The only time you come across the name Liberia back in the day was only because people were discussing the gruesome war, the Legendary world best footballer George Weah or when they emotionally sing along to the lyrics of Michael Jackson’s Liberian Girl. Infact, Michael Jackson’s Liberian Girl was the biggest Liberian song and it wasn’t sang by a Liberian, it was so idolized that the people would have wished that it was done by an artist from the soil. J Slught dropped the album of the year as Home and Beyond EP bagged an award at the MLMA. There was no bad song on that beautiful body of work and one tune the late Michael Jackson would have been so thrilled by is “Monrovia Girl”. J Slught gave us a real version of what Liberian Girl should have sounded like if it was done by a typical Liberian but the King of the Jungle gave us an original jam that lives gloriously outside the shadows of Michael Jackson’s evergreen hit song, especially with the fact that it was Afro Fusion and the African sound was perfectly represented.
Let’s talk about the Magic J Slught made out of the Self titled EP King of the Jungle. The KOTJ EP had fewer songs than Home and Beyond but the huge similarity is that every track lived up to our expectations, as everything sounded very international and dope. Maria was the first song that dropped with a detailed and beautiful visuals which was shot in Nigeria. The song Maria reminds us of the number 5 track on the Home and Beyond EP “call on me”. These two songs are heavily influenced with the Spanish lingua but “Maria” is an improved version of “Call on me” because it’s more melodious and emotional and like I said earlier it has a fantastic video but Call on me has no visuals. The KOTJ EP with just 6 tracks: Grow old, Maria, Suffer, Body, Party, King of the Jungle, was able to paint the Liberian dream in a more realistic way and that is to see that one day our Liberian Music is being embraced by the world just as much as Nigerian and American musicians because it’s crystal clear that J Slught is super equipped to be in the league of other artists doing so well for their nation on international level.
What’s new about JSlught? The King of the Jungle and the street President Kpanto harmoniously came together to balance their throne on one sound, which is the current wave Amapiano. This is the collaboration we never knew we needed but as time, chance and incredible talent would have it, J Slught and Kpanto didn’t come close to disappointing us as these Musical Royalties without holding back gave us the biggest song of the year. You would get lost in the soulful love lyrics of J Slught and then find yourself bumping to Kpanto’s street slangs directed towards his usual subject matter ‘Sex’ but this time with a polished intention of true love. We’ve seen so many sides to J Slught musically but “Kill me” Unveils the fact that there’s still a lot more to see when it comes to the massive works that J Slught has instored. All we can actually say now is J Slught is a musical genius that deserves to be celebrated by every country on the globe and not just Liberia alone.