In April, Sarz ,one of the most sought-after music producers in Nigeria, announced the release of Tonongo, a record which he produced for r&b/soul singer Lojay, on his Instagram page.
The song, accompanied by a dim-lit video shot at a Metallic studio in London, enjoyed wide acceptance and the ball was set rolling for the release of the collaborative project between Sarz and Lojay.
Lojay, a little known artist, got the opportunity to work with Sarz last year in the heat of the pandemic. A one-track session stretched into a three month boot(h) camp in Lagos. At the end of this session, an EP titled LV N ATTN was made.
According to Sarz, Lojay’s style of music is afrobeats with a twist; the twist is in the manner Lojay creatively weaves his songs, sequentially arranges his bars, and the myriad of ways he churns out “Lamba” in this 14 minute long sonic trip.
The lead single (Tonongo) was inspired by a good time Lojay had at a strip club in Lagos State. It lays the scaffolding for the other four tracks as Lojay swiftly moves from sex talk to love talk and vice versa.
Sarz scarcely needs any introduction in the Nigerian music industry. This EP is his third collaboration with as many artistes. Flash and Wurld were the first and second respectively, Sarz has never been scared to try his hand on the unknown artist and he posseses the magical touch to bring their greatness to bear on records. On LV N ATTN, Sarz’s slick production becomes the victim of Lojay’s sonic dexterity. LV N ATTN runs heavy on drum and bassline with Lojay deploying his falsetto vocals to the tracks.
Nigeria superstar Wizkid got a late spot on the title track, but before he came through, Lojay already had the track dripping sonic blood.
His best moment would be the break on 1:35–this might be the potential hit track for this project. Featuring one of your idols on a track and giving a good account of yourself are two different ball games; Lojay ticks both boxes.
‘Panty’, the fourth track, is a tribute to dancehall with a splash of afro-fusion, and this where the attention part in the title gets treated, the story is relatable but it’s a tad hit confusing for the layman; love or lust?
Choices.
The Amapiano wave gets sampled on the last track, ‘Monalisa’, the lines run on platitude but party rockers may care less, because all said it is a great addition to the Amapiano playlist .
For an artist whose previous records dwellef on genre exploration, it’s safe to say that Lojay might have finally found his forte( r&b/soul) as his age-long sonic experimentation comes to maturity on this EP .
LV N ATTN is brief but given the short attention span of the fans, the brevity sounds like the right thing to do.
