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We talked to Nigeria's Gil Joe about his music and the rise of Afrobeat.
If you've yet to catch up on the exciting sounds of Afrobeat, you're in for a treat when you hear the music of Nigeria's most popular gospel Afrobeat artist, Gil Joe, whose "Issa No", "Nobody" and "Need Somebodi" are now getting some radio play. Afrobeat is a fusion of West African musical styles such as fuji music and highlife music with American funk, hip-hop and jazz influences. Alongside the mainstream's Afrobeat pioneers such as Fela Kuti, Manu Dibango and Sonny Okosun, Gil Joe, with a string of successful recordings in his Nigerian homeland, has brought the Gospel message to the genre. We spoke to Gil about his years in pioneering gospel Afrobeat.
RH: How long have you been making music?
Gil: "About six years now. I've always been a solo but music wasn't really always my first design. I really thought I was going to be a music producer because I started off with music producers, I was learning sound engineering alongside music production. There's a gospel artist from Nigeria called Frank Edwards, he listened to me and he loved the sound and then he sort of encouraged me to join his group at that time so I was riding on his platform for a while. I've been doing my own thing for three years."
RH: Has the church in Nigeria accepted your sound?
Gil: "Churches here encourage the more traditional gospel sound but the afrogospel/urban sound is considered too secular, even when the message is still Gospel. I think they have a problem with the beat. We try to let them know the beat has nothing to do with the content and, over the years, some churches have opened their doors to us."
RH: What about non-Christian audiences?
Gil: "Basically, non-Christians just want to vibe to good music, regardless of the content. A vast number of them have been supporting my music for a while. A lot of them ring me up telling me how they're listening to my music and it's changing their lives and how they got to know Jesus through my music. I believe that is because the sound is something they could identify with and it's not like the typical gospel sound. They start listening to the vibe because of the sound basically then they get to hear the content and they are blessed by the content."
RH: Tell me about the song "Need Somebodi", which we're playing on the radio.
Gil: "It was produced by one of my friends. He made the beat and then I heard it and I said, 'I love this beat; let me drop on it' and the recording sounded really nice."
RH: What's your latest release?
Gil: "I'm putting out a new single this Friday, it's titled 'Saviour', with a video."
RH: You've clearly got a passion to see people respond to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Is that what drives you to do this music?
Gil: "Definitely. Before I gave my life to Christ I wasn't really the typical gospel music fan. I liked it but it wasn't the kind of music that I vibed to daily. When I became a Christian and came into the circle, into the system, I loved the worship songs. They're beautiful, amazing. When you want to worship you have to go deep with the worship. But I discovered that during the day I don't really want to listen to worship songs. I want to listen to a nice, a good gospel content song with an upbeat sound. I discovered Lecrae and a couple of gospel guys doing the hip-hop thing and I was loving it. There were some guys doing the Afrobeat thing but it wasn't as great as I would have wanted it. It was doing amazingly but it wasn't doing it for me 100%. When I started making music I grew this passion for Afrobeat; I started playing mine and that was how it all started."
RH: The thing about Afrobeat, it's taking some of those rhythms and some of that urban vibe way beyond Africa. It's truly becoming an international music.
Gil: "Definitely. I really feel the secular guys are doing a lot in pushing the Afrobeat genre. They're putting a lot of work in. It's really good because more people are getting to know about the genre. I feel like it's the best timing because Afro gospel is also taking off. People are getting to know the genre so at the same time people are getting to know Christ through the genre."
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