No doubt, the past few days have been all about popular street ‘rapper’, Naira Marley. Few weeks, maybe. And although he’s like strictly street also, you might say he’s still not got the buzz Zlatan Ibile has managed to gather, over the months.
All that may change very fast, anyway. Because Naira Marley is fast becoming a big shot. Mind you, the young rapper is already a big shot. He first made a big hit, in 2017 with the Olamide and Lil Kesh assisted “Issa Goal.”
Since then, he’s done “Illuminati” and Am I a Yahoo Boy”, both with his homeboy, Zlatan Ibile, the originator of Zanku. So, it’s not like he’s not a big one on the streets, no. He’s paid his dues, and that did include him staying in jail, for a while.
While he was in jail, his fan base sky-rocketed, thanks to free hype from EFCC. Why is it simple. The streets, the real street is actually afraid of getting locked up by the Financial Crime Commission, and for a minute, it looked like Naira Marley was living their fear. That only made him an icon.
But, you know, won n be ni. So, they had to free him at last, and he came back home. By then, the “Marlians” brand had grown. “Opotoyi” was still disturbing the streets, and as he came back, he didn’t even need a new hit urgently. Actually, nothing to prove to anyone, at that time.
Then, boom, “Soapy” emerged. In a few days, it managed to become the hottest thing around. And, as the Instagram videos started surfacing, the hype only grew and grew.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B0wWraaDEBd/
At that point, an official video was imminent. Low budget, high budget, anyhow, it’s gotta just come. Quickly, at that. So, why is Naira Marley trending once again? Well, a jail-themed video shot by TG Omori was shared, days ago. It’s smashing records.
To get there, Naira had asked for 40,000 Instagram comments, and he’d got more than that. So, people wanted this. It’s only normal that it’s trending.
So, does anyone wanna explain how Naira Marley’s YouTube channel with 83k subscribers garnered close to 500k views for the soapy video, in 24 hours? Simply means, a lot is really going on.
Let’s round some facts. Tekno featured Zlatan Ibile, who’s like the biggest shot now, and put the video up. It was trending, too. But within 24 hours, Naira Marley’s “Soapy” got what “Agege” got in two days. The video was done by the same guy. Zlatan had a cameo, in both, too.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B1MGEv1Dsas/
Well, here is what’s going on. People are searching for Soapy, and checking it out. More than any video this year, except of course Davido’s “Blow My Mind.” That’s crazy, right? The interesting thing is, the majority of those people are not his fans before. They don’t have him on Instagram, probably have never seen any of his videos.
That explains why when you type in Soapy on YouTube, the next related search is “Soapy Naira Manley.” What Manley means? No, I don’t know that and I don’t care. But I do know, a lot of people that are not already Marlians are checking him out. This could be his big break, or this could break him. A little optimism isn’t bad, in situations like this.