The crooner who has dropped a lot of songs this year, he had a good year so far, as being Featured by the likes of Burna Boy, Davido, Tiwa savage etc.
Trying to bring his game on, he decided to drop an Album titled “ZANKU”
Which he said means Zlatan Abeg No kill us.
On November 1, 2019, Nigerian rapper, Zlatan released his debut album titled, Zanku. The album came after weeks of teasers and promotion.
A few hours prior to release, Zlatan held a release party for the album and he appeared really proud of what he had released.
To be fair, this has been the best year of his career. As much as albums have now become of limited importance to Nigerian artists who can keep living off singles, he thankfully still believes in the place of albums.
Without a good discography, greatness and impact can be disputed. An album is more than a bunch of songs, it is the proof that an artist can actually create.
To that end, Zlatan needed an album. But more importantly, he needed a good body of work. He worked on it and we had a release date and a track list. But now, it appears like Zlatan should have postponed the release of this album.
It pains me to say this, but this album is a scatterbrained approach to crafting a body of work. I might be wrong, but this album also seems rushed.
It lacks vision and visibly lacks good A&R. Making music is like making a bomb. While making a bomb, you need vision to understand exactly what you need for the carnage you hope to cause.
The C4 and other apparatuses have to be perfectly measured. The process of inputting the timers and wires requires incredible care lest the C4 blows in your face.
While making music, you must think of the audience as the place you want to blow up. The process must be intricate and meticulous. When you can’t do it on your own, you ask for help – Zlatan didn’t do any of that.
It seems what Zlatan did was contact a few producers he likes to give him a variety of beats so people won’t call him ‘Zanku-obsessed.’ Zlatan has been pigeonholed to ‘Zanku’ and this album commendably shows that he at least tries to break that mould. But sadly, breaking a mould requires detail and this album severely lacks it.
Consistently rambling about his rags-to-riches story, constantly trying to jump on pop culture topics with corny songs and hopping on trendy sounds with bland songs show that Zlatan lacks the required mind for ‘detail.’
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