Nigerian born, DMV based artist Mannywellz released his long awaited album, SoulFro earlier this year in January. SoulFro is a seven track album, that only takes twenty one minutes of your day. Each song tells a different story from the perspective of a young man and his relationship with God. I am thankful that Mannywellz took the time out of his busy schedule to break down his album with me.
J: You released your album SoulFro in January, a little over a two months ago, how do you feel now that Soulfro has been on the minds, phones, and ears of people?
- I’m glad that my team aren’t the only ones listening to the project anymore haha, we worked on SoulFro back in 2016 so being able to release it was awesome!
What is SoulFro?
- SoulFro is music from the soul with afro elements. It’s a fusion of multiple genres with a sprinkle of afro in it. More so a style and not a genre.
Where is your album streaming the most?
- Nigerians are really eating up SoulFro which is great. Huge blessing to see that it’s being accepted by those at home.
Wrong Place is a cool song that touches on many contemporary issues within our generation, the notion that good girls/guys are hard to find. In the song Manny touches on his own past, telling us that he isn’t perfect and that he has also broken hearts before.
- Wrong place wasn’t created to call people trash, I created the song because I wanted to let people know that good people in general still exist and that folks are just looking in the wrong place for whatever it is they’re in search of. A conversation with a friends inspired the song and I decided to write a song based of off the conversation.
These first two songs have inklings of relationship issues. Are the issues with people or does it extend into your connection with Christ as well?
- All the songs are conversations and/or relationships, with God/christ and the devil. I wasn’t talking about a lady in any of the songs on the project lol. I wrote the songs on the project to make people think it was, gotta have some fun while creating sometimes.
Is an instant bop, Manny infuses his tribal Yoruba language in the song to give it an edge over contemporary pop songs. The song is about just living life to the fullest, being free, and finding love.
- I was speaking Yoruba in the song Yeoo. We is referring to the confused kids that just want to live a good happy life. The song is written from the perspective of a confused kid that wants a peaceful life but he’s being told that if you have money and wealth everything would be fine. He looks all around him and sees people killing for money and fame.
What does the hand of God feel like according to you?
- The hand of God to me is undeserving grace. Receiving more than what you’ve asked for, answers to your prayers instantly, God coming through when all hope is lost. The moon, the stars, the sun, human beings. To me that’s the hand of God. God is definitely real. There are so many things that happen to not just me but people around me that are beyond our control, those things show that there’s something or someone up there working!
Could you explain the meaning of Watermelon?
- Watermelon is a song of betrayal. In the song I connected two situations/stories together with food. Something my family went through when I was younger with the story of the last supper in the bible. “We gon ride with you as long as you” is saying people are only with you when things are good, but when things go back they’re out!
Could you explain No I don’t?
- No I don’t is about Man and God. We only hit him up when we need him but don’t hit up to converse or check up on him. Not saying he needs it but the relationship between man and God is very one sided.
You mention that you want a natural high on this track is that high dancing? If so, could you explain the importance of dancing to you?
- I wrote this song because I wanted to end the project on a happier, carefree note. Dancing to a lot of people is therapeutic because for that one moment you get to forget about everything. Especially if you’re dancing without being influenced by any substance (drugs, weed, alcohol) it’s a great feeling. That’s what I mean by natural high.
The Alt Black 
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