Heavy ivory beads dangle across his neck and wrist sways. His thick locs, macho gait and pruning eyes cast an image of a medieval prophet. Drape in a black rough-cut fit, his moody mien soaks up the atmosphere at the summit of Idanre Hills where he is filming a video for his song, Higher Powers, with a dozen masked men in cameo.
This alluring mystique is partly why Wizard Chan , born Maxwell Fuayefika, has crept up on the radar of exceptional African musicians of this era. For the most part, Wizard Chan thrives for his deep experimentation with ancestral spirit music, fusing native Ijaw sonics with a broad mix of sounds like Hip Hop, RnB, Reggae, Funk and Folk. And his latest album, The Messenger, engraves his identity as a musical genius, centering his philosophies on life and the human condition as the core of his message.
It was not until 2022 that Wizard Chan, born in Okirika, Rivers State, and raised across Port Harcourt and Accra, found his way to the spotlight with his record, ‘Earth Song’, which earned him his first Headies award the following year. His Marlian-styled reggae fusions stole the hearts of many and his homely themes kept his music digestible across all age brackets. Together with a trio of spirit singers from his clan exclusively signed to him under the moniker Boma Nime, Wizard Chan is spreading the gospel of Ijaw culture, one chant at a time.
“Tamuno be, sikima se (apart from the God that the three brothers worshipped), oro oloko chuame ojin tamun.
