold sex, lots of it. In the catacombs of the Internet; there is a photo of the entertainer on stage with a topless woman.
Tongolo music video uses a template of urban American videos at the time and Naija pop culture - video vixens with denim bum shorts with tongolo written on them and Diddy Nigeria Clothing T-shirts with customized license plate designs.
On the couch is Don Jazzy, whose vocal performance is in tune with the traditions of Eastern Highlife. Tongolo started the 'Mo' Hits' empire - D'banj as the showman, and Don Jazzy as the mysterious label huncho and super producer.
The label's name laid down their ethos - mo hits, mo money, and mo women. The modus operandi was singular, one-minded and practical - the composition of ready-made club jams anchored on Don Jazzy's larger-than-life beats.
The crystallization of D'banj and Don Jazzy’s style can be heard in 'Suddenly' off D'banj's 2008 album 'The Entertainer.'
His first two studio efforts (‘No Long Ting’ and ‘RunDown Funk U Up’) established him as a charmer and seducer backed by Don Jazzy's exciting beats; it wasn't until his third LP 'The Entertainer’ that his sexual revolution came up full blast making him an equal part of Afrobeats' first 'Big 3' made up of 2face Idibia and P-Square.
On 'The Entertainer', Don Jazzy fully matures as a music producer. On D'banj's third album, he showcases arguably his most polished work.
'Mo Gbona Feli Feli' can be placed in the same rarified air of The Neptunes and Timbaland's most spellbinding beats.
'Fall in Love' is a pop-driven love ballad aimed at besting P-square's love tunes that had made the twins African heartthrobs. It was a nice detour from D'banj's playboy image, and with Wande Coal and Don Jazzy on backup vocals, a classic African pop record was born.
The record came at the right time, just as soft-sell magazines published stories of a sizzling romance between D'banj and the Nollywood queen Genevieve Nnaji.
If 2face Idibia dated a beauty queen, D'banj dated a super actress adored by millions of Africans. She even appeared in the music video.
For me, 'Suddenly' is the statement record on D'banj's third album. The music video is the visual mood board of the Mo' Hits empire. Directed by Sesan, it's a moving and sparkling portrait of bacchanalia at its finest.
D'banj and his ally, rapper Ikechukwu, are topless at a pool party, showing their buff physique. There are several camera shots of the cleavages of the bikini-clad video vixens. High-priced liquor is in abundance. The Mo' Hits All Stars acts have grins wider than the 3rd Mainland bridge across their faces. The sun bathes the crew in gold.
Out of the Big 3, D'banj was the artist who boldly dared to take Afrobeats to where only a few dreamed.
After a string of singles, notably 'Mr Endowed' and 'Scape Goat', D'banj would cross paths with Hip-Hop megastar and super producer Kanye West after a show in Dubai in late 2010.
The initial linkup would blossom into a recording and production deal involving Don Jazzy, whose beats Kanye West enamoured.
The cat was out of the bag on March 1, 2011. The servers of Twitter NG must have overheated minutes after Kanye West tweeted at Don Jazzy and D'banj to fly to New York for more studio sessions.
It was a seminal moment for Afrobeats. Sure, 2face Idibia was a star recording with Mary J. Blige and others, and Psquare's music had started to crack the pavements of Western Europe, but D'banj and Don Jazzy planting the flag of Afrobeats in North America via G.O.O.D Music was a giant leap for our culture.
It was symbolic and prophetic that Don Jazzy co-produced ‘Lift Off' in Kanye West and JAY-Z's classic album 'Watch The Throne.' The Afrobeats generation now had its launching pad in America, although the genre wasn't ready to take flight yet.
D'banj became a part of Kanye West's collective 'G.O.O.D Music,' and featured in the compilation album 'Cruel Summer' released in 2012. He only featured on one song off the project.
The United States of America wasn't ready for the Afrobeats invasion. Beyonce shelved a Fela Anikulapo-Kuti-inspired album circa 2010.
While Yankee still had cold feet over contemporary Nigerian pop, England was warm and ready. On August 12, 2011, D'banj released 'Oliver Twist', named after the famous book; written by the famed British author Charles Dickens.
The TV adaptation, produced by the BBC in 1985, was regularly shown on NTA throughout the 80s and early 90s.
D’banj’s ‘Oliver Twist’ is about his carnal desire to be with beautiful women. The song features humorous and playful lyrics.
A comical video of Don Jazzy, D'banj, Dr Sid, Wande Coal and Abisagboola Oluseun John (Bankulli) dancing accompanied the single six days later. The video announced the 'Oliver Twist' competition, which triggered the virality of the record, making it a hit in Nigeria.
By early 2012, Oliver Twist started to gain serious traction in the United Kingdom - D'banj's former stomping ground.
It was the year London hosted the Olympics. Daniel Craig accompanied the late Queen Elizabeth II to the Olympic stadium, and Mr Bean performed a live comedy sketch. Nigerians back home and in the diaspora would remember the Summer Games as when 'Oliver Twist' became one of the unofficial soundtracks.
It was a momentous victory for Afrobeats. ‘Oliver Twist’ debuted at number nine on the UK Singles Chart, eventually earning a Silver certification for selling 200,000 units. The smash hit single spawned remixes from Estelle to Pitbull.
‘Oliver Twist,’ the swansong of Mo’ Hits empire, would be the keg of gunpowder to set off the Afrobeats revolution in England. It was the last offering of the D’banj/Don Jazzy partnership, helping open the door to the next generation of Afrobeats superstars, who would go farther, further and faster in spreading the genre all over the world.
AOT2! This was such an insightful read and I really can not wait for the book to be out.
One of the best reads on Afrobeats I've read so far