TERRY APALA ON THE BEAT: REDEFINING A GENRE

Impulsively, I start off by saying that Terry Apala has to be one of the Nigerian Music Industry’s best-kept secrets at the moment. If he’s not, how am I just finding out about this cat? As usual, I found out about him at the insistence of my editor to write about some dude I’d never heard of in my entire life before. Now, my appetite is pleasantly whetted for anything else Terry Apala might have to offer. Terry Apala (real name: Terry Alexander Ejeh) is not a newbie in the business, the gifted act featured on Pheelz’ “Serekode” with Olamide, Orezi, and Phyno and also featured Falz on his single “Eko”. Church drummer turned singer Terry Alexandar Ejeh, has made four solid efforts over the last two years. Thanks to a deftness for selecting producers to work with, Terry has released soft work love song, ‘Number One’, statement worthy electro-jazzy ‘Modernize’, the uber laid back ‘Mo Popular’ and more recently Sess produced underground hit ‘Champagne Showers’. Across these four singles, there is a distinctive shock value stemming from Terry’s confident songwriting and succinct interpolation of English and Yoruba lyrics with uncanny ease.

These already rare attributes for Nigerian music is set on his throaty Apala vocals and fresh-cut beats that sail far from what this style of music used to be, yet coming together as a whole to bear a mark of untapped and unhinged originality. My stamp of approval of Terry Apala, however, goes beyond his music to also appreciate what he represents as an artiste with an authentically African premise for his brand. This, in an industry where all the rich cultural heritage that once made up our soundscape is often relegated to the place of ‘local’ music, is proof that great sounds never really go out of relevance, the artists just fail to evolve. The Delta State bred star with the funkified apala rhythm on a hip-hop instrumentation is redefining the grassroots flow of the elders, even without his expected debut album titled “Apala On The Beat”, Terry has already won us over by his wherewithal to keep the wine of Apala music fresh by merely changing the bottle. A counter-coin to the alternative route many of his peers have followed by discarding the value of any Nigerian sound without Western cultural influences. Terry Apala is redefining the entire genre.