LAGBAJA

The first question that is often asked when LAGBAJA is encountered is, 
“Why the mask?”. The mask is an icon of man’s facelessness.
LAGBAJA performs as a traditional Yoruba masquerade. Lagbaja is a Yoruba word that means somebody, nobody, anybody, everybody, thus , it is the perfect name that depicts the anonymity of the “common man” for whom the artist LAGBAJA has great empathy. The mask and the name together symbolize the faceless and the voiceless in the society.

LAGBAJA’s music is an amalgamation of Jazz, Highlife and traditional Yoruba music. Sometimes the music is purely instrumental – an interplay between traditional Yoruba percussion, chants, talking drums and Western instruments, especially the saxophone. When there are lyrics, they are usually sung in Yoruba, English or a blend of the two as is colloquially spoken in Lagos. While LAGBAJA himself has not categorically given his music a name, the fusion has been referred to by various critics as Afro jazz, Afro beat, Higherlife and Afro pop.