#30. Thankz Alot, Kizz Daniel

I consider Thankz Alot, Kizz Daniel's EP

In place of a liner note on Apple Music, a short note reads, “With “Thankz A lot”, the Afrobeat star offers a salute to his day-ones.”

Three things stand out. Firstly, the stylized ‘z’, a preferred alphabet, buzzed busily through his career since he parted ways with G-Worldwide. Second is how unwieldy the sentence reads, a quick edit would take out that ‘offers a salute’ to ‘salute’ and the ‘day-ones’ is not yet a real word, so italics, please. We could go into a small tirade about how these kinds of slips show how informal the Afrobeats is; it is still a DIY industry with an inflated ego and sense of importance.

Thirdly, Kizz might still be reeling from his cheeky mood on ‘My Gee’, where he parses unsolicited advice with a redirect and an eloquent insult. Since his first day, Kizz Daniel has always been confident about his talent.

Belonging with a small cohort of musicians experimenting more aggressively with Juju and palm wine highlife’s mood, rhythms and thematic concerns, he quickly broke the age barriers characteristic of Afrobeats. Little wonder, his subgenre has been christened Afropension.

Oh yes, pensioners love the Great Vado. You may find them bedecked with elaborate geles and trinkets at their retirement parties, doing the Buga dance routine in creaking middle-age style. The scenery is lush in the Yoruba Diaspora, in those cavernous halls in Kent, the all-white parties hosted by 40+ aunties, costumes speckled with the occasional palm oil splotch, Vado cooing in speaker diaphragms.

He is the crowned digital prince of the Owambe. I sometimes wish he took live music more seriously and maintained a superband like Adekunle Gold’s The 79th Element. That way, the beauty of his lush tunes would be experienced in real-time in the company of his real self. Perhaps we could also enjoy his improvisational instinct, but I mightily digress.

TZA is half the length of his previous EP, Barnabas. With four songs, two previously published singles, and no features, there is little novelty.

‘Showa and ‘Sooner’ are new tunes—and the former is the EP’s highlight, but it is not without problems. ‘Showa’ is ‘What’s up’ with a twist. It is ‘Hey ma’, some washing, and some proposition. After praising his love interest’s beauty, Kizz advances his proposition. He wants breakfast cooked at 4:30 and sex. It is not clear if he wants both at the same time or consecutively. But the consensus would be that it is too early in the morning for at least one of these items.

But those who know would know. This is a humorous social commentary, perhaps a salute to Debbie, the Nigerian woman who went viral on Twitter for waking up to cook her husband’s lunch at 4:50 am.

Perhaps Kizz Daniel will catch flak for making a song of this moment when fiery feminists defended their communal beauty sleep and the patriarchy made a poster girl of a working-class housewife, rewarding her abundantly for values that our society regards as virtuous.

If marriage is a social construct, it is also a contract between two people. This harmless proposition in the song can be accepted or rebuffed. Kizz Daniel’s discography is fodder for Owambe. Finding this tune at engagement ceremonies this weekend can be guaranteed. A bride struts to ‘Showa’ to retrieve a bible from her in-law’s pile of gifts. A pensioner moonlighting as an alaga accepts it with performative enthusiasm.

If Afrobeats enhances the Yoruba party, Kizz Daniel is at the forefront of this party. This brings me to ‘Twe Twe’, that infectious song honouring the twerking backside. Almost a decade ago, Kiss Daniel promised us a good time. He has been true to his word.

Kizz Daniel, thankz a lot.