Lagos — Phizbarz is only 23 but hopes to become the next Nigerian Afro-pop star to be famous across Africa — and to get himself known and earn a living, he’s using his mobile phone. The young performer from the country’s commercial and entertainment capital, Lagos, floods social networking sites Twitter, Facebook and Instagram with clips of his music. Sometimes he appears as a baseball-capped rapper surrounded by gyrating, scantily clad dancers; sometimes as a sheikh in a pristine white dishdasha, dripping with gold. "If you want to be someone, you have to show off," he tells AFP, from behind the wheel of a red Mercedes he borrowed from his manager. In all, Phizbarz has composed about 100 songs but has never produced an album. Instead, his creations are converted into ringtones by phone companies, who sell them individually and pay him and his label 60% of the profits. Phizbarz himself earns about 50,000 naira ($164) a month, which he considers a "decent" wage. In Nigeria, performin...
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