The tale of a faceless musician in Nigeria

Lagbaja has become a household name in the forefront of comtemporary African music, rich in the traditions of the continent while cosmopolitan in attitude

Lagbaja is a Yoruba word that means somebody, nobody, anybody or everybody. The name perfectly depicts the anonymity of the so called "common man". The first question people asked when Lagbaja is encountered is "Why the mask?" Basically, his mask is used as an icon of man's faceless.

It symbolize the faceless, voiceless in the society, particularly in Africa. Once you see Lagbaja's mask you are reminded of your own faceless.

His music continues to fascinate with the unique focus on the core of African drums. It is the product of various influences ranging from traditional Yoruba music to Jazz. Often the music is purely instrumental,an interplay between tradtional Yoruba percussions, drums, chants, the western instruments, especially the Saxophone. His lyrics are primarily sung in Yoruba, English or a blend of the two as is colloquially spoken in Yoruba cities.

However,many of Lagbaja's song dwells on serious social issues, while others simply entertain.some are dance inducing while others pass serious messages in humourous ways.

One thing that links all his songs together is the use of traditional African drums. Traditional Yoruba drums are the most prominent in his music, that is as a result of his state of origin and the philosophy of which his music is focused on.

Bisade Ologunde a native of Lagos Nigeria, a singer-songwriter, instrumentalist, popularly known as Lagbaja employes four families of drums in creating different grooves and moods in his music.

The dundun / gangan family is the most prominent and at times up to five drumers combined all the various components to create the polyrhythms.The bata ensembles is led two musicians who alternate between soft high toned driving rhythms with their Omele bata, and thunderous loud talk with their mum drum-iya ilu.

Lagbaja's groovy fusion has been refered to as afrojazz, afrobeat, higherlife and afropop until now that he himself has christened the music AFRICANO, alluring mostly to the central role of African drums and grooves in his music.

His second album "C'est un African Thing" won him the most prestigious National music awards in Nigerian Album of the year, Cross Over music of the year and the Best Afro Beat Artiste.