“By Any Minz” is a Mellow Sonic Journey Blighted by a Lack of Substance

If rising to prominence in the Afropop tapestry is a game of accumulating momentum, in 2022 Minz understood the assignment. Lady, released in mid-2022, attained anthem status on TikTok and established the languid, melody-centric style that would become characteristic of his music. He quickly doubled down with Wo Wo, which enjoyed commercial success. With that he sauntered into a contingent composed of promising yet underrated acts. 2023 was, however, fairly quiet for him. His scorecard for the year included the remix of his 2022 smash Wo Wo, a single entitled BLESSING$, and a smattering of features. But even with his sparse canon in 2023, the year seemed to foreshadow greater times ahead for him. With co-signs from industry peers, Davido and Blaqbonez, as well as a growing reputation on the streets, Minz began to tease an imminent debut album. 

If his 2023 was a sedate lake with a few ripples, his 2024 opened with a sprightly conflagration. In an enervated Afropop milieu, his verse on Odunsi’s Crown Bounce stood out like a lone diamond in a barren mine. His joint effort with Psycho YP and Major AJ arrived with similar aplomb. In succession, he followed with Shadow, the Davido-assisted Wap, Diallo and Mo De Ma—all lead singles to the album. Like a stack of blocks, each single built on the last, carefully providing minuscule vistas into the universe he’d herald. 

By Any Minz, released on the 4th of October, luxuriates in the cool, breezy ambience that is characteristic of his sound. Occasionally Minz takes detours, like on the Trillxoe-produced Do where he floats atop boisterous drums and saccharine keys, supplying freewheeling flows that evoke Seyi Vibez. But most of the album occupies the liminal interstice between mellow Afropop and Alternative RnB. Whatever urgency and restlessness the title and the album cover—a battle-ready Minz bathed in a haze of blue light—seem to convey, is conspicuously spurned in favor of the chill vibe that best accompanies long car rides. Drama featuring Moliy is the quintessence of this motif. The production is buttery and the lyrics, effacing. Minz’ voice is yearning but still below the threshold of overbearing. Moliy is the diametric opposite. Over the track’s supple keys, she’s characteristically smooth and unbothered. 

Minz is a master of melody and flow. Only a few Afropop acts rival his prowess in this area. Wo Wo, his breakout hit, exemplifies this precociousness. The flow switches are preternatural. The melodies are transcendent. So much so that even if the lyrics were smudged into a blur, the song would yet make for an enjoyable listen. He brings an even keener sense for flow and melody to By Any Minz. His flows on Mo De Ma are unbelievably beautiful. In Shadow, he’s smooth and slippery, a soap bar in a wet hand. In Low, the album’s brightest moment, he’s at the height of his powers, lancing through the plush production like a newly sharpened blade. On Disembark, surfing a gleaming production that evokes the surreal, trippy atmosphere of the 80s, he delivers a masterclass in melodies and flows. On Ja he conjures oblique melodies that dovetail the song’s Rema-esque production. 

His mastery of melody and flow is however marred by an insouciant attitude towards lyricism. Minz, while not being an elite lyricist, can write and write well. In Crown Bounce, he paints a crisp portrait of a smitten lover pandering to a love interest. His portrait is replete with cheeky lines, visceral yearning gussied up in debauchery and affecting narratives. This level of execution, which put his performance on Crown Bounce in the verse-of-the-year conversation, is notably absent on the album. Revelations, the album opener, is the latest in a long list of album openers that function as elegies, tapping elements of Gospel music to channel introspection. The lyrics are however juvenile if not head scratching. “Dem no want make I dey go far, mama say I go be big star,” he croons on the chorus. The lyrics on Drama make Revelations quaint in comparison. While the song is generously replete with affecting melodies, the lyrics are repetitive to the point of being insufferable. At some point he breaks into a refrain of muffled babble. Giving the song the air of a reference track that never got fully fleshed out. On Low, one of the best written tracks on the project, the difference is abundantly clear. 

“A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us,” Kafka once wrote. While the thought very clearly alludes to works of literature, it’s a concept that is universal to all forms of art. Great art has a way of prying the gates of the soul open, transforming us, pulverizing and remodeling aspects of the soul, making us feel, bringing to mind long forgotten memories, specters of a past life, making us see the world anew. This might seem idealistic, if not quixotic, but the summation of it is that great art, great music leaves an impact on the soul. On By Any Minz, an absence of a riveting and distinct sonic environment, as well as painful lyrical vacuity, stunt what could be a brilliant debut opus into a mere collection of breezy songs.