Uprising Nigerian singer/songwriter and record producer Jasën Blu continues to tighten his grip on his status as the next custodian of Contemporary R&B/Soul in the country with the recent release of his debut body of work, "Road 2 Soulwave" EP, which contains strong odes to the genre in the shape of, first, "Brown Shuga", his fan favorite Afro-fusion tinged remake of D'Angelo's 1995 Neo-Soul and R&B classic, "Brown Sugar", and probably a little more interesting, "U Remind Me (2020 Pidgin Acoustic)" a literal by-the-title Pidgin English re-imagination of Usher Raymond's Grammy-winning 2001 single, "U Remind Me".
Performed on a simple ambient backdrop of grandpiano and strings produced by Blu himself (as usual), Blu ever-so-smoothly breezed through the first verse to chorus of Usher's legendary record in an impeccable blend of Pidgin English to English in an excruciatingly short but memorable rendition that might could have made the listener laugh if not for the beloved distraction of Blu's perfect vocal performance of a well-known R&B classic executed in stark contrast to the original.
The simple visual depicts Blu seated at the microphone in dark studio room, beaded cornrows, black sweater and white tee to boot, a typical R&B/Soul setting that reinforces the singer's affinity to the beloved genre of music. Despite becoming available on digital stores in the rest of the world on October 9th, 2020, Blu's "Road 2 Soulwave" EP was released November 5th in Nigeria following a pushback influenced by the #EndSARS protests that hit several Nigerian cities for nearly a month, and has been cited as the prequel to his full-length debut album, "Soulwave".
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