CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — Josh Obembe’s hand hovered over his laptop.
He was gently swaying it back and forth like a conductor's baton, his fingers mimicking the keystrokes of the chill, afrobeats tune permeating his basement apartment. His head bopped in sync.
"I love this track. Every time we go party, I play this track because it’s so vibey,” he said.
He recorded and produced it for his friend and fellow Charlottetown artist. But mostly, he focuses on his own music, using his last name as his stage name.
Obembe made his first song back home in Nigeria but never released it because he didn’t like the sound of his voice.
“I didn’t take it serious,” he said. “I didn’t believe I could sing.”
He moved to P.E.I. for university in 2016. During his first summer here, he and a group of international students were playing a game of soccer, which his team lost.
“Obembe, you are the reason why we lost,” a teammate told him. “What do you even know how to do?”
“Oh,” he replied. “... I sing.”
“Let us listen to one of (your) tracks.”
Obembe whipped out his phone and hit play. They didn’t believe it was him singing, so he sang it for them right there.
They were so impressed that when Obembe got home, he made up his mind.
“I’m just going to take this music thing to the next level.”
He set up a custom recording studio about three feet from his bed. Over the next three years, he studied ways to adjust his beats and his voice so it matched the sound he was looking for.
“Your ears have to be good. You have to know what sounds right.”
Then, he started pumping out tracks. The style of music he produces is called afrobeats, which was popularized out of contemporary genres like reggae and hip-hop in West Africa.
His computer desktop is cluttered with ready-to-go song files. Some take five minutes to make, some take days, he said.
“If God calls me home today, I got songs.”
He gradually started releasing them. In November 2019, he dropped his first album, When Will They See Us, which featured seven songs reflecting on his transition from Nigeria to P.E.I.
“I just wanted to see how people would take it,” he said. “It was received in a way I never expected.”
Obembe’s album, When Will They See Us, features the following seven songs:
- Days on the Island
- Beautiful Night
- Alien
- International Man
- Do You Like Outside
- Argument
- My Desire
Whether it be UPEI students or strangers from across the world, his music resonated with people. One of his songs, International Man, is an ode to P.E.I.’s immigrant community.
For him, it’s less about becoming famous and more about impacting people positively.
“I find music is my best way of doing that.”
Like many artists, self-doubt has been a challenge for Obembe, sometimes fearing his songs aren’t good enough. He fights this by releasing them anyways.
“Don’t wait for people to tell you your music is good,” he said. “Keep dropping.”
Obembe is working to release new tracks bi-weekly. His next single, Abena, is a Valentine’s Day groove that’s dropping on Feb. 14.
All his music can be streamed on Spotify, Apple Music and Google Play.
Watch it
The video below is of Obembe performing one of his songs, Beautiful Night. While recording this video, Obembe forgot some of the lyrics to his song, so, he had to improvise. He drew inspiration from the fact he was being interviewed for a news story while recording.
“I am with The Guardian. ‘Cuz I want to freestyle,” he sings in the video. “This is my own time. This is your own vibe.”
