The importance of social media in the life of the 21st Century artiste cannot be overstated, especially for independent artistes who do not quite have the funds to push themselves as required. It can bring life changing opportunities and a certain Anifowose Temitayo Michael was intuitive enough to capitalize on that through astute content creation that served to entertain the audience and showcase his own music making abilities in fine light.
The aforementioned individual, who is now gaining massive popularity under the alias Mizzle, has been at it for a while before social media quickened the journey for him. A deep search into his Apple Music page reveals “Creed”, a 6 track EP he released way back in 2017. Hit play on that project and other singles in his catalogue – “Connected”, “Lead U” – and it becomes obvious Mizzle has been ridiculously talented from the get-go. It earned him a fair bit of recognition and in November 2019, he joined the ranks of artistes to receive $10,000 as part of the emPawaAfrica program that provides young artistes with mentorship and financial support. It helped, but it didn’t quite get Mizzle the mainstream attention he so badly craved. He needed to try something different, something more creative. And then came the Tiktok videos.
You see, in addition to being a gifted singer, Mizzle is also a producer, and a very good one at that. Using Tiktok as his stage, he combined his skills to make videos where he imitated mainstream artistes and the songs and styles that typified them on original beats he produced. While this content is not original to him – a good number have tried it and found success at it – Mizzle was able to bring his own touch and style to it. The fans and even the artistes he imitated loved it, and a new audience started to open up for him. The biggest indication of the success of that campaign was “Smile For You”, a delightful June release that featured Oxlade. The origins of this song lie in Mizzle’s “How To Make An Oxlade Song” Tiktok video from 5 months earlier, and is essentially an extended and finished version of the snippet on which he mimicked Oxlade.
With the momentum of that single and the Tiktok faithfuls rooting for him, Mizzle put out a 7-track EP titled “In The Dark” earlier this month. On the project, he explores the complexities of love and sex on soothing mid-tempo Afro-fusion sounds that come with heavyweight features such as Oxlade, Niniola, Sarz and Wande Coal. The EP is filled with scintillating quality and it is awesome to see the streaming numbers and critical reception matching the quality of the music. Mizzle is finally getting the recognition he desires and, I daresay, deserves. If you haven’t already, now is as good a time as any to get on Mizzle’s wave.
