How J-Martins "Good or bad" Changed The Game

J Martins has come a long way. From playing instruments in church (he is still a choir member of Dominion City Church) to working in his brother's studio in Onitsha, he paid his dues for years in Enugu where he was known for making hip hop beats while he was studying in ESUT. He moved to Lagos and started producing for many people and crafted hits for the likes of Waje, P-Square and Bracket and then in 2008 he released his breakout single titled "Good or bad" featuring a very fired up and fresh Timaya & P-Square

The song became a smash hit that changed the game..These are four reasons why it was so special -

• It Featured Timaya in His Prime - The song featured a red-hot Timaya at a time when he was still fresh off the success of his first album and he totally flogged the beat with memorable lines like "dem dey call me Timaya, na me be Egberi Papa 1 of Bayelsa" and "na me be the toyo toyo, be like R Kelly paya paya". In my humble opinion, one of his greatest performances till this day.

• It Proved That High-Life Still Rocks: Though it came out sounding very urban and contemporary, it was a rich neo-highlife sound that even non-fans were very comfortable with. In a sense it reintroduced the younger generation to the music of their fathers and paved the way for other highlife performers like Flavour Nabania and Wiz Boy to enjoy mainstream success.

•  A Once In A Lifetime Beat: J Martins put together a delightful mish-mash of superb synthesizer play, a very encouraging drum roll backed up by delightful percussion and throbbing bass line to create an enduring sound that stretched the musical horizon. Suddenly everybody was making songs that sounded like it and many artistes sample it till this day. 

• A Good Producer Could Still Be a Good Performer - Though the likes of Paul "Play" Dairo mastered being able to balance success behind the console and on the microphone before him, J Martins became part of the amazing wave of producer/performers that cemented the idea. These culprits included a Terry G before the Ginjah, dreadlocks and general madness.