Timaya Goes Rebranding

Over the past three
years, Timaya has undergone, little and often subtle changes. First, he tweaked his appearance; He no longer spots the dreadlocks, but has a stylish-parting that runs suavely. His attire is completely of a higher fashion now, a tremendous leap forward for a singer who was very well vested in stereotypical pop culture attires and blings. Quietly, Timaya cleaned up his image.
A look through Timaya’s social media pages will not bring up any old version of the singer from Port Harcourt. He’s a new man, far different from the one who was involved in the brash altercation with Empress Njama, but a successful musician who is focused on his work, and also his new sense of style and self. This change has been evident since 2013. After the previous album “Upgrade”, which did show traces of the man Timaya will become, but still held on to his previous thuggish persona. The singer went on a rebranding process. It slowly became clear that the singer had grown tired of his previous persona and had to evolve, lest he becomes another Terry G, There was a vision to change, the first of which was to lose the tired dreadlocks.
Over the years, very few artistes have thrown in the change to make themselves appeal to a different market. African China cleaned up his image in a bid to appeal to more upscale demography, and left him hanging by a thread that killed his career. Waconzy took off his dreads and so went his plan for the future 2face Idibia, is working on rebranding to 2 baba.
The biggest question, however, is will his music change? All the music timaya has released is unaffected, with a fusion of pop and dancehall still his signature sound, Timaya started off as a story teller and Introspective romantic whose music bordered on protest art, with songs like ‘Dem Mama’ and ‘True Story’ taking the boy beyond Port Harcourt. Subsequent years have seen him try to balance his themes to fit in with the popular narrative, with party tracks leading his work, and an appreciation of God propping it. The songs ‘Sanko’ and ‘Bow down’ both off his ‘Epiphany’ album. His new records ‘ I like the way’, Halleluyah’, and ‘Money’, all straddle his old themes, significantly showing that the change is superficial with no new music direction to be employed.
That aside, if there is a glass ceiling that put Timaya’s career and appeal at risk based on his look, that ceiling has shattered. What’s left is for him to go past the ceiling of his music. Perhaps that will materialize one day.