There’s a satisfying precision to the sequencing on 444PLAY: no song overstays its welcome, and the EP moves with a pace that keeps the listener locked in.
By Abioye Damilare Samson
If you trace the constellations of sounds that have lit up Afro-Pop in the past six years, a vivid mosaic of voices behind them will come into focus. There’s the airy romance of CKay, the honey-dipped runs of Victony, and the velvet falsetto of Oxlade, each stitching new patterns into Afro-Pop’s ever-growing fabric. Among them, however, stands a Lagos-born artiste whose silky vocals and feather-light delivery give his records an airy, hypnotic glow. That voice belongs to Minz, the understated melodist behind the new EP, 444PLAY.
One of the rare qualities about Minz is that he’s a genius at music production and genre-blending skill, and if anything, a parallel line can be drawn to why his beats are futuristic and experimental, with a distinct touch that has become part of Nigerian Pop’s soundscape.
Despite arriving on the scene even before the wave of new-generation artistes from the class of 2019, he remains one of the country’s most underrated acts. In 2024, he finally released his long-awaited debut album, By Any Minz, a project that was, unarguably, among the year’s finest. Yet, for all its brilliance, it didn’t quite scale its full potential commercially. Now, almost a year later, Minz is determined to sustain that momentum and expand the story of his blistering debut with the 444PLAY EP.
True to form, Minz has always had a knack for collaborations that elevate his artistry. One of his frequent collaborators, 255 (pronounced two-fifty-five)—a band of three brothers, Charlie, Guy, and Louis, building a soundscape rooted in Afrobeats—appears on the intro track, “Agenda”.
Here, Minz’s sonic stylist approach shines, using a laid-back delivery and few, carefully minted words to sketch a love interest and longing, turning them into intimate confessions over a dance-electronic log drum beat. 255’s hook, “Forget agenda, Make you forget agenda/ I’ll give you lamba/ Make I dey give you lamba”, doesn’t do much lyrically, but it embodies the “less is more” philosophy, delivering a hook that sticks.
As a genre-bending artiste, Minz knows how to draw from different soundscapes to create something distinct. On the Mike BGRZ-produced “TA NA”, he rides a mid-tempo beat, singing the catchy, repeated hook. What gives the track its groove, however, is the juju music undercurrent, thanks to the incorporation of talking drums in the chorus.
When “i2SABI”, featuring rapper, Jeriq and 255 in their second appearance, comes in, you can hear Minz having fun with his flow. That playfulness comes with a dose of braggadocio, beginning with the title itself: “I too sabi”, a Nigerian Pidgin phrase meaning “I know” or “to be knowledgeable”, derived from the Portuguese word “saber”.
It’s an assertion of self-awareness in his versatility, and rightfully so. The song’s intro and chorus line, “I too sabi, that’s my problem, I too sabi, that’s my problem”, are lifted straight from a pop-culture phrase Burna Boy coined and popularised on Asake’s “Sungba” remix.
While Minz flows in playful, hypnotic bursts, Jeriq—marked by his deep voice, Igbo-infused lyricism, and a fusion of Trap and Hip-Hop—drops a brief but potent verse that elevates the song. 255’s presence is less pronounced here, but the outro belongs to Minz, who lets the bravado fly: “Shit, yeah, your favourite artistes’ favourite artiste/ Too fuckin’ good/ too fuckin’ GOAT-ed, All your favourites know this”, he says.
The closing track, “4×4”, produced by Mozambican DJ and record producer, DJ Tarico, is an Amapiano-House party anthem made for clubs and raves. There’s little focus on lyricism, just slangs, Log drums, and piercing whistle riffs designed to send the dancefloor into a frenzy.
At the risk of stating the obvious, Minz can hardly miss. His track record proves it—especially his debut album, By Any Minz, a project that distilled years of refinement into one of 2024’s standout Nigerian Pop records.
444PLAY EP is a looser, breezier extension of that vision. The four songs on the project don’t pretend to offer lyrical depth, and they don’t need to; instead, they operate on the pure pleasure principle, built for replay. It’s Minz in cruise control, enjoying the freedom to explore pockets of rhythm and texture without the weight of narrative ambition.
The productions here are pristine, their polish belying the effortlessness they project. Every element—from the bounce of log drums on “4×4”, to the talking drums on the chorus of “TA NA” paired with the shimmer of electric guitar on the outro, to the airy space between Minz’s slangs throughout—feels deliberate.
There’s a satisfying precision to the sequencing on 444PLAY: no song overstays its welcome, and the EP moves with a pace that keeps the listener locked in. And like Minz sings on the hook of the third track, “I too sabi, that’s my problem”, we can all agree that the only real problem here is that 444PLAY is too short and leaves you wanting more.
Lyricism – 1.0
Tracklisting – 1.5
Sound Engineering – 1.7
Vocalisation – 1.4
Listening Experience – 1.5
Rating – 7.1/10
Abioye Damilare Samson is a music journalist and culture writer focused on the African entertainment industry. His works have appeared in Afrocritik, Republic NG, NATIVE Mag, Culture Custodian, 49th Street, and more. Connect with him on Twitter and IG: @Dreyschronicle