In 2003, the Nigerian music industry welcomed a young producer whose interest was to work behind the scene and ensure that many aspiring talents had the opportunity to hone their craft and showcase the best of their creative ingenuity.
Probably, he never envisaged becoming an artiste one day, but fate turned things around for his good.
Welcome to the world of Chibuzor Nelson Azubuike, who, from producing music has become a voice in the Nigerian music industry, particularly, the rap genre.
The music artiste, who is better known as Phyno Fino, is a seasoned Nigerian rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer, as well as, renowned for rapping in the Igbo language.
No doubt, he is a music powerhouse who is mostly recognised for his uncanny ability to tell gripping stories through his songs with many singles and studio albums to his credit, tours and fans across the world today.
The intrigue about Phyno is that apart from rapping primarily in Igbo language, he further incorporates Nigerian Pidgin and English into his music. The proficiency stems from his belief that those elements make his music borderless.
However, Phyno has been on the lucrative part of the music industry since the release of his debut studio album “No Guts, No Glory” in 2014; a project which he had started working on in 2012, putting out a stellar confluence of hard-hitting singles that won awards off the album. In 2016, the indigenous artiste released his sophomore LP, ‘The Playmaker’, under Penthauze Records, which was produced by a plethora of talents ranging from Major Bangz, Tunex, Christ String, Kezyklef, Benjamz, MasterKraft, Del’B and T-Spize. With featured guest artistes such as; 2baba and Burna Boy, the album’s singles boasted major hits like ‘Pino Pino’, ‘Fada Fada’ ft Olamide, and ‘E Sure For Me’. In 2019, Phyno released his third single “Deal With It”.
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Yet again, in November 2021, the prolific and deeply talented artiste released his highly anticipated fourth studio album, “Something To Live For”.
The 16-tracked album boasts of sensational songs; featuring seasoned artistes.
The new album, a well-put together collection of sounds, echoes the mantra that Africa is home and motherland to all people, and shortly after the release ‘Stacks’, the first single from the album, started doing exceedingly well on all platforms.
Even in the new album, Phyno shows again that he is an infallible storyteller who takes stock of his accomplishments, his vulnerabilities and at the same time, encouraging ambition, perseverance in the face of uncertainty and against all odds; a compendium of life’s experiences in lyrics that tastefully capture these different emotional textures in all the tracks.
According to a review of the new album, “Phyno’s ‘Something To Live For’ is an evolution, an adhesive, which makes the talented artiste’s music a touchstone to everything he believes and stands for”.
A deeply gifted artiste and producer, Phyno checked all the boxes in his mission to engage the audience and provoke insight into his music, all the while inspiring fans to a full tank in which a delirium of musical savour is achieved with these songs.
Today, the name ‘Phyno’ has become an indelible brand name in the music industry as he has worked with artistes such as Wizkid, Davido, Olamide, Flavour, Timaya, DJ Kaywise, Yemi Alade, Zoro, Jmartins, Bracket among many others. The Nigerian rapper has wowed millions with spectacular songs such as ‘Fada Fada’, ‘So Far So Good’, ‘Connect’, ‘Highway’ and innumerable others.
It is worthy of note that the Anambra-native but Enugu-born music star has achieved major feats in Africa. Apart from the numerous awards he has won, Phyno has singlehandedly been able to gather thousands of people to a festival he kick started in 2015, titled PhynoFest where the maiden edition held at the Chuba Ikpeazu Stadium in Onitsha, Anambra State with a record attendance of 12,000 people.
Phyno is the founder and CEO of Penthauze Music, a Nigerian based record label, which he founded after leaving Sputnet Records, the record label where he started his career. The label became active in 2008 and has gone on to sign several artistes including the brilliant youngster, Superboy Cheque. Moreover, Phyno has gone beyond music to display other potential that keep winning more fans for him. Of course, a talent of inestimable value, Phyno made his film debut when he starred in the Blockbuster Nollywood movie, “Lionheart”.
With age on his side, creative juices even flowing more and fans growing, Phyno is not getting tired soon as he urges fans to always look out for his signature raps across all music platforms.
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