Nigerian contemporary highlife singer, Sunny Neji, has dropped his fifth album titled “Pin Number”. Released last week, the latest effort is a blend of traditional highlife and urban groove pop.
According to the 43-year-old singer, the choice of the album title was borne out of a desire to present his teeming fans with something precious.
“I feel that all the songs on the album are very valuable and as such anyone who grabs a copy gets something valuable,” he said. “They also have to guard it jealously, as much as they would protect their pin number.”
The Ogoja-born singer gives reasons why the latest album is coming three years after 2006’s “Off Da Hook”.
“We needed enough time to work on each song. We have been around for a long time and therefore have a reputation to protect. I had to take my time so I can present something very good at the end of the day,” he said.
“Pin Number” features collaborations with Eedris Abdulkareem and a couple of upcoming acts like Ocube, Lil Kobi, Tolu and Sola Majib.
Although he studied fashion designing at the Yaba College of Technology, music has always been his first love. He began his music career in 1987, as a voice-over artist, producing jingles. Some of his works include the Social Democratic Party political jingle for the presidential campaign of late Moshood Kolawole Abiola, in 1993, and the First Bank Centenary Anniversary jingle in 1994.
His debut album, “Captain” was released in 1991 but failed to make an impact in the market. His fortunes changed with the release of 1997’s monster hit, “Mr. Fantastic”. The album gave the singer his much needed big break and he hasn’t looked back since.
He went on to release “Roforofo” in 2000 but scored another major hit with 2003’s “Unchained” which featured the popular wedding anthem “Oruka” and party favourite, “Face Me”. In “Off Da Hook”, he experimented with a little bit of R&B on several tracks but the results were not as successful as his earlier work.
With this latest effort, the singer/songwriter hopes to return to the fantastic ways that married his signature sound to the ears of teeming fans in the first place.
