Wizkid: How Starboy revived Duncan Mighty's career after initially ending it

Duncan Mighty is the rave of the moment following the success of the song, 'Fake Love' with Wizkid, but perhaps the Starboy also had a hand in his initial stumble.

Since the release of the song, 'Fake Love' which features Wizkid alongside Duncan Mighty, the Port Harcourt’s first son has seen his career witness a renaissance of sort.

Music producer, K Solo in a recent interview on Wazobia Max highlighted the role that Wizkid has played in reviving Duncan Mighty's music.

According to him, ''Thank God for Wizkid that just woke every artist up to Duncan Mighty, like he is just one new upcoming artist in Lagos,'' he says.

This is a view shared not just by K Solo but by a number of music observers.

Following the success of 'Fake Love', Duncan Mighty has become the hottest property on the scene with many drawn to his sound.

This has seen him record a number of collaborations with artists including Reekado Banks on Bio Bio, Masterkraft on 'Low Waist', Ceeza Milli's 'Sabi', 'Uju' by B-Red, DJ Xclusive's 'Gimme Love', Bracket's 'Chinelo' and the list goes on.

Duncan Mighty has also concluded works on an unreleased song with Tiwa Savage and has been pictured in the studios with Burna Boy.

Now the veteran artist who has been around for over a decade, and whose style of music is no different from what he usually offers, has seen his career revived in an industry where identity and originality have been traded on the altar of the next hit song, as everyone simply want him to replicate the magic that worked on 'Fake Love'.

So while Duncan Mighty’s talent is exceptional and his unique style has again been brought to light, there is no doubt that jumping on a song with arguably the biggest Nigerian artist at the moment in Wizkid was the masterstroke that worked for him.

But is Wizkid only reviving a career that got stalled following his rise? Now before you are quick to misunderstand, let’s go back a little to when Wizkid emerged on the scene.

The year was 2011 when he released the album ‘Superstar’, a body of work that became an immediate commercial success, and also set the path to the status he currently enjoys globally.

'The Superstar' album came at a time when the likes of Duncan Mighty, Timaya and Terry G held sway on the scene.

These artists had been pushing a brand of music that was beginning to sound the same in terms of melody, infusion of their local languages, similar story-lines and even instrumentals.

It was all becoming too repetitive, too predictable and although they had occasional hit songs that still topped the charts, many were in search of something different.

Duncan Mighty had released his debut album, Koliwater in 2008, the album which had the hit single, ‘Ako Na Uche’ and introduced the Wene Mighty to the mainstream listeners outside his Port Harcourt area.

Then in 2010, he followed it up with his second studio album, Ahamefuna (Legacy), which enjoyed a greater success with songs like ‘Port Harcourt Son’ and ‘Obianuju’ going onto dominate the airwaves, winning him awards and nationwide recognition.

It was around this same time that Terry G also featured alongside AY.Com on the song, 'Pass Me your Love’, released his debut album, Free Me and then dropped the monster hit, ‘’Free Madness’’.

Outside the fact that Terry G’s music never really said much as against that of Duncan Mighty, their songs were built on identically structured rhythms and style.

The emergence of Wizkid practically influenced how Nigerian music would come to sound going forward.

Inspired by styles of dancehall acts like Sean Kingston and Vybz Kartel at the time, Wizkid modelled their sound in his Nigerian way, borrowing the dancehall vibe, raga flow and delivery which was quite noticeable in his lead single, ‘’Holla At Your Boy’’.

He had seen the future and quickly tapped into it to create his own style that was to become a blueprint for other upcoming artists.

Coincidentally, the rise of Wizkid and his sound saw the downslope of Duncan Mighty and that era of music.

In September 2012, Duncan Mighty released his third album, the 18-track project titled ‘’Footprints’’, which featured guest artists like Timaya, Shaggy and Wande Coal, but unlike the earlier efforts, this did not enjoy a level of success close to anything the previous two offered.

Same can be said for his next set of albums, ‘’Grace and Talent’’ in 2014 and ‘’The Certificate’’ in 2016, despite maintaining his plain and basic style of writing, and signature sound, the world had moved on and Wizkid was the new kid on the block.

It is 2018 and now everyone wants that style that had previously been abandoned on their songs, more collaborations are set to follow and Duncan Mighty is again performing at events across the nation.

How long this revived phase will last, no one can tell, but Wizkid has helped bring back to recognition a sound he had a hand in pushing into oblivion.