Iyanya’s Story

By Chiagoziem Onyekwena

Ever wondered what your life would be like with an International recording contract in your treasure chest, a brand new RAV 4 in your garage and N2.5 million in your wallet? One young man certainly doesn’t need to imagine that life- he’s living it!

Iyanya is not your regular debutante; he’s had plenty of help in putting My Story together. He had the very best vocal coaching Nigeria has to offer in Project Fame and winning the competition instantly gave his music an instant stamp of validation. It doesn’t exactly hurt when your album contains production from A-list producers like Tee-Y Mix, OJB, K.Solo and ID Cabasa.

In addition, Iyanya can boast of some of Nigeria’s finest artistes in Faze, M.I and DJ Zeez as collaborators. Any album with this much firepower is destined for greatness and with the mid tempo Gbadun You, My Story certainly gets off to the perfect start; the omnipresent M.I complements Iyanya’s expert story telling with a characteristically witty and mellow 16 bars. The good times keep coming with arguably the albums strongest cut, the inspirational Wise Up. The song plays to Iyanya’s strengths – excellent story telling, catchy melodies and a voice that might not be the most powerful, but is strong enough to inject life into any song, yet smooth enough to serenade the listener’s ear drums at the same time.  Iyanya,My Story,Project Fame,Faze, M.I

Very much unlike his most successful single thus far, the heart warming Love Truly, My Story spends a lot of time in upbeat (Gongon) or mid tempo territory (High). My Story also sees Iyanya flirt occasionally with Yoruba. Clever attempt at mainstream success maybe, but it does somewhat force Iyanya to pigeon hole his diverse sound to fit the generic radio template (case in point – Skele). In addition, on the K.Solo produced Iyanya (My Story), the more stylistically diverse Iyanya simply sounds like a poor man’s version of Timaya. The story might be his own, but the style certainly isn’t.

Up next is the rather disappointing No Time, a song performed by the supremely talented duo of Faze and Iyanya that bode so much potential but ultimately flatters to deceive. But even though the album seems to lose steam as it winds down, there’s still enough quality on display to allow you give your CD player’s fast forward button an extended break.

It seems almost unfair to Iyanya but he had all the ingredients he needed to make a great album right off the bat. Instead, My Story comes across as a good effort but sadly, no more. Iyanya’s career started off at a blistering pace; sonically his debut album My Story will not disappoint anyone who rooted for him to win the Project Fame contest.

However, it might not do enough to finally win over the hearts of those who may have cast their votes elsewhere.

RATING 3.5/5