Rising R&B star Jasën Blu’s repute for being a student of global music legends while himself making the music that lives up to legendary standards bumps up a good notch with his latest release “Faraway (My Heart Goes…)“, a smooth, harmony-heavy neo-soul and R&B recording yet again written and produced by Blu himself in his usual fashion via his SoundQraft LLC production company.
Having previously paid on-wax homage to two of his favorite legends (D’Angelo on “Brown Shuga” and Usher Raymond on “U Remind Me (2020 Pidgin Acoustic)”, both records on Blu’s 2020 EP, “Road 2 Soulwave“), Blu brings it closer to home on this new release by tapping up Afropop pioneer and former member of one of Nigeria’s foremost Hip-Hop and Afrobeats group Remedies, Tony Tetuila. On “Faraway (My Heart Goes…)”, Jasën Blu notably brings back the famous chorus of Tetuila’s national pop hit “My Heart Go Jigi Jigi” off his 2001 debut album My Car, and transforms it into a soulfully lush R&B record which deservedly earns the older hit maker’s instant approval.
In a radio chat with on-air personality Tayo “OSYB” Ogunsusi on his Super Breakfast Show on Super FM Lagos, Blu reveals the record was ideated from a conversation about Nigerian music legends with a friend in the later part of 2023. “I was having this music conversation with my good friend Rayo Kasali, a brand specialist and photographer around July, maybe August last year,” Blu says. “And I was saying how much of a goldmine older Nigeria hit music is and how more new generation artists should tap into that nostalgia to make newer hits, similar to the common practice in the West which has helped keep the conversations going even around music and artists several decades old. That way everybody wins. Our legends and the moments they created get to keep being celebrated, which they rightfully deserve, keep getting compensated for their own work, and the newer generation get to make more relatable and history-preserving hits from those ideas. The Tony Tetuila hit came up during that conversation, so I told Kasali I will create something from that song. I went home, wrote “Faraway” and recorded it some weeks later.”
On how he was able to get Tetuila’s approval for the new record, Blu recounts “I reached out to my longtime friend and fellow recording artist and producer Dre-Sticks, who happens to be in contact with big brother Tony. Dre-Sicks with the valuable help of legendary Nigerian radio disc jockey, DJ Boombastic were able to get me a meeting with Tony Tetuila, who was extremely kind and welcoming to me. Fortunately he loved the record, and gave it his blessings and permission for other required legal due diligence. I literally grew up on his hits back in the day in Akure, and now many years later, being able to meet him and give him his well-deserved flowers in person, that was a really precious moment to me as an artist, and I will always cherish it.”
“Faraway (My Heart Goes…)” serves as Blu’s first release of 2024, coming from four previous releases in 2023 which includes “Chill“, “Summertime“, “BluFunk” and its RockOut remix with rap artist Hotyce. All released via his independent labels LoneLegion Music and Nubiana Records, Blu continues an impeccable buildup to his full-length debut which is due to arrive sometime in the latter half of 2024.
