“Nobody go fit to answer for you, so you yourself you better choose”

As part of To Name A Few, Brumeh Oghenekaro has challenged many of our conventions about what is capable or even possible from a Nigerian super group. Their singles, “Stay Over” and “Based” were both critical hits, earning them a loyal following and thrusting the band squarely in the centre of conversations about the future of Nigerian music. But while Golddrummachine, one half of To Name A Few already had a flourishing career as a solo artist with three instrumental albums and a handful of singles, Oghenekaro was still yet to put out a proper debut single. Well that changed over the weekend when he put out “White Collar Man”, a single he’d been working on for a few months.

As solo artist, Brum3h is an immersive storyteller, consumed with passing on his message as simply as possible. Over an instrumental that is dominated by the rhythm guitar, the singer’s signature instrument, and defies defining into any particular genre, Oghenekaro weaves a compelling story. Seun “Sleek” Omoniwa and George “TRXVBZ Adebowale, produce, adding the acoutrements that turn Brum3h’s strumming into a cohesive instrumental, complete with concert ready, swelling choral percussions. But the theme that Brum3h worries on his debut, is one that is universal to the millennial experience; finding your place in a society that pressures you to conform. Switching between pidgin and English, packing each note with an earnestness that is impossible to ignore, Brum3h channels our deepest fears and dispels them, urging that we put ourselves first for a change.

In time the inevitable comparisms with other alternative greats like Asa, Timi Dakolo, Ese Peters and Lindsey Abudei will come, but they will frankly be unnecessary. Brum3h is obviously his own artist, and will forge his own unique path.

Listen to “White Collar Man” here.

Listen to the hip-hop remix of TNAF’s “Based” featuring Barelyanyhook