REVIEW: Stonebwoy’s “Anloga Junction” connects his root to the world with diversity

Genre: Afrobeats, afro-dancehall, hip-hop, reggae, folk

No. of Tracks: 15

Label: Burniton Music Group (BMG)

Having starved his core fan army, Bhim Nation, for over two years – probably due to the expiration of his contract with Zylofon Music – Stonebwoy compiles joints which connect his root to the rest of the world but with diversity at the helm of his strategy.

The last album he released was “Epistles of Mama”, an acclaimed, enduring two-in-one collection which features prominent local and international stars. The 2017 album which has 24 tracks set the tone for his attempt to crossover.

But his freshest project seeks to seal his place on the international market, and to achieve this, he puts together an awe-inspiring, diversified content which points directly to his root.

The Anloga-native seems convinced that language bears some limitations in music contrary to the popular assertion that language doesn’t play a role in how music hits the heterogeneous audience. For many, ‘music is an international language’, but for Stonebwoy, achieving success in music sales, streaming and reaching a different audience, hang heavily on language.

Of course, he defended this claim in February this year, saying: “The language one is comfortable in is one thing.... how far you can go with the music seldom depends on the language. Celine Dion is French by origin. She’s had French albums, but had to learn English so to sing in English.. she still one of the best and her profile is Tall same way... Music itself is a language on its own.. singing in your most comfortable language it’s VERY good!! But doesn’t determine success!![sic]”.

This incarnated on his latest album.

The intro (“Le Gba Gbe”, to wit “Alive” in his mother tongue) – a soft afro-pop with a pinch of highlife – explores Stonebwoy’s impediments in life as he hits the high note, “let me have peace/let me speak”. The lyrics are made up of 95 per cent of his native Anglo language and the rest is in the English language.

Despite his impediments, he finds refuge in hope on “Journey”, “Critical” featuring Zlatan and “Motion” featuring Jahmiel; love on “Nominate” featuring Keri Hilson, “African Idol”, “Ever Lasting”, “Only Love”, “Nkuto” featuring Kojo Antwi, “Understand” featuring Alicai Harley and “Black Madonna” featuring Diamond Platnumz; and self-satisfaction on “Bow Down” featuring Nasty C and “Good Morning” featuring Chivv and Spanker.

Throughout the album, he traverses sounds that would perfectly resonate with his targeted audience. Like “Idol”, he adopts Ewe folk music to give it some rich cultural vibes which will resonate with his natives. On “Critical”, he adopts afrobeats style of Nigeria and on “Black Madonna”, he embraces the Tanzanian afrobeats style while the bass-laced hip-hop record “Bow Down” connects with Africans, Americans and Europeans. The rest is for Jamaicans.

There’s a heavy presence of Ewe language on most of the records – which is the agenda of the album — even though it features multiple languages including Twi, Pidgin, Patois and English. He believes the chances of good music getting the necessary mileage can be blocked by language. And to break this curse, he puts together diversified joints that connect his root to the rest of the world.

RATING

3 out of 5

Stream the full album below.