New Telegraph

Joeboy: I Had A Creative Block While Recording My New Album

The highly anticipated sophomore album ‘Body & Soul’ by Joeboy, one of Afrobeat most prominent artists, is set to elevate the artist to new heights in the coming years. The music sensation in an interview shared the motivations behind the album. According to Joeboy, the album packs the best of both worlds as listeners will enjoy incredible love songs while also getting songs that speak on the issues in relationships. “It’s like the best of both worlds – there’s the love ideology there, [and] there’s the toxic love because at the end of the day, love is not just a bed of roses, there are battles and challenges that people in relationships have to go through. There’s this social media idea that love is perfect and white as snow, but that’s not it.

Love is war, basically, so I’ve come to understand that and the album doesn’t just touch on the positive aspects of love, it touches on the other aspects of love. Not just the good part.” Joeboy shared that during the album- making process, he suffered a creative block due to his overthinking the direction to follow. “As a mainstream artist, there’s a pressure that comes with trying to make the next hit record, and it brings a lot of undue and unnecessary pressure on yourself. I remember while I was working on the album I had a creative block, I was just thinking of too many factors and when you start putting in too many factors in regards to making music it slows down your creativity, which is what I’ve learned right now.”

He also revealed that he was able to shake off the block by following the advice of long- term collaborator E Kelly who admonished him to just make music from the heart. “I was speaking to one of my producers, E Kelly – he’s been working with me since the beginning of my career and [he was] like you know what, just make music without any forms of barriers or boundaries, just make music that comes out naturally. Don’t try to make it sound a certain type of way, make it like you’re enjoying yourself. At the end of the day, before the fame and the money, music was something I just loved doing, like I enjoyed doing, so I just really went back to that point.” Joeboy didn’t feature anybody on his debut but since then, he has featured on a handful of collaborations.

Joeboy shared that he choose to feature artists on ‘Body & Soul’ because he felt it was time to start working with the artists he loves and respect. “I’d say this point it was just necessary. With the first album I just really wanted people to connect to me directly – like ok, this is me, this is what I entail right now. The first album is the foundation of the music, so when people want to go back to the source, they know that this is the vibe and sound this person started from. I wanted it to be just me on that particular album so people can get the whole package of me at that point. Moving forward with this album it was just a matter of time because I’ve grown to learn working with different artists I really love and respect, so it was time to work with people, and the songs were beautiful.” The 15-track album was preceded by lead the singles ‘Alcohol’, ‘Contour’, ‘Body & Soul’, and ‘Duffel Bag’. The album has enjoyed critical acclaim as Pulse describes it as one of the best projects to drop in 2023.

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