Agege, the Lagos suburb has always been associated with Nigerian music.
Long before Afrobeats, it was home to the late Kennery master, Orlandoh Owoh. Music producer, Kay Solo, responsible for Timaya’s classic album True Story and Klever Jay’s The Beginning debut had his studio in Oshodi (Agege Motor Road). Small Doctor began from Agege.
2021 brings a new artist from Agege called Punchline Amund. Like his name suggests, his songs are filled with hard-hitting punchlines, witticisms, clever wordplay, and lucid storytelling.
In 2018, Punchline Amund jumped on Cobham Asuquo’s single ‘One hit’ and his cover went viral leading to an invitation from the music producer. They made several songs together, one of which birthed the famous one-liner “Give me one hit song, let me blow like Punchline.”
Three years later, there has been a stream of songs(‘Hustle Oh’ ‘Celebrity Diva’, etc) from Punchline Amund but none has cracked the industry.
The artist’s five-track extended play, Posh Agege Boy was released on August 13, 2021.
Artists from Agege are known for singing in Yoruba and some Pidgin English. Punchline Amund brings his non-conformist style: he ditched Yoruba for English, exclusively.
‘Way’ featuring Cobhams Asuqo opens the EP and on this one, the ace producer/singer/songwriter flexes his vocal range on the hook while Amund compliments it with his question-laden first verse. It is a conversation between a frustrated underground artist and the Most High God. The last verse explores self-reproach: “All the setbacks I have been experiencing gat me thinking it’s my fault/I asked for one hit when I could have asked for more.”
‘Bambi Allah’, a corrupted version of “ban biya Allah” (give me, pay God) is a fast tempo song filled with prayers with the instrumentals hoisted on goje, drums, and synth.
On the humor-laden ‘Omo Agege’, Punchline explores the marrying up syndrome amongst females in Nigeria. The tail end of the song features a clip from a Nollywood actor whose most popular character is Lola Idije.
Artistes have always name checked Yahoo-yahoo boys in their songs. Punchline Amund detours with ‘If I Be Yahoo Boy’ on which he doles out nuggets on how to thrive as a yahoo-yahoo boy and evade being caught. If this was a lecture, it should have been titled How to Live Like a Yahoo Boy 101.
Punchline reveals the dark and stark reality of Agege’s denizens on ‘Hypemen’. Snapshots from his teenage years still come to him easily; how his mother exorcised the potential gangster in him.
On Punch Agege Boy, Punchline clinically illustrates Agege for the non-Agege resident. With Agege as a microcosm of the larger Nigerian society, all the stories can also be applied to Nigeria as a whole.
The EP doubles as Punchline Amund’s advice column, and the nuggets of a young OG. He brings his cerebral storytelling, age-long experiences on the street, and his witty delivery to bear on this project. He speaks his truth although the tracklisting could have been better curated to help with a sequential arrangement of the stories.
