Afrofusion Gem Minz releases his highly anticipated debut album ‘By Any Minz’

After a few weeks in the charts, we sat down with Minz to discuss his thoughts following the release.

The wait is finally over. On the strength of his past experiences, the Oyo State-raised artist sees how far he has come and how much precious time he has invested in delivering this masterpiece since his beginning in 2016: “When I first started, I was heavily inspired by other artists music, I didn’t have my own identity yet. Afterwards, I became more confident with the ideas that I expressed in my music. I was no longer trying to be like someone else. I grew a lot, and now I can proudly hear my music and claim “ok this is a Minz song”. I’ve managed to create a space for myself and musical print. But I keep on learning; the future is bright. Like I always say: I’m a student of the game. I pay attention to so many details and I learn a lot every day.” Active since the age of 22, Minz has defined his musical style by delving into influences such as the legendary Fela Anikulapo Kuti, the futuristic sounds of Travis Scott and the slow, captivating rhythm at the heart of Bryson Tiller’s universe. Even more remarkable as he combines his multi-talents as a songwriter, performer but also a renowned producer: “Production is something that I have learned because of the necessity. When I started doing music, I obviously didn’t have the same resources at my disposal, so I had to start by learning how to make beats. Some of my songs at the beginning were 100% produced by myself, such as the track “Talk” or “Story”. At some point, I was making money out of it by producing for some artists like L.A.X or artists in Gabon. I even produced some songs on this debut album, so production is something that I really love. It helps my creative process as an artist.”

Thanks to a rich mix of experiences and lessons learned, Minz has come up with this body of work entitled ‘By Any Minz’. Released on October 4th, this debut album was one of the most eagerly anticipated in recent years in which Minz reveals himself to his audience and takes us into his unfiltered universe:” The word I would use to describe this album is: range. It’s a range of emotions, a range of feelings like thanksgiving, hopefulness, prayerfulness, revelation, confidence, love and even happiness with some party songs like the one I did with Blaqbonez or Sokoto as well. To sum up, I was able to express a range of emotions that I think so many people go through but don’t know how to express it. I wanted them to relate to my music. That’s something that I’m proud of, the range displayed in this project is God-given. I wanted to welcome people into my universe and experience Minz as an artist through all these emotions.”

With finesse, and his innate musical gift, Minz has successfully exposed her most harrowing sentiments and poured them into the very essence of her art. Among the tracks that particularly captivated us with its harmonious texture and compelling lyrics was ‘Drama’, performed alongside the talented Ghanaian artist Moliy: “This is the song that I’ve recorded the earliest on this album. I had that song done in 2021, but I always knew that I wanted it in my debut project. This song is special to me. I remember the day I produced it; I went at my friend’s place in Ajah, Lagos. It was raining that day, and my emotions were all over the place for some reason. I put all my troubles into a verse to escape as best I could from the dramas that were haunting me at that moment in my life. When I sent my verse to Moliy I had a strong feeling that she would be perfect for the job and polish the sound perfectly with her personal style. I’m a very proud of that song.”

The project has been under constant refinement since 2023, with the notable contribution of renowned French producer Mike BGRZ: “I met Mike BGRZ in 2019. The first record that we dropped together was ‘Bad pass dem’. That came out in 2020. We stayed in touch ever since, sending ideas to each other back and forth. And in early 2023 we finally meet again, and we’ve been active ever since. We go way back and he’s my brother now. And musically our world just connects perfectly.”

Minz kept up frequent late-night sessions with A&R 10Ten which were integral to the album’s development. Alongside collaborations with Grammy-nominated producer Rugged and Ozedikus, the journey also took Minz to Berlin, where he worked with production duo 255. Undoubtedly, all the means and efforts deployed to bring this masterpiece to fruition will enable Minz to establish his name permanently on the Afrobeats scene, for which he has a very optimistic vision: “I’m proud of where we are today, because we come a long way. The world is recognizing the greatness that is in Afrobeats. It’s only going to go up from here. So I just want us to preserve our music and the essence of it. We should all be proud of this genre that we’re pushing forward, that put us on a map. I can’t wait for it be even bigger.”

The promotional roll-out of this debut album is already shaping up to be very successful for an artist who has fulfilled the high hopes placed in him and considerably increased his fan-base. This confidence-boosting momentum is further evidence of the Nigerian artist’s ambition to make his mark on the international music scene: “I have been blessed to collaborate with legends like Davido and Tekno. But I still would love to do a track with Drake, Travis Scott, Chronixx, Kranium, Wande Coal, 2baba, 2face. It’s a wide area of artists that I would love to collaborate with. My definition of music is learning every day. If I ever had an opportunity to work with one of these artists, I would bring my own authentic universe to theirs. It will be a beautiful collision of world.” An exciting end to the year awaits Minz, who is already looking ahead to the next steps in his musical career: “. By Any Minz Tour is in preparation, I want to take my music around the world”.

Listen to ‘By Any Minz’ below