Toyé and his Wahala In Paradise 

By Chinonso Ihekire

IT’s a hectic midday in Lagos, and the fountain of inconveniences pouring over Nigeria’s populace hangs in the air. The entire country is thrown into another seasonal darkness, with multiple electricity grid failures, and towering living costs have affected quality of life. It’s exactly the type of scenario referred to by many as a crisis. 

And while it’s still a somewhat distant reality for Nigerians abroad, it’s exactly those crisis points being faced by young people like him that enshrines Toyé’s latest project, Wahala In Paradise, the eight-tracker where the Nigerian-American Alternative singer unfurls his most tedious early adulthood experiences, including migrating back to Lagos.  

The record houses a distinct feel of Alternative Pop and RnB, with Toyé’s velvety tone and poetic lyricism shining on every track. From the synthesizer-heavy duet with Cruel Santino, “Faaji Jackson”, to the somber-groove, “Quarter Life Crisis”, Toyé tows a very intimate, delicate and cathartic path to expressing his talent. “This project is a collection of experiences that I’ve had, just like a diary, essentially, stamping each moment that I felt within the last two years,” he tells NetNG. 

This rapid electronic-focused sonic shift is Toyé’s present stop in his career odyssey. In the Santino-assisted duet, for example, he believes “the music shows the headspace, and reflects that the people are ready for something different,” noting that he and Santino were “just experimenting and having fun with the music, in a mental state where it’s not so calculated.” 

On Wahala In Paradise, Toyé’s songwriting equally comes under the spotlight. Each track tells a story about triumph, tribulations and tensions, mirroring his feelings with heavy euphemism. His writing wits have helped him in recent times, such as co-writing a song for Davido, which later turned out to be “Shopping Spree” featuring Chris Brown and Young Thug. He also wrote songs for Spinall, all of this happening within the last two years. It’s safe to say, he’s racing to become among the front row of Afrobeats’ most talented lyricists. 

He reflects on writing “Shopping Spree”, explaining that himself “…and Davido have our own relationship. But at the time, I just wanted to try something different. So he was working on his album. Then I showed him the song. And then he recorded it, and that’s how, a week later, Chris Brown and Young Thug are on the record. Sometimes, there’s always that divine thing that happens when you’re doing what you’re supposed to do, or when you’ve done exactly what you’re supposed to do.”

Despite drawing his biggest music influences from Afrobeats’ bestsellers Wizkid, Davido and Burna Boy, living abroad did present a threat to his music, especially in terms of style and content, but he prevailed through the help of local cinema and friends that helped him keep in touch with his roots. “I still watch lots of Yoruba movies. Everything around me was still Nigerian, but it’s just the environment that was American.”

He describes his creative process as typically unpredictable, but always laser-focused on a story. “ If you listen enough, you can hear a story going on,” he says. And when he isn’t making music, he’s gathering ideas from living life itself, and for him that entails “TV shows and movies. I’ve started getting back into video games. I like streaming. I like playing basketball. I like sports. You know, I go to the gym to clear my head too.” 

While Wahala In Paradise is perceived as a prelude to a larger body of work, Toyé prefers to take his time before putting out another body of work, teasing the forthcoming tape as “a body of work that shows life after a crisis, basically what I am experiencing right now. So, I want to be here in a minute.” 

For him, the music, foremost, is a love letter to his inner child. It’s his vision to continue making music that’s relatable, enjoyable, but most importantly “My vision is looking back at what I want. I’m just trying to appease my 10-year-old self. Everything I do, it’s just to appease that version of myself.”