With 'All You Need,' DJ Tunez and J. Anthoni deliver one of the finest Nigerian projects of Q1 2021 [Pulse EP Review]

J. Anthoni sounds like a love-child of Victony and Joeboy who emerged from a Trapsoul environment. Across the seven tracks that form ‘All You Need,’ his production is a good mix of Popcaan, Drake and Wizkid. Ergo, the music is a mix of Bashment, R&B, Afro-Fusion, Afro-swing and Afro-pop.

His best trait is his razor sharp vocals; a bridge between lyric tenor and light falsetto. Aided by DJ Tunez’s A&R skills and experience as an experienced music maker, the beats selected for ‘All You Need’ are tailored to Anthoni’s style.

Sometimes he weaves with intentional lyrics, supported by hums and adlibs. But mostly, he is lyrically astute in his delivery of sex, love, life-based and party topics.

Even with slightly uptempo rhythms like ‘One More Ting’ and ‘Addicted,’ ‘All You Need is mostly tailored to arousing only a type of mood, but it can soundtrack any mindstate. Ironically, a common denominator across the album, regardless of what Anthoni discusses is alcohol, a known stimulant.

The central theme on ‘All You Need’ is a/the female figure. It is a love story that disseminates information through sex, love, infatuation [Addicted], affection [Mine] and even lust [Flossy Whine].

Despite the one-directional male gaze from which this EP significantly came, ‘One More Ting’ is significantly created from the woman’s perspective. She doesn’t want sex or lust, she wants a recurring thing - like a relationship.

The Drake effect forms the basis of ‘Every Weekend,’ which ends the love story on a positive note. Anthoni admits his imperfection and his openness to love.

A strong achievement of the EP is its track listing/sequence. For DJ Tunez, it’s a second collaborative EP in under six months. The last one was an impressive joint work with D3AN.

In the last one year, we have seen EP executions like this, to introduce new cats into the market without any hassle. The closest experiment was EU4RIA by Mut4y and Elhi.

Ratings: /10

• 0-1.9: Flop

• 2.0-3.9: Near fall

• 4.0-5.9: Average

• 6.0-7.9: Victory

• 8.0-10: Champion

Pulse Rating: /10

Album Sequencing: 1.8/2

Songwriting, Themes and Delivery: 1.7/2

Production: 1.6/2

Enjoyability and Satisfaction: 1.5/2

Execution: 1.5/2