On June 24th, Tigua released his debut project “This Is Lagos”. The ten-track work was launched with a phone call with a friend (“Lagos”), in which the aspiring artist talks about traveling to the thriving West African city to promote his music. The singer describes in detail the flight time, the plans with the management and his agent Bayo and, last but not least, the ladies. In “Uptown Lover”, the Jamaican-born artist, whose roots lie in the country where he grew up, sings about good love and character and compares the woman to the music.
My favorite tracks are “You” featuring Ladé because of the curious songwriting and the slow beat that invites listeners to feel the deep emotions he describes.
Have you ever felt like you were fighting an opponent in the scorching heat? My second selection, “No Beef,” is what I imagine those harrowing moments feel and sound like. Over Drill’s adrenaline-fueled uptempo production, Tigua sings about his guys possibly living on the dark side and harming people when needed. As the artist himself describes, they’re not kidding. Guest artist Pharaoh 47 sings on top of the song, making it sound like he’s preaching, about many blessings, needing someone to believe him, and revealing how to find him when needed. “No Beef” starts off like one of my favorite Pop Smoke songs.
Next up is “Niggy Bounce,” a fast-paced track in the style and rhythm of traditional Jamaican dancehall songs with toast.
Showing themselves gliding over the Nigerian-tinged Amapiano production popularized by artists like Asake and a few others, the artists sing about what they came to do and that is Faaji or partying as the title of the song suggests. “Jaiye” means “enjoying life; living life.” The featured artist, Rvenio, is a fresh French-speaking Ivorian-Togolese recording artist who makes Afropop music through an independent label, Legacy Record.
No one in the world could say they didn’t think of or “hear” Wizkid when my third favorite, “Expensive Sh!t,” kicked off. Nigeria’s up-and-coming artist – Tha Boy Myles – leads the way with his stellar performance of the song, named after the classic by Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti, which has over nine million streams on Spotify.
On the final track, “Dynamite (Tribute),” Tigua ends his varied work with notes on patience, the long road to the top, moments of weakness and mentioning his source of motivation. There is nothing better than having your parents as guides in life. I can identify with the emotionally charged, soulful song he wrote for his late father. It might make your eyes water.
