God Is Loving: Seyi Afeni’s Affluence In Composition

By Emmanuel Daraloye

The brilliant compositions of Seyi Afeni, from his odyssey Set Me Free (2021) EP and his most recent EP God Is Loving (2022), reflect his confluence of musical influences, as well as a clear-cut artistry that emphasize harmony in each arrangement.

The risky effort of combining diverse genres like Jazz, Pop, RnB and Hip Hop into an 11-tracker Christian gospel tape might have been the EP’s undoing, but Afeni manages to affirm his talent with a seamless glide in each fusion. He curates the record with a mix of slow-burn and dance-leaning grooves.

His preference in lo-fi RnB and Pop fusions, often driven by percussive rhythm show in songs like the EP’s title track, “God Is loving”, as well as other songs like “Acrimony”, “I Love You”, “Cheap Ponzi”, and “Don’t Go”. The songs all start their egg-in-spoon race towards a general cohesiveness as Afeni tucks in every singing portion of the song into harmonies with blank verse lyricism, and they all end up at the finish line just in the nick of time. It’s easy to be caught in the groove of the song without missing key themes, because of easy recall and arrangement.

Elsewhere on the EP, Afeni rejigs the pace with mostly log drums and highlife guitars, especially in tracks like “Makose”, a Jazz-driven pop jam riddled with highlife guitars, “Praise You Lord”, a contemporary Naija-style Christian Worship jam, and “Shagilo”, and “Can’t Pretend”, two other pop jams where the percussive and piano progressions keep the song alive till its last second.

Afeni’s preference of chill lo-fi piano and percussive progressions help his vocal texture – a bit gritty, but cheery – simmer through the record with delight. Most of the songs also vamp out with solo progressions, creating an easier playback that boosts the tape’s replay value.

With all the songs produced by two people, Oladosu Pamilerin, and Chibueze Chikezie, Afeni’s sonic direction achieves an extra layer of harmony, as each slow-burn jam compliments its following up-tempo counterpart on the song’s tracklist. The EP ends with a calming sonata in “Don’t Let Me Go”, where Afeni’s prayerful verses hang dripping like freshly washed clothes.

Cohesively, the EP flourishes for its unity in diversity, in terms of sonic composition and creative direction, and the reassuring feel of its messaging with balanced audio engineering make for an experience that might best sound like a sales pitch. However, a good work deserves its acclaim, and save for Afeni’s vocal flaws the entire playlist is a masterpiece in its own right. A laudable addition to the library of contemporary Nigerian Christian gospel records!

Seyi Afeni debuted, in 2021, with a 4-tracker extended play, Set Me Free, and a year later he released an 11-tracker album that captivates with Afro fusion Christian gospel music. He’s cited global talents like Kirk Franklin, among others, as some of his muses. He’s also mentioned that he hopes to create a collection of songs that would impact the body of Christ.