Swagga Don, Another Masked Artiste Steps Out Bold

His profile is a bit sketchy; even his real names are never motioned. “Swagga Don, Avatar, the spirit of Africa,” that’s all you can find about him. Not because he’s a ‘nobody’, but largely because he has a personality to protect. However, those who know the face behind the mask said he’s the brain behind the musical success of some popular global artiste.

A musician, songwriter and producer, Swagga Don has set for himself a mission to unite Africans across the globe through his music. Just recently, the singer unveiled plans for the release of his latest album, Mother Africa. Held in Lekki, Lagos, the event also heralded the release of the video for his track, African Township, which dropped at the mystic time and date of 00:01:10:01:2020.

Shot by Benny Willis Studios, the video was produced by Swagga Don and W3TV Films, while Wallace W. Williams was the creative director. It was shot on locations in Trinidad, London and Nigeria featuring Odegz Williams, the Blue Avatar.

In a chat with showbiz reporters, Swagga Don said his mission is to bring back the Avatar (The spirit of Africa) through music and good melody. “Avatar is uniting the spirit of Africa, unity of Africa in diaspora. With Africans spread all over the world, we need a unifying force to connect the Africans in the diaspora and music and culture is the tool. Wherever we are we sing the same kinds of music, culturally we are all the same. Africans, we need to unite wherever we are. Whether you are in the continent, the Americas, Caribbean or Cuba, we need to unite. Africans come together through music to bring about love, unity and peace and that’s what the African spirit is all about.”

The masked man said the African spirit is the African Avatar, which he represents.“African Avatar is about positive message, positive music to address ills in the society such as xenophobia and the rest, because that’s not the spirit of Africa. We are a happy people. We are here to change the paradigm, to bring the Avatar through Swagga Don and the music will speak for itself,” he said. Describing his brand of music as Soka Makosa, he hinted that the forthcoming album embodies all that is African, but not limited a particular genre.

“In the album coming Mother Africa, you have reggae, Makosa; the first track is a mixture of Soukous. All these beats embodies the fusion of Africans as a people.”

On his decision to keep his identity unknown, he said, “This is how I want to be represented for now; I want people to concentrate on my music first. When the time is right, the world will really get to know the person behind the mask. I have other professions and those other professions do not permit me to come into the open. I’m on a long music trajectory, who knows, I may unveil myself before long. But for now, I have highly placed status that will not permit me to have music clash with it. Besides, I’m a body in the spirit of Africa,” he said.

Majek Fashek’s manager, Uzoma Day Omenka, represents Swagga Don in Nigeria. This has fueled speculations that he may have parted with the Rainmaker, who is currently undergoing treatment in London for an undisclosed ailment.

“Uzoma is still with Majek Fashek and I and Majek have a relationship, but we talk about that later on. Uzoma is 100 per cent with Majek Fashek, but he’s promoting the Avatar here. He’s loyal to Majek Fashek and I’m also loyal to Majek Fashek because I had the inspiration to help Majek Fashek in his first coming; that will be revealed in due course, the untold story of Majek Fashek. I have always been behind the scene, doing quite a lot behind many artistes,” he hinted.Swagga Don also said he decided to release his album at a minute after midnight on January 10, 2020 because that was what his African ancestors ‘cosmically’ told him to do.