Sarz and Lojay’s ‘LV N ATTN’ chronicles love with blues and lamba [Pulse EP Review]

On June 3, 2021, Nigerian singer and Sony Music artist, Lojay made the news for losing his mind after realizing that Grammy-winning superstar, Wizkid would feature on his sophomore EP, ‘LV N ATTN’ - a follow-up to his 2017 EP, ‘Midnight Vibes.’

Immediately, his expression of shock and awe became ‘memeable’ on Twitter NG, just before Buhari and his cronies decided to imitate authoritarian China. In the same vein, Lojay became Sarz’s third 'project' in as many years after Flash and Wurld.

To each of them, there is a common denominator; quality vocalists adept at Afro-pop with R&B leaning and a powerful falsetto. While Lojay is more Flash than Wurld, he is also like a bridge between both artists stylistically, with occasional hints of Wizkid and Kizz Daniel’s mastery of adlibs.

I Like Girls With Trobul, Sarz’s project with Wurld will go down as a classic in a few years, with its blend of R&B and Pop music.

While Wurld took most of the shine on that EP, Sarz’s production shares the spectacle with Lojay’s masterful blend of falsetto-backed love chronicles with a soul of relatable lamba.

At his best, Lojay is a purveyor of sex and vulgarity across all five tracks. While his goal is essentially to preach love, his vehicle is sex. It almost like he sees love, romance and sex as one complex entity.

On ‘Monalisa’ he sings, “Girl I’ll be foolish if I don’t let you indulge me, your lips like poison, Ibadi e ta bi rodo, you’re in denial, I’ll show you I love you… Will you hold me down in the corner corner...”

Across five tracks, he adorns the female body like a temple and savours every sexual experience with delicately crafted lyrics, albeit with a lot of profanity. He might sing about ass cheeks, panties, coca bodies and park inside backs, but around each of those moments is a moment that preaches love.

While Lojay still feels like an artist on the final leg of his artist development, he looks like an inevitable star in the clime, system and setting. But already, he has the perfect stylistic blend of effortlessly switching between Yoruba, Pidgin and English with hints of Patois.

As proved by ‘Tonongo,’ he is also a masterful songwriter who is capable of finding impossible pockets with quotables and lamba. He is also adept at creating beautiful rhyme schemes that make logical sense albeit with a delightful use of adlibs. This is proved by the arguable best verse on this EP; verse two on ‘Park O X3.’

With the way songs are titled on the EP, Lojay feels like someone who records a lot. Lojay might feel like the regular Afro-pop artist but he’s not. He is an R&B artist who projects through elements of Afro-pop. His music is different and the delicate detail with which he discusses sex isn’t that of the regular Afro-pop act.

It almost feels like he infuses Afro-pop elements because he’s a Nigerian act, regurgitating things he’s ingested. But if Lojay was American, he would probably make Bryson Tiller or 6lack-esque music and it’s not about his voice type or vocal range.

Most people who listened to ‘Tonongo’ before this EP dropped might find it hard to enjoy other tracks at first listen, but it will grow on them when their mind reconciles Lojay’s influences, Sarz’s strong Caribbean influences and the music for what it is - especially after a number of listens.

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

6.9 - Victory