In an unprecedented move, veteran Afrobeats act Iyanya released music videos for all thirteen tracks on his latest album, Once Upon A Cat.
This rollout comes on relatively short notice, five days after the album’s release. It has elicited a flurry of agog reactions.
The album title references a line from a Davido interview with Brut Afrique in June 2023, where the Afrobeats heavyweight notoriously classified his contemporary, Burna Boy as a ‘new cat’. While Davido did not namedrop Iyanya, the latter reacted to the statement in an X post by referencing the success of his 2012 hit singles, ‘Kukere’ and ‘Your Waist’, as well as Burna Boy’s ‘Like To Party’. Undeterred by the derisive reception to his post, particularly a user who quoted his post with, ‘Once upon a cat’, Iyanya owned his status as an ‘old cat’ for his third studio album.
Iyanya pulls up with thirteen upcoming artistes on Once Upon A Cat, including Soundz, Qing Madi, M3LON, Dai Verse and Derry Black. The project also features Lola Rae, who gained some traction in the early 2010s.
At the time of writing, the music video for the Dai Verse-assisted ‘Call Me Baby’ stood as the most viewed with 59K views. The visual for ‘Sweet Life’, featuring Young Duu and Toliban, trails with 48K views.
Once Upon A Cat follows Iyanya’s oft-forgotten 2009 debut, My Story, his 2013 sophomore, Desire and his 2015 album Applaudise, as well as three EPs: Signature (2017), For Your Love (2020), and The 6th Wave (2022).
