The legendary Awilo Longomba
While scrolling on Facebook today, I came across a video posted by Mr P, the Peter from the defunct PSquare musical group. The video was a behind-the-scenes clip from when they were recording Enemy Solo in 2015. I couldn’t stop reminiscing about how the song was a massive hit when it was released in 2017.
Funny enough, I always thought PSquare owned the song until today when I googled it and discovered that Awilo Logomba actually owns it and only featured PSquare on the Enemy Solo album. Although the song is now 11 years old, anytime it comes on, those of us who knew it back then still appreciate the level of craft that went into making it such a hit.
Well, if you're a Nigerian and haven’t heard of this song, it’s obvious you weren’t, and still aren’t, into Afrobeats. Come on, forget about the current 'booms' of Davido, Wizkid, and Burna Boy; PSquare was once ahead of all of them. In fact, you can’t talk about African music in general without mentioning the Congolese star, Awilo Logomba.
Another song I would like to talk about is Esopi Yo, where Awilo Logomba featured Tiwa Savage. Honestly, this is my first time hearing about the song because it wasn’t much of a hit. It was released about 8 years ago as of the time of writing this, which shows that Awilo Logomba had already stepped back from the music scene compared to how active he was during his prime.
Then here comes Kala, a song by D’banj featuring Awilo Logomba. Not a lot of people know about this track. I’m among the few who do, mainly because D’banj is one of my favorites in the music industry. The song appeared as one of the tracks on The Entertainer: The Sequel album released two years ago. Oh yes, I was very much aware when it dropped.