With the current music trend, it is no longer a mishap when sound crossbreeds. Genres have always leveraged on each other to score a song. In the Nigeria Gospel space, the practitioners have leverage on sounds like Apala, Juju and Highlife to score gospel hits. When this happens,there is always the minor uproar from some culture purists who view things in a certain way, and feel that it should be done in a particular way.
Elijah Daniel Omo Majemu seems to have taken the experiment arch on his tune “Watimagbo,” the song featuring fellow gospel singer Mike Abdul and Testimony Jaga. It’s a crossbreed between gospel and Fuji music. The Yoruba centric sound formed the foundation for this song. From that title , the flow and cadence of the song, it was noticeable that Elijah Daniel Omo Majemu was all out to explore, win over a new demographic to Christdoom.
Gangan, a Yoruba type of drum remains the most dominant instrument in the production, it carries the production while allowing the guitars, kicks and snare to do the necessary work. Even with two features on this song, Elijah Daniel Omo Majemu shows the fans while he is regarded as one of the best performers on stage in the gospel world. Watimagbo, as used in this context means “you would hear,” it’s a slang commonly used by Nigerians, finding its way into the gospel music vocabulary shows the otherness of gospel music.
This song can effortlessly compete with any gospel song. This variant of Fuji appeals more to the street urchins, thugs and people on the street. Like they say, the gospel of God is for everyone, Elijah Daniel took this word to the latter. He uses his music to call on others to his fold. Join me to praise the Lord, he seems to sing.
On Elijah’s verse, he sings about the turnaround he has encountered since Jesus Christ came into his life, the occasional repeat of Watimagbo is to call people and inform them about the blessing he has experienced. He sang in Yoruba and English Language with the piano chord dancing around the instrumental. The tale end of the song finds Elijah calling on people to the dance floor to praise God.
Mike Abdul and Testimony Jaga continued from where Elijah Daniel Omo Majemu stopped, the duo singing about God’s love and blessing,while at the same time urging the listeners to join them.
Fuji collides with the Gospel on Elijah Daniel’s “Watimagbo,” it is a beautiful way of experimenting with sound. The collaboration seamlessly syncs with all the trio bringing in their elevated pen to play as they sing and sometimes, gyrate.
“Watimagbo,” is a classy way of executing an experimentation, for once, we have an artiste that is not scared to try his hand on new things, and doesn’t care so much about culture purists. At the end of the day, it is a good one for the industry, I hope other artiste take a cue from this and replicate these templates.
