Jiggy Forever is Young Jonn’s debut album, and while that appears to suggest a beginner level in the industry for him, anyone familiar with his backstory—as a producer of some of Nigeria’s biggest hits—knows he holds experience from much longer. After a few years in which he stepped out the production booth in various capacities, to provide backup vocals or earn writing credits, he signaled a switch to recording music with Dada, his well-received single of March 2022. A month later, he snowballed its popularity into a debut EP, Love Is Not Enough, while a Davido-powered remix of Dada and -the Love Is Not Enough Vol. 2 helped cement his new identity.
Now having built a discography nearly as thick in artistry as it was in production, Jiggy Forever arrives as his debut album to build upon his new position. It does this successfully in that it offers several songs never seen before from the artist, and allows him to stamp his style with some consistency. It, however, staggers because it has to carry the weight of some of its uninspired tracks. Sixteen songs are at the longer end of what is considered the right album length in today’s music, but length alone cannot account for why Young Jonn’s album feels repetitive like he does not have the melodic or thematic range to exhaust its tracklist.
When it shines it does so brightly, and on the merits of the qualities Young Jonn employed in his singles run in the last two years—his effusive vocals and writing, and his ability to recreate the relatable, yet less-talked-about aspects of romantic relationships, like needing to prioritize hustle over a relationship. Young Jonn wants to stay jiggy forever, a life that he visualizes to feature both an excess of money and women to enjoy it with. If push comes to shove, however, he will pick the former over the latter. He espouses as much on the opening track, Tony Montana, where he affirms his priorities: “Owo ni kan for my medulla, for my eye”.
A decade spent in the industry, producing some of its most memorable tracks before going on to sing them must have been lucrative, but if Jiggy Forever tells us anything about Young Jonn’s mindset, it is that he will not settle for anything less than the best. Pot Of Gold has him yearning for the big payday, as he acknowledges that his switch in careers has been, at least in part, in search of it: “been a long time coming, from producer to later wan k’orin/ will I really ever find this pot of gold.” It is a rare insight into his mind and personality, but its presence only serves to contrast how superficial the rest of the album is. Most of Jiggy Forever has him basking in the joys of a youthful and affluent life, a theme that would make for a fun subject if it wasn’t the entire extent of the album’s story.
Most of the music revolves around where Nigerian Pop currently is—at a fairly mid-tempo, yet danceable pace, conveyed with big drums that are always only a few seconds away from spinning into full-blown Naija piano. You see it on Pot of Gold, where he intersperses verse from chorus with a “Kommot body jor”, an encore to dance that is at odds with the rest of the song. You hear it even more on Big Big Things, his ambitious big-name single that tapped up Kizz Daniel and Seyi Vibez for a log drum–powered single about, similar in many ways to BNXN’s Gwagwalada . And while it rightly took some criticism for relying on a music style that has become displeasingly omnipresent in Nigerian music, on the album it cannot be criticized too much because these log drums allow it to become one of the few songs that will instantly stand out.
On some other tracks, Young Jonn can work his signature style into really good-sounding music, like on Stronger, where his pace is a little more urgent, but these are too few and far between. Cohesion in an album is always a positive, but it is never a good look when it becomes difficult to tell songs apart. When sonic flavor cannot be used to make each track special, then thematic identity should come in. It therefore doesn’t help that most of Jiggy Forever bounces around with very little message, and Young Jonn plays it too safe by committing nothing personal to its material.
Guest artists are a great way to add a bit of personality to the track they appear on, and thankfully Young Jonn picks and utilizes them well. Hold On features Sean Paul, and from its heavy bass strings, when the Dancehall icon comes on in the second verse, he proves he has not lost his touch. Other featured artists contribute a bit of themselves to their tracks. Blaqbonez is impeccable on Showcase, though he draws from his Afropop bag as well as rap; Don Jazzy makes a surprising, yet welcome return to recording music on Full My Tank, his verse calling back to early 2000s Afropop; Zlatan brings a bit of Street Pop’s zest to 50 Billion, where P.priime lays a compelling Afropop production; Congolese singer Ya Levis arrives on Maya Maya to save it from being lost in the mishmash of Jiggy Forever’s homogeneity.
When it works, Young Jonn’s Jiggy Forever is a delight, a highlight of everything that has brought him so far in the last year. It recreates the flair of fan favorites like Dada and Xtracool, and allows him to explore a little more ground in his artistry, but not enough. For a sixteen-track album, Forever Jiggy does not have enough material or melody to make each song stand out, and it becomes a debut piece that is too light and too homogeneous for its good.
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