The Champ Has Finally Arrived 

Since Champz, real name Boluwatife Balogun, released his debut EP Champion’s Arrival on Tuesday, November 11, the records have been rolling in like a cascade of dominoes. 1 million Spotify streams in less than 24 hours. 122,000 monthly listeners in that span. The youngest artist to debut on the UK Apple Music Top Albums chart, peaking at 13—as of the time of writing; the 5-track EP is still rapidly gaining traction. It currently sits at number 5 on the US Apple Music Top Albums chart and is charting in over 40 countries. In the Nigerian market, the 14-year-old has evinced an emphatic dominance, peaking at number 3 on the Apple Music Top Songs chart with Champion Sound, a track from the project, and topping the Apple Music Top Albums chart, mere hours after releasing Champion’s Arrival.

Over the years, Boluwatife, the scion of Afrobeats frontman Wizkid, has enjoyed his fair share of public attention and the scrutiny that often attends celebrity. Rival fans of his father have deployed him as canon fodder in stan wars. But much of the attention he has garnered over the years has come from his myriad creative endeavors—fashion, music, dance. He however only started hinting at a professional career in music weeks ago. In quick succession, he released a spate of snippets, many of which appear on the EP as fully fleshed-out songs. Each snippet roused feverish conversation on social media but amid the chatter one thing was clear: there was no debate about his talent. 

His music primarily alternates between Grime and Afro-Swing, and with his crisp UK accent and aptitude for punchlines, he comes across as a rapper in the lineage of J Hus. In the 11 minutes that Champion’s Arrival runs for, he alternates between grappling with questions around his legacy and announcing his ascendancy, displaying talent far beyond his years. In Superstar, over a brooding melody, he raps: “They expected so much from a kid/ Only I know the shit that I face when I’m stressing/ When I’m older I’m gonna show love to my kids/ Cuz these **** take the piss and life taught me a lesson.” 

Later in the song he sinks to a more somber register: “All that talk up on the net was that shit meant to hurt/ Roll my pain up in a verse and I let that shit burn.” Champion Sound, by contrast, finds him cavalier, irreverent. As he sees it, the throne is his for the taking and he spares no attempt in declaring his grand arrival. “Shout out to the og’s in the game/ But it’s time to pass on the baton to champion,” he raps. 

For all the excitement the project has heralded, it has also been the subject of mild criticism. The album cover, a sloppy and garish AI illustration, has been the subject of public scorn, as has the fact that three of the five songs are awkward iterations of  “champion.” Consider the titles: Champion Montana, Champion Sound, Championo. These minor gripes aside, the project is an impressive start and its resounding resonance shows that Champz (I hope he gets a better stage name) is poised for a stellar career.