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Cruise Beat Album

by DJ Tobzy Imole Giwa

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about

DJ Tobzy Imole Giwa - Cruise Beat Album

Bubbling up from Lagos's wildest fringes, a frenetic new sound is dominating Nigerian TikTok. Known as freebeat or cruise, it's a chaotic assemblage of afrobeats, gqom, amapiano, techno and baile funk that drops logical coherence in favor of virtuoso DJ trickery and pure adrenaline. Right now the scene is in its infancy, but a handful of producers and DJs are spreading the music across West Africa, assisted by dancers on TikTok and Femi Kuti's legendary art center New Afrika Shrine, which has become the genre's grassroots base. And of all the talented beatmakers operating on the cruise scene right now, nobody's doing it quite like 21-year-old DJ Tobzy Imole Giwa.

Already notorious for his stream of consciousness blends that cut pitch-bent airhorns and radio drops over breakneck syncopated beats and AutoTuned Afrobeats hooks, Tobzy started his journey in 2020 after downloading a DJ app on his phone and obsessively studying DJ competitions on YouTube. "Cruise Beat Album" is his full-length debut, and showcases the urgent West African sound, immediately hitting a high gear on opening track 'Fela 2 - Awon Omo Ope Mi' as oily vocal melodies crash over robotic shoutouts, and a bass-heavy Durban-inspired beat winds underneath. Rubbery synths bash against subtly emphatic percussive ticks, but it's the vocals - somewhere between Afrobeats' sugary hooks and US trap's narcotic spirals - that lift Tobzy's productions to the clouds.

'CRUISE BEAT' is one of the record's most self-explanatory tracks, a ruff-edged statement of intent that duct tapes bird call samples, baile style FX-covered DJ tags, vocal stutters and trance synths to a collapsing uptempo rhythmic template that's somewhere between DJ Lag and DJ Diaki. The unmistakable fingerprints of amapiano are evident on 'Ali Go to School Dance Version', that subdues the beat but amplifies that all-important log drum roll, cutting it nervously between frenetic pianos and shoutouts. 'WHERE'S UR BUNKER BEAT' meanwhile disrupts deafening ritual synth blasts with ballroom-influenced crashes and euphoric vocal snatches.

All these elements lead up to the album's most prodigious display, the half-hour 'TikTok wreckage mix' that truly shows off Tobzy's skill and the kinetic power of the cruise genre. Led with lysergic airhorns, high-octane beats and earworm Afrobeats vocal loops, it's an unforgettably anxious blend of styles that's somehow held together by Tobzy's frenetic DJ style. There's little else like this out there right now - hard, fast Nigerian rave music that's as idiosyncratic as it is addicting.

credits

released September 7, 2022

Artwork by Moroto Hvy Ind
Mastered By Declared Sound
Special Thanks to Christian Askin

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Nyege Nyege Tapes Kampala, Uganda

Nyege Nyege Tapes is a Kampala based label exploring, producing and releasing outsider music from around the region and beyond.

We fulfill orders twice weekly, so most items will be shipped out within 3-5 days of your order being placed, with tracking provided automatically. We ship all records in whiplash mailers with extra cardboard protection.

For bookings email tapes@nyegenyege.com
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