Features : JayDaMasah brings some Afrobeat magic to “English Girl” and its EP, Love and Lies

JayDaMasah was a rapper from age 6, when he first started with music. Until he was 13, he was in a group with his brother, and rap was their thing.

But at 13, “I think it was either my mom or my dad listening to this one Afrobeat song by Burna Boy, and it completely flipped my whole entire perspective on music.”

Until then, he had recorded rap and performed with his brother, Alvin, in their group, New Wave Crewl. He even went to Barbizon USA, designed to connect new artists with agents, labels, and established artists—mainly in rap.

But there was that Burna Boy song that completely changed my story, my life, and the way I viewed Afrobeat.

“Rap is very deep, and I can understand everything, and it’s very touching. But Afro, without me even understanding a single lyric, literally shifts your entire mood.”

He has just released his two newest Afrobeat tracks, “English Girl” and “Liars (Surrender),” which together form his first EP as a solo artist, *Love and Lies*.

“English Girl” is a quirky little love story with a beat that has a quick pulse and melodies that swing you like a hammock.

“Afrobeats is like — I just love the vibe,” he said. “Even if I don’t understand what’s happening in the song or what they’re saying, the vibe definitely sets the tone. I feel like you can listen to Afrobeats anywhere — at the gym, in bed, wherever.”

“English Girl” tells the story, in a Liberian-Afro-English dialect, of a young man trying to get the attention of an English girl he met at church. While the girl finds the cute boys tempting, her heart wasn't fully in it, and it took a lot of convincing. But the boy has her mom on his side.

“‘English Girl’ is about finding love, being extremely attracted to this girl—you want her, you’re giving it everything you’ve got,” he said. “You’re chasing after her, while she’s playing hard to get, but her mom is on your side. She loves the kid and keeps telling her, ‘Give him a chance. Give him a chance.’”

“I was with my partner, CADDY Realboy, the person I made the song with, and we were just chopping it up, singing lyrics over the phone, trading word for word, bar for bar, and it became a song.”

Then there is the flip side of love, which is the subject of the other song on the EP, “Liars (Surrender).” Hence the name of the EP, *Love and Lies*. The theme of “Liars,” though, is the surrender part.

“‘Liars’ has a faster beat and melodies that carry you into a young man’s lament about being played, and his eventual surrender to his love.”

“I love this EP because it’s very contradicting. ‘Liars’ is actually about being played and lied to, and I just love how both of them actually click together. They’re not supposed to, but they go hand in hand.”

Going forward, he says, Afrobeat will be his primary genre. For one thing, the themes prevalent in rap simply do not resonate with him personally. He can do them, still loves them, but:

“Growing up, everything I listened to was influenced by rap and R&B—my mom is very big in the hip-hop scene, and she loves listening to all those types of artists. My brother Alvin and I just fell in love with all that.”

He has songs out under the name New Wave Crewl, though Alvin is now in the military, and JayDaMasah is solo. He also has songs that he recorded and later deleted from his time working with the label NI MUSIC GROUP.

But rap, he said, “just did not align with what I stood for.” Afrobeat does.

“I just want people to listen to my music, vibe, dance, and enjoy themselves. That’s what made me flip to Afro—because I love what it did to me, and I want to do that for the rest of the world.”

At age 15, still in high school, he is embarking on a career in music.

“I’m just trying to shoot for the moon. I already have many songs I’ve been holding back, and I’m ready to drop them for the world. I have an entire album coming.”

And Afrobeat is the direction, because: “If you’re having a terrible day, Afrobeat feels almost magical and lifts you up—that’s what I want to do for people.”

And it can do that whether the song is about love or about liars.

Listen for yourself. Connect with JayDaMasah on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.

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