‘I Cannot‘ is the fourth song housed under Fiokee’s debut album dubbed ‘Man’ and it features award-winning Nigerian singer-songwriter Yemi Alade.
Synopsis of the album ‘Man’.
In a career spanning more than a decade, Fiokee has established himself as one of Nigeria’s leading guitarists, winning acclaim for his experimental, soul-infused hybrid of highlife and Afrobeats as well as his numerous guitar solo contributions to some of the most storied records in the genre’s history.
Arriving on the week of his 40th birthday, Fiokee’s debut album, Man, is a definitive thesis on the guitarist’s influences and interests, codifying his lifelong fascination with the intersection of Afro-jazz, R&B, and peppy palmwine music.
The album is guided by a free-wheeling sense of genre agnoticism: “I’ve been living my life the way I want it,” Speaking to Apple Music. Nigerian street pop star Bella Shmurda utters languidly atop a groovy amapiano instrumental, undergirded by Fiokee’s signature shimmering guitar riffs; while Lirical and Maua Sama’s euphoric “Forever” bears the hallmark of classic bongo flava with the blithe percussion of Afropop.
Fiokee (real name Ifiok Effanga) casts heavyweights ranging from Yemi Alade to Simi for a musical odyssey into his genre-blurring re-imagination of Afrobeats while keeping things ticking with his bewitching grooves.
Listen to ‘I Cannot’ below.
Fiokee ft. Yemi Alade – I Cannot
Listen to ‘I Cannot’ across all DSPs below.