The New Year is looking good for fast rising music star, Akachukwu Emmanuel Uche aka Mmzy as he dropped another single, Animal, with the collaborative leverage of Seun Kuti.
Like his mentor, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Mmzy decries bad leadership, corruption and poor governance in the song. And he explains that featuring Seun Kuti in the song was a way of driving his message home. “I think he (Seun) is the best person to interpret the message of the song. Again, he has a long history of activism. He is unapologetic about his stand on social justice and good governance. He is a voice of the oppressed and a thorn in the flesh of the government.
“Another reason I featured him is his mastery of the saxophone. I wanted a feel of the sax in the song and Seun Kuti was the perfect answer. For the song to get the Afrobeat sound right I needed someone like him. I also featured him because of his family’s long history of standing up to the government. The fight against oppression, maladministration and corruption in the land is in his DNA being the son of the legendary Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. It was great working with him. He brought a whole new dimension to the single,” Mmzy reiterated.
The University of Lagos graduate and Kerae Records’ act further stated: “I want to be one of the voices that speak the truth about the state of the nation. I want to be the voice of the voiceless and the disadvantaged people. It is high time we made the government know that we know the truth and call them out to change their ways. We should let them know we are not going to keep calm anymore.”
And talking about his latest effort, Animal, Mmzy, who rocked 2020 with his songs, Social Distance and Wildin, said, “I actually recorded the song after the #EndSARS protests. The tollgate killings and the bad way our government handled the situation inspired the song. But what really got me going was when I heard a beat by my producer, Cracker Marley. I was in a hotel room when he played the instrumental; there and then I knew we could work out something special with it. When I heard the beat the first thing that came to my mind was Fela’s song, Beasts of No Nation. The personification of ‘Animal’ in the song sparked a fire in me. It aptly described the situation in the country at that time and we immediately started recording.”
