I dont usually do this but this one here just had to be posted. But I had to bring this to the attention of African music lovers. As a dj my main job is to present the music to the public and let them rate it...but I feel I have to say something on J Martins second album 'Elevated' .
J Martins is Nigerian artist and producer who is best known for songs like 'Good or Bad Ft Timaya and 'Cool Temper'. As a producer,he has produced for P-Square and has featured on a song called 'Eno Easy' on their latest album 'Danger'.
I have had a chance to listen to this album and I am somehow letdown with his effort on this one. There is little originality on this project. The album opens with Oyoyo, a song which,according to him,should have been on P-Squares album as it was Peters idea but J Martins told him it was not the kind of song P-Sqaure is known for.. Oyoyo is the lead single and its banging.
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Track number 2 is a song called Iva.which is a sample of a song who's title I dont remember. But the song he sampled is a popular song that I grew up listening to. (Please listen to the song and help me identify this song.) Iva is a good song,as it borrows its hit worthyness from the sample.Sample or no sample,Iva is a big record all the same.
Track 4 is a song called 'Jukpa' which features a Nigerian boy band called 'Bracket'. You can clearly see that J Martins had run out of ideas for this album because this song uses the same beat pattern as 'Good or Bad',a hit song on his previous album. Jukpa should have been the remix to Good Or Bad. Listen carefully to the bass and come prove me wrong.
Track number 5 Is a song called 'Believe;,which is a another sample of 'Living Darfur' By Mattafix,Click here to watch the video for the sample and click here to read about the song.If you want the mp3 of Living Dafur,just google it. Once again on 'Believe',J Martins fails teriibly in his task to make an inspirational song because its a copy of 'Living Darfur'. Track 6 is a song called 'Tonight'. There is where I had to wipe sweat off my brow and say ' Khaki No Be Leather'. This song is a sample of Cash Money signed british R&B songer J Sean's song of the same title from his second album called 'My Own Way'.
This sampling busines should come as no surprise to those of you who know music. Because as P-Square's producer,he as sampled a lot of songs for their records. Click here to read P-Sqaure infor on wikipedia and see the list of songs they have sampled. Im not talkins about whether the songs are good or bad. Thats for you to judge,I am talking about the copying issue which tarnishes the originality and creativity of the artist. After all J Martins is not the first producer to sample other artists songs,big time producers like Dr Dre do it now and then.Hell even my own daughter sampled a part of my DNA,cuz she sure looks like me. Now thats copying at its best,lol. Y'all have a good one. Im out