On Superboy Cheque’s EP Razor: Artists Should Experiment More with Afrobeats And Strive to Make Quality Songs

The best way to catch the attention of music listeners in a time like this is to put out stellar music.

You know when you’re just chilling with your guys and you receive an update that some young artist just dropped a new project? At first, you’re hesitant. Not because you’re not excited by new music but because there’s so much music being released daily and it can be difficult selecting the good ones from the clutter. This doesn’t stop you from trying anyway and you happen upon a beautiful package. That’s exactly what happened with Superboy Cheque’s new EP, Razor. An incredible body of work. I didn’t need much convincing. The first listen sufficed.

For someone who’s interested in Afrobeats like myself, the name Cheque isn’t new. I’ve listened to some songs and also heard his name come up in conversations about Nigerian music. Superboy Cheque might, for a brief moment, come off as a regular artist. Those kinds of artists that are yet to find their identity or define a particular image for themselves. We come across them all the time. But he’s far from that. He has spent years working on himself and his craft and has found for himself a spot that only he occupies. Another thing to mention is that his songwriting game is on steroids.

What is Cheque’s story? How has he been able to polish his craft so well? Signed under Phyno’s label, Penthauze, Akanbi Bamidele who hails from Ondo state and is popularly known as Cheque, released the second project of his career, Razor sometime this month. The EP contained five songs including Zoom, Hollywood. It’s a solid project. It brought forth a new sound that stunned critics and listeners alike. Razor proves a lot of things for me, particularly that any form of experimentation, as long as it’s rightfully done, takes Afrobeats to a new level. Cheque finds a balance between Afrobeats and international sounds. The result is a seamless coalition that takes you to a sonic climax.

Before Razor, Cheque struggled. Upcoming acts face a lot of battles in the come-up stage. Sometimes it’s financial. Other times, it’s discovering your sound. For Cheque, it was the quality of his rap. He didn’t start out as a remarkable songwriter. A first-class student in Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), after watching a certain artist Zamorra rap, Cheque decided to try his hands (or his mouth?) at music. He started out as a rapper named Kyle B. It was tough. His lines were weak. Cheque mentioned in his interview with Pulse journalist, Motolani, that he was once mocked (in the presence of girls) over his lines. It was beyond embarrassing. He laughed it off but when he was alone, he cried his eyes out.

Because giving up wasn’t an option for Cheque, he pressured himself to get better at rapping. During that time when he was discovering his musical talent, there were other musicians in OAU trying to make a way for themselves. Some of these acts include Gbasky, Chinko Ekun, Blaqbonez, and Fireboy DML. Apparently, he got his first name ‘Kyle B’ from Zamorra, the same man who inspired him to rap. Searching for the best version of himself, Cheque released an EP S.O.O.N, his first body of work, in 2015. The project featured fellow musicians from OAU such as DML, Chinko Ekun, and Zamorra. One might think he had found himself at this point, but he had yet to. According to him, he had little to no confidence. The itch to get better at his craft remained.

Still finding an identity that would stick, he changed his name from Kyle B to Superboy Cheque. He never really felt like himself with Kyle B. He changed his Snapchat and Instagram handles. A new phase. Shortly after, sometime in 2017, Superboy Cheque alongside DML signed a record deal with Cruel Station. The deal spanned just over a year and till it expired, neither he nor Fireboy (who was still DML) released anything under the label. For Cheque, it was a moment where he had no idea where his career was heading and he was unbothered. Both he and Fireboy had to move in with a friend, Flonerd, as none of them could go back home to their parents after their respective deals expired. It turned out to be the best move for them because Flonerd had recording equipment in his house so all they primarily did was record music.

Spending a lot of time recording gave Cheque the confidence he had spent years looking for. This confidence drove him to start posting freestyle videos on Instagram. He became so good at freestyling that he could rap without writing a word. It became his superpower. Doing his thing and building his audience one freestyle video at a time, Cheque started getting a lot of attention. On a random day, he received a DM from Phyno. It was unbelievable. It took some time but he was eventually signed to Penthauze sometime in 2019. It was a more fitting record deal. Under the label, he released songs like Jekasoro, Abundance, Pain Away. He featured on Phyno’s Recognize, and featured alongside other rappers (Snow, Phyno and Rhatti) on Olamide’s Warlords.

I don’t know what’s going on at Penthauze but I’m honestly surprised that they are not aggressively promoting Cheque’s latest project. Yes, good music usually finds its way to listeners. But not always. And when there’s an extensive promotional plan behind good music, it reaches a broader audience. Look at Omah Lay or even Fireboy. Their projects were top-notch and with the backing of a label, they became mainstream projects. It is this same expectation I have of Cheque’s EP. It should be getting more attention than it is currently getting and I think the label has a role to play in that.

Razor is a sonically-tight project. Personally, I like the songs that are heavily influenced by foreign sounds (trap-based), specifically Zoom and Hollywood. Such beautiful experimentation. He dabbles into some Afropop on songs like Loco and Odun. Producers like Tempoe, Masterkraft deserve to be acknowledged for their work on the EP as well. Before the release of the EP, he released Satisfied and has put out the music video. Razor has since garnered more than a million streams on Audiomack.