In Africa, there’s almost at least a pinch of Afrobeats in every single music genre. Although, this should be typical, there’s actually a demand for pure genres like pop and rock without strains of Afro and a certain rock/pop band called RepJ360 is the only supplier in Nigeria.

For RepJ360, authenticity is everything and this is something that has kept them going over the years. Even when it seemed like they were rather disadvantaged, they defied the odds and just stayed true to the kind of music that they love. They are most times a gospel band. To earn a place for themselves in the Nigerian gospel scene, they have done countless songs with popular gospel artistes in the country including their latest single titled ‘Nobody‘ which features Nosa.

Their commitment to spreading the gospel is so deep, that even their name is all about Jesus. “RepJ360 stands for ‘Representing Jesus 360 degrees’,” says Iyke, the drummer of the band. “It is just what we stand for. It’s Jesus and Jesus and Jesus all the way.”

They had just hosted another Tannà, a concert organized by the band very regularly, when I had this conversation with Iyke. Tannà is a Yoruba word that means ‘turn on the light’ when translated to English. It is what the band has been doing since its birth about five years ago – illuminating the hearts of rock and popular music lovers through the gospel.

The journey for them all began back in college in 2015. One of them, Timi, had a family gathering and wanted to perform music. So he patronised the other three to write a song relating to the theme of the gathering and they eventually performed it as a singing group, not a band. It took some years before the others learnt other musical instruments to accompany Timi and Iyke who already knew how to play the guitar and drums respectively.

But in a continent saturated by stereotyped genres, one would wonder why they decided to do pop and rock music, being the only suppliers of that sound in the entire country.

“The kind of songs we were listening to in school basically shaped what we ended up playing, which we actually enjoy playing.”

Above everything else, still in the light of being idiosyncratically authentic, is the fact that after Jesus who they sing and make music about, they (band members) mean everything to each other.

“Tobi, Timi and Ife are my brothers. It’s beyond the band. They are family to me now,” said Iyke.

It sure must have taken a lot of boldness from them to do music other than the mainstream sound in this part of the world, but with the amount of work they put into their craft and how they are owning the sound in this space so fearlessly and doggedly, it is certain that the future only spells light for these rockstars.

We can only wait and appreciate it while RepJ360 Tannà through God’s help.