Basketmouth on His Musical Adventures on ‘Horoscopes’

Iyke Bede

Although he has attained fame as a comedian, Bright ‘Basketmouth’ Okpocha constantly revisits his musical past that dates back to his drummer boy days in the church. His first attempt at making a music album saw him pool numerous Nigerian artists for ‘Yabasi’, a soundtrack album to ‘Papa Benji’ series in 2020.

The comedian has followed it up with the soundtrack album ‘Horoscopes’ to the upcoming full-length feature film ‘Scorpio’.

“The title of the album was supposed to be ‘The Scorpio Effect’; however, I felt like it was me boxing myself into just one zodiac sign, and that didn’t reflect the range of songs on the album. The movie is already titled ‘Scorpio’, so why not title the album ‘Horoscopes’? What we did with the album was that we created nine stories inspired by the film and made them into songs.”

Juxtaposing the sonic textures of his current and former release, the comedian said he aimed for diversity in sounds.

“‘Papa Benji’ is centred on an Igbo man. This meant that the album had to be mostly highlife music, as with the case of ‘Yabasi’. But with ‘Horoscopes’, it’s not a highlife album, it is more like a fusion of different genres with afrobeats across all nine tracks. We created something very special.”

Spanning 14 months of studio production, the idea behind ‘Horoscopes’ was born about two years ago, coinciding with the period when songs off of ‘Yabasi’ started gaining airplay.

“We never stopped recording after ‘Yabasi’, we’ve been recording since two years ago, since 2020. The first track that we created was ‘Money’, the first person to record a verse was Oxlade. He made it in the car where we were shooting the ‘Myself’ music video.”

The creative process for ‘Horoscopes’ was intentional, Basketmouth notes, and this drive is reflected in the selection of artists’ musical techniques and how it compliments the instrumentals while allowing them creative freedom that was guided by story ideas pitched by Basketmouth. Duktor Sett assumed the role of producer, solely steering the production wheels of the album.

Whether it was the time 2Baba requested for a recording session in the wee hours of the morning, or when a meeting with Peruzzi led to creating 16 demos at a go, to when Illbliss relied on a pen and paper to pen thoughts upon listening to the instrumental that he connected with, the album-making process, according to Basketmouth was an experience outside what he is used to in creating comedy.

“Music gives me a different kind of feeling because we have to be in a studio to create, prepare, work on the mix, do all the corrections and make sure it is neat, and then we release it. with comedy, it is different,” he said.

Having invested so much time into the production of ‘Horoscopes’, Basketmouth says he is confident that music lovers would like his sophomore effort, calling it ‘my best work’.

Other artists featured on the album include MI, Johnny Drille, Simi, Falz, and Reekado Banks.