Ranking the Top 5 Music Covers from Last Section.

Music covers are strategic means to market one’s skill and position the artiste in the faces and ears of new audience. Little wonder why many youngsters had taken no small part in the Dai Verse #saltchallenge to milk every inch of publicity they could extract from the music campaign. A look back at the covers recorded the last academic section from the Funaab Music space; one can’t help but admire with childlike excitement the immense talent of some of these student-artistes and the amount of work put in to convey their creativity by mixing but oral and visual accessories in a cauldron, and spicing them with quality recording and personal essence. In this article, I write about my top 5 music covers from the just concluded academic section and in doing this I may have become one of Ghaffar’s loudest praise singers.

1. GHAFFAR — Dreams

A short remake of the Ajebo Hustlers single Dreams. I stumbled upon this piece on the story of a mutual while aimlessly scrolling through instagram, and for what could be said to be a “long while”, my mind lacked the right adjective to describe what I had listened to but I knew I had become a fan. With carefully curated rhymes, Ghaffar sings about his dreams and the upheavals that accompanies its pursuit, the perils of wanting and lacking, and in regular street slangs, the ubiquity of struggling to earn a living. A quick listen and an ardent listener will agree such verse could stand as a feature on the already great record.

2. GHAFFAR — HBP Cover

I know, I know, Ghaffar again? This is hardly my fault. No one comes across Ghaffar’s musical cadre and not stop and stare. Like a master painter who takes a piece of different colors to produce a collage of symbolic representations, the young singer’s musical ingenuity is surreal; one in tandem with the best of the best of Afrobeats most talented creators. The HBP cover seems to be his greatest highlight yet with its video garnering over 20k views on twitter alone, and a cosign from Llona — the record’s original owner.

3. KAYMED — Romeo Must Die

In the Funaab music Community, Kaymed seems to be the poster boy for shiny and fancy visuals. The video for this cover starts off with an entertaining plot as Kaymed dines with a few friends in what looked like the celebration of an audacious win. Romeo must die is one of the smash hit from the Ruger and BNXN’s collaborative project and to say Kaymed did justice on his version of the same record, will be a grave understatement. Combining both vocals and rhythm, together with his characteristic humming between verses, he delivered a piece the original owners will be proud of if they ever come across it.

4. O.L.U — Salt

It’s Valentine’s Day 2024 and O.L.U picks up the mic to sing after being introduced by the host. Firstly, one didn’t know what to expect from the obviously young and innocent looking dark-skinned mildly built guy. With the mic firmly in his grip, and seconds into his performance, I could tell within that I didn’t want to stop listening to this new Artiste I’m seeing for the first time. Weeks later, O.L.U drops his version of the Salt viral single , and as one would expect after Lovers Day, it was good music at its most unequivocal representation, a piece that is now amongst my top 3 favourite from the #saltchallenge.

5. CBZED — If I’m Lying

The name CBZed is not so popular in the Funaab Music Community, but what he lacks in recognition, he compensates greatly in musical ability. It is a rare happening to see other singers almost reproduce better versions of Burna Boy’s records — a milestone some would say CB almost attained with his version of if I’m Lying from the I Told them Album. A video set with a monochromatic and melancholic plot, CBZed sings about life, with each line crawling both vocally and emotionally. If one were cruising through a blissful day and somehow came across this piece, there is a near high tendency that such person maybe be ushered into a sober and self-reflecting consciousness.

After listening to various music cover on my weekends, these ones have stuck with me probably due to my musical inclinations and association. Furthermore, after meeting quite a number of young artistes in the last 3 years, it’d suffice to say Ghaffar is the most promising I’ve seen yet. A brilliant writer, with criminally good record making prowess, I hope to look at the Afrobeats music culture in a few years and see Ghaffar as one of its celebrated Ambassadors. Do well to check these covers and share your honest opinion, you don’t know who will find them helpful.