Abideen Olamilekan Abdulganiyu popularly known as Sustain is an emerging singer and songwriter quickly carving out a niche for himself with the uniqueness and originality he aims to infuse into his sound. The niche in question is Afrobeats in its purest form; no fusion with other genres, just traditional Afrobeats with African drums and traditional instruments complemented by rich Yoruba lyrics. He set that standard with his debut, “Husband Material”, in 2017 and continued it on subsequent singles that followed.
So when midnight of January 22 struck and his anticipated debut project dropped, we knew what to expect from Sustain. The project is titled Afrosus (yet another pointer to the sound he is well on the way to mastering), consists of 7 tracks, with the exciting Yusufkanbai being the solitary feature on the project
A small variety of themes feature on the mix of Afro sounds, modern rhythms and the occasional electronic elements. “To Love” and “Build With You” has Sustain crooning about the openness and readiness of his heart to receive and give out true love. “Lady Sussana” and “More” has him paying homage to the beauty and majesty of the African woman while he implores his woman to reciprocate the love he gives on “Situationship”. Tracks 2 and 7 are the only ones that have no romantic nature to them; “Faaji” explores the good and stress-free life and “Celestial Being” has him affirming to us that his belief and faith in God makes him more than just a man.
Sustain’s style makes the listening experience an interesting one. His flows, melody and pitch fluctuations suggest a heavy influence of Fuji music during his formative years; you can hear it on every track but it is most evident on “Faaji” and “Celestial Being”. His lyrics remain simple for the most part but efficiently communicate the message and paint the picture on every song.
Phantom, Kashbeat and Finito form the trio of producers responsible for creating the instrumentals on this project. They do well to provide Sustain with the exact type of sounds that he is most comfortable with, thus making the job easier for him. Vtek mixed and mastered 5 of the songs while Spyritmyx and Kashbeat handled the other two; it’s hard to find any fault in their sound engineering.