In the latest episode of CNN’s African Voices, Larry Madowo sits down with Nigerian Afrobeats artist Joeboy. His sound combines romance, emotional vulnerability and pop sensibilities, and he calls himself the number one ‘lover boy’ of Afrobeats.
Joeboy tells Madowo why he describes his ‘lover boy’ status as part of an endangered species, “Right now, in the media space for my age range, the Gen Z, millennials, everybody just wants to be toxic […] it’s kind of cool to not be vulnerable when it comes to issues of love […]. So, I feel like I represent those people that still push that. No matter the kind of music you make, there’ll always be people that connect to it, so there are the lovers out there.”
Joeboy broke out in 2019 when he signed on to Mr. Eazi’s Empawa. He reminisces on how this came about, “I got signed to Mr. Eazi’s through social media. A friend of mine, he called me, suggested I make a cover of The Shape of You. At that point in time, we didn’t have any access to the industry, and we believed that the best way for us to be seen or heard was to do covers of popular songs. So, I posted it on IG [Instagram] and it went viral in Lagos. A friend of mine tried to send the video to a bunch of established artists and Mr. Eazi was one of them. He saw it and he liked it and that’s how we started talking and he introduced me to Ikenna and I started making music.”
In the time since, Joeboy established his own record label, Young Legend. He tells Madowo the thinking behind starting his own thing, “Being signed to Mr. Eazi, he’s a very savvy businessman, and I got to understand a lot of things that happen behind businesses. Even before I got famous, I already knew how the business worked to an extent […]. I noticed that for a lot of new artists at that point in time, it wasn’t easy to understand what was going on behind the scenes because there wasn’t anybody guiding them on that path. The business side was kind of getting neglected. But for me, I was privileged to have an insight into the business.”
Some previous Nigerian artists Madowo has interviewed expressed a dislike for the umbrella term ‘Afrobeats’ to categorise the music they make. Joeboy shares his opinion on this, “It has become more than just a sound, it has become a culture. But one thing I would like to clarify is that not every artist under the Afrobeat umbrella or every artist from Nigeria makes only Afrobeats. There are artists that make R&B, artists that make country, artists that actually rap and make pop music and all of that. So, I’d say it’s a very large umbrella and I understand why there’d be misconceptions or controversy surrounding the name.”
Joeboy and Madowo visit the University of Lagos, where Joeboy’s story took root. He expresses how everyone, no matter where they’re from, has the power to make their own future, “It’s just a testament to the power of the word because it was not like I had a defined plan of where I wanted to go. I just knew that I had to make do with whatever I had. I just had to take a step forward, because it’s not like I knew anybody, like I had access to anybody. One thing I would say to anybody that has big dreams is: don’t be scared of taking that next step […]. You can’t see what’s down there until you walk towards there. So, it’s just about putting one step in front of the other and moving and just enjoying the journey.”
