Faze has earned himself a name in the Nigerian music industry as one of the most sold Nigerian artists of all time with his first album 'Faze Alone' pushing out over one million copies while his sophomore 'Independent' distributed over one million copies before the release date for the album. Till date it has scored 3 million copies making it one of the most successful albums of 2007 and in Nigerian music history. His third effort 'Originality' went platinum in its first month of release.
Faze is still known to have hit the highest vocal note by any Nigerian contemporary superstar till date. He also holds the record of being the first Nigerian artist of all-time with three platinum albums consecutively, especially after the commercial flop of top artist Tu Face's third album 'Unstopppable', due to lack of proper promotion. Faze, a multi-award winning Afro-Beat sensation, is also one of Nigeria's richest artists earning hundreds of thousands of Dollars yearly. [2] Some of his collaborations include recorded songs with international artists Wyclef, and Naughty by Nature
Innocent Ujah Idibia (born in Jos, Plateau State) best known as Tuface IdibiaNigerian singer-songwriter, actor and record producer. He was a member of the defunct R&B/hip hop group Plantashun Boyz and is currently one of the most popular artistes on the African music scene.
Idibia hails from Okpokwu local government area and from the Idoma ethnic group in the southern part of Benue State, in central Nigeria.[2] He attended Mount Saint Gabriel's Secondary School in Makurdi, Benue State. He schooled briefly in the Institute of Management & Technology, IMT, Enugu, one of the country's foremost higher institute of learning where he did his preliminary National Diploma course in Business Administration. Though, he did not finish but would hone his skills in music by performing in shows and parties organised by the IMT and some other schools like Enugu State University of Science & Technology, Enugu (ESUT) and University of Nigeria Enugu Campus (UNEC).
His major breakthrough in the IMT was composing and singing the jingles in the famous radio show GB Fan Club in Enugu State Broadcasting Services (ESBS) in 1996. He then relocated to Lagos and joined up with his ex-IMT and ex-Mount Saint Gabriel's mate BlackFace to form Plantashun Boyz.[3] He started calling himself "2Face" in 1996. "The name to me just refers to the outside and inside: when you first see me you see the outside but when you get to know me, you see the inside," he said in an interview with the BBC.
His award winning hit track "African Queen" was used as the sound track of the 2006 comedy film, Phat Girlz.[4] This made him even more recognised internationally.
The Plantashun Boyz came together briefly in 2007 to record an album which they titled 'Plan B'.[5]
He also released a promotion album in 2008 which has spawned a hit, "Enter the Place", which was written by Churks though one of his least successful hits ever, did well in some charts. The promo CD is said to have faced distribution and sales problems, going unnoticed in some areas of the country. It has led to the shift of the release date of the album from 2008 to 2009 instead of the proposed release date announced in 2007. Tuface recently released two lead off singles from the international version of his Unstoppable album and is the first Nigerian artist to have an appropriately priced international album.[6] He is also reported to have recorded a single with Mary J. Blige[7]
In 2010 with his Unstoppable Album(The Intl. Edition) he won 2 awards at the 2010 SMVA, He also won the Channel O Most Gifted Western African and the MTV African Music Awards (Best Male and Artist of the year) making him the most successful pop singer in Africa. He is the lead vocalist of the Sony All African 08 Project alongside 7 other stars across Africa recording their first singles with R.Kelly and Prince Lee titled "Hands Across The World". He was also known for his narrow escapes from death, he had close shave with death three times, at different locations and times, including gun shots.
Aside from running his own record label known as Hypertek after leaving Kennis Music, the artist has established the Tuface Idibia Foundation, which is into charity. In December 2010, the foundation collaborated with the Hands Project International for an Aids charity dinner. His show held at the expo centre was the best of its kind, as it featured all the notable Nigerian artists, particularly Dbanj, P-Square and Banky W.
