THE EVIL GENIUS is the long-awaited and highly anticipated debut album from Grammy and Latin Grammy Award-winning global music superstar MR EAZI. Out now via his own independent record label emPawa Africa, and championed by Music Week, New York Times, Rolling Stone, Billboard, The Guardian, Complex, The FADER, and CNN, among others, The Evil Genius comes on the back of a seven-year career at the top of the afrobeats music landscape, and an already iconic music catalogue from Mr Eazi that boasts over four billion global streams, countless multiple platinum singles across two classic mixtapes, essential afropop hits like ‘Skin Tight’, ‘Leg Over’, and ‘Pour Me Water’, and ground-breaking international collaborations with the likes of Beyoncé, J Balvin, Bad Bunny, and Nicki Minaj. He sat down with Forbes to talk about the album.
Described as a first-of-its-kind fusion of African music and visual art, perhaps the most ambitious and ground-breaking aspect of Mr Eazi’s The Evil Genius is its visual art component, with the album birthing 16 art pieces to accompany each track on the album. Every track on The Evil Genius is represented by a unique physical art piece that Mr Eazi has commissioned from different contemporary visual artists that he encountered while travelling across Africa recording the album. Noting a lack of alignment and collaboration between Africa’s exploding pop music industry, and the continent’s fine art creators, Mr Eazi is highlighting the power of such collaboration by incorporating the work of these artists – representing eight African nations and a continent of aesthetics – into The Evil Genius.
As part of the album release, Mr Eazi has been inviting the public to experience the music alongside the art pieces at several multi-sensory exhibition listening experiences around the world. The exhibition debuted in September at Gallery 1957 in Ghana, where Mr Eazi began his recording career and first rose to fame, before stealing the show in London as part of the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair at Somerset House in October. The exhibition was also showcased at the Windsor Gallery in Nigeria in December, and at the 1-54 Art Fair Marrakech earlier this month. The next stop for The Evil Genius exhibition is Art Dubai in March, before setting sail to New York City for the summer.
ABOUT ‘THE EVIL GENIUS’
Recorded over two years between some of Mr Eazi’s favourite cities including Accra, Cotonou, Lagos, London, Los Angeles, and New York, and released independently to rave reviews from fans and critics alike, The Evil Genius comes on the back of a seven-year career at the top of afrobeats music for Mr Eazi. While his status as one of the giants of modern African music is undeniable, very few artists of his calibre have gone this deep into their career without releasing an album, and so for his first official album, Mr Eazi knew that he had to create something that would go beyond all expectations, including his own. The album is an exciting musical scrapbook that blends afrobeats, afropop, gospel, hiplife, highlife and folklore into a glorious pan-African fusion sound in a way that only Mr Eazi knows how.
With production from an international heavy hitting cast including Kel-P (Nigeria), Michaël Brun (Haiti), Knucks (UK), and Nonso Amadi (Canada), as well as guest artists such as Grammy Award-winning legend Angélique Kidjo, Nigerian star Joeboy, and South African group Soweto Gospel Choir, The Evil Genius is Mr Eazi’s most personal work by far, and it sees him diving deeply into strong themes around love, betrayal, loneliness, and family, expressed through three distinctive movements or acts, throughout the album. The first of these three chapters finds Mr Eazi unburdening himself of the weight of success and fame, followed by a five-song movement about love, with the album ending on a suite of spiritual and deeply resonant anthems that capture Eazi in thanksgiving mode.
Described as a first-of-its-kind fusion of African music and visual art, perhaps the most ambitious and ground-breaking aspect of Mr Eazi’s The Evil Genius is its visual art component, with the album birthing 16 art pieces to accompany each track on the album. Every track on The Evil Genius is represented by a unique physical art piece that Mr Eazi has commissioned from different contemporary visual artists that he encountered while travelling across Africa recording the album. Noting a lack of alignment and collaboration between Africa’s exploding pop music industry, and the continent’s fine art creators, Mr Eazi is highlighting the power of such collaboration by incorporating the work of these artists – representing eight African nations and a continent of aesthetics – into The Evil Genius.
ABOUT MR EAZI
MR EAZI is a musical innovator, business leader and philanthropist. As a recording artist, the Nigerian star is one of the most streamed African artists in the world, with over 4 billion streams, he is also the voice behind afropop hits ‘Pour Me Water’, ‘Skin Tight’, and ‘Leg Over’, as well as ground-breaking collaborations with the likes of Beyoncé, J Balvin, and Bad Bunny. A serial entrepreneur, he founded emPawa Africa in 2018 as a talent incubator program designed to accelerate the careers of African artists. Hailed by CNN, Rolling Stone, Billboard and Forbes for his innovative approach to expanding African music’s global reach, he has grown emPawa Africa into one of Africa’s largest independent music companies, with a track record of breaking global stars like Joeboy and Major League DJz.
Born in Port Harcourt and raised in Lagos, Mr Eazi began his music career while attending college in Ghana. His first-ever recording, made on a whim, became an accidental local hit, prompting him to take music seriously. Blending touches of Ghanaian highlife music and pidgin slang, with Nigerian chord progressions and R&B vocal inflections, he soon developed a mellowed-out spin on afropop, which he dubbed Banku Music, after the popular Ghanaian comfort food dish. Arriving just as afrobeats music was exploding into global consciousness, Mr Eazi quickly became an international sensation, taking Banku Music all over the world. His global travels birthed two acclaimed mixtapes Life Is Eazi Vol. 1: Accra To Lagos and Life Is Eazi Vol. 2: Lagos To London – the rest, as they say, is history.
CONNECT WITH MR EAZI: Instagram – Twitter – Tiktok
MEDIA & PRESS: Please direct all inquiries to Ayo Adepoju: [email protected]
