EP Review: Victony Contemplates His Realities on Dark Times
On his second project, the Nigerian singer/rapper embraces joy and pain for company.
On April 26, 2021, Victony and three of his friends were involved in a car accident. The rising music star and his crew had been heading home from a birthday party. Victony and two friends sustained multiple injuries and fractures and underwent many surgeries. The other friend lost his life.
Last year, Victony, real name Victor Anthony Ebuka, stepped into the limelight. He released his debut EP Saturn, a six-track project that flitted from Afro-Pop to trap music and highlighted the 20-year-old artiste’s range and versatility.
Still recuperating and using a wheelchair, Victony is back on the music scene with a new EP Dark Times. The two-track project represents the artiste’s mental state: relieved and worried, hopeful and despondent.
“Everything you hear about a mother’s prayer is true. In a world of uncertainty, I live through the days sending prayers above and relying on my mum’s,” Victony says in a promotional video. During the last minutes of “Pray,” the EP’s first track, Victony’s mum is praying for him, prophesying healing on his body. A lady’s voice is also heard, telling Victony she and others love him.
“Pray” is a song brimming with hope. Employing a mellow, bouncy rhythm, Victony sings of mortality, fears, and naysayers. He acknowledges life’s negativities but is confident he will pull through because he has his mother in his corner, praying for him.
The last track “Unfamiliar Realms” is hands-and-feet stuck in indecision and dejection. Over a moody soundscape, Victony and his alter ego Tredax, a cartoonish alien from Saturn, exchange lyrics of needing help yet not needing help.
“Somebody help me please/Oh no no thanks/I think I’m fine by me/But would you help?” Tredax sings in the first verse. He returns in the second verse, singing, “It’s not a cry for help/So please don’t be sympathetic with me/Don’t know myself but still I’m happy with me.”
Dark Times is Victony’s method of making sense of his current reality. A close shave with death always leaves a person shaken and introspective. It’s a huge credit to the artiste that he chooses to confront these thoughts and, as he states in the promo video, “turn those emotions into melodies.”
For Victony, the dark times will pass and give way to better, brighter days.
Go HERE to stream Dark Times.