Transitioning from social media sensation to an official music career is seldom as smooth a process as is expected but in 2020, Layzee Ella made a fairly strong attempt with the release of her official debut single titled “Sober”. The young Edo native won over fans for her freestyles and covers on which she established herself as an exciting singer, rapper, and songwriter. A year and four months of relative quiet followed before the announcement that she would be dropping her debut EP in June 2021. It was a bold, and maybe risky move to make, but there’s a certain feistiness to Lazyee Ella that makes such a move not so surprising.
The project comprises of 6 tracks and is titled “When The Lights Go Off”. The project name means exactly what it sounds like, and it aptly guides the central theme of the EP. The introspection that drives the lyrics is immediately obvious; she lets out her thoughts and feelings, holding very little back as she flows through the six tracks. The sounds offered here are sufficiently diverse – Afrobeats mixed in with R&B and Hip-hop mostly – to allow us see different sides to the artiste.
The opening track is “Deep Into You”, an Afrofusion medley that efficiently fuses the sounds of Afrobeats with R&B. It’s a perfect set up for a ballad but Layzee Ella chooses a different direction with lyrics that hold sexual undertones which makes a lot of sense in the context of the song and project title. The superb production really brings the song to life and there’s more of that on “Somebody”, the song that follows up as track two. The tempo is up a notch here and we have some reggae vibes thrown into the Afrofusion sounds. Layzee Ella is unrelenting in her sexually charged message and though her name implies a laid-back approach, her flow is anything but lazy, instead packed with an energy and vibrance that’s hard to ignore. That energy level goes up even higher on “Body On Me”, the EP’s third track and lead single.
Layzee Ella refreshes the project by employing the scarcely used tool of an interlude, “WTLGO” which is an acronym that references the project title. She drops a quick sing-song rap verse on an emo rap beat. If her intention on the interlude was to transition us into her rapping side, then it’s a very clever move because she goes in full rap mode on the next track, “Stay With Me”, a song that seamlessly fuses themes of romantic and sexual tension. When The Lights Go off rounds off with “Issues” on which we witness Trap Ella apologize to her embittered lover over a guitar-laden trap instrumental. Production level was grade A level at the start of the project and there’s no dip in that standard as the last sounds of the 6th and final track fades away to end the EP.
Standout Track(s): Deep Into You, Stay With Me
The marketing and popularity ratings aside, this project is a success from a purely musical point of view. She compensates for the relative narrow focus of the thematic component with intelligent lyrics, energetic flows and endearing melodies. She proves her skill level in the areas of singing and rapping, and even trapping if you consider it to be a separate entity from rap music. Lazyee Ella gives enough to suggest that she is even better at creating original music as she is at covering popular songs and that bodes very well for her going forward. Releasing this EP was a bold move, but anyone that gives it a listen would agree that it was a successful one.
Verdict: 8/10
