An entry on the official streaming chart, appearance on the NXT Emerging Artistes chart, and songwriting credit on Mayorkun’s song – Brown Joel has been having a fantastic rookie year but he knows he is just getting started. The artiste path from emerging to sensation to established is one that is both predictable and unpredictable; predictable in the sense that it is certain that any artiste will have a come-up story and unpredictable in the sense that no two artistes have similar story. For Brown Joel, his story is just starting and he is enjoying it every step of the way.

His single “Peace” peaked at No. 3 on the Bubbling Under Top 100 chart – a weekly chart of songs that fall just below the Official Nigeria Top 100. It did even better on the Official Streaming Songs chart; it debuted and peaked at No. 78 a week before the Davido/Timeless tsunami hit the charts.

So who is Brown Joel and how did he get here? In this short interview with TurnTable as part of the spotlight series, we discuss the artiste’s growing story, his sound, success with “Peace” and more.

TTC: Can you introduce yourself?

Brown Joel: My name is Agubosim Favour Brown AKA Brown Joel, I’m an artist from Lagos City, Nigeria, and I’m an Afrobeats artist and also a songwriter.

TTC: When did you get into music professionally and what made you go into music?

Brown Joel: As far as I can remember, I’ve always been a music head growing up from the influence of my family. Everyone in my family loved music; my mom was in the choir, I didn’t see myself become an artist but my upbringing influenced my love for the craft. I was 13 when I took it upon myself to try to make a song by myself after listening to all the oldies; I said to myself that “if they can actually make this and I get to sing their song like I wrote them, then I can actually make mine.” So I gave it a try and I didn’t give up, remained consistent and that’s how I got here. Professionally, I think I recorded my first song in 2014 or 2015, I was about 14/15 years old then.

TTC: How can you describe your sound?

Brown Joel: If I want to describe my sound, I would say “Original, Raw, Undiluted” cause it always comes with a piece of my heart, no matter what range it’s been delivered, I’ll describe my sound as one that has various emotions, mixed feelings, happy, sad and also a piece of enlightenment. There’s always knowledge attached to it, there’s always something to grab from it.

TTC: So, you have two notable releases, “Omo Ologo” and “Peace”, how did the production of both songs come about?

Brown Joel: I was on a recording spree, I still am [he smiles] but then I just got signed, that was about last year, so I was recording back to back. You know when an artist is being signed and works are going on underground and nobody has a clue of what’s going and you’re just at this point where you don’t know what’s going to happen, you don’t know how the dream is going to roll out, for me it was a bit of experience here and there. For “Omo Ologo,” I got to a point where I became spiritually woke not extremely but just on the surface. I got to learn some stuffs that was helping me as a coping mechanism while I was waiting for my official announcement.

I met a person that is still very important in my life, a friend that really helped me through those times and they thought me about meditating, affirmations, speaking positive stuffs into my life, those are the times where I felt like it was stagnant for me. I didn’t know what direction it was going to go for me but this friend helped me. I kept on believing in myself and this period made me realize I actually have the power and energy to speak into reality what I want in my life, manifesting stuff for myself and being all positive about my career and everything around me. That was what inspired “Omo Ologo”

So I locked in with my producer, his name is SUPA and we were making songs, we recorded like 2 songs that day; “Omo Ologo” was the last song we made that day. Making the song was a fast and easy process, I called my friend Wade, a guitarist and we did some madness and wrapped that up.

As for “Peace,” it was an experience for me. I was in a relationship so it was an emotional rollercoaster for me. it didn’t last long though but the experience wasn’t good. Whenever I’m going through stuffs be it good or bad, I always like to take note of them and keep account of them. You never know what can inspire your next song. I was still in that relationship when I was making “Peace” and when it ended, I finished up the song and poured my heart into. I thought about it that this is actually what people are going through but it’s not regularly spoken about, so I took it on myself to make the song cause I felt like there are people out there who can relate to it.

The message of “Peace” is that I’m encouraging them to understand their self-worth no matter how much they love the person. If it’s not good for you, just leave. I did the song with my friend Damie who cooked up the beat. As for my team, everyone believed in the song so we had to put it out. We shot the video and dropped in September. Later on, the song started picking up on Tik Tok in February. I started seeing sped up versions of the song on Tik Tok and the song started getting the attention it needed. It’s not like I wasn’t making contents with the song before that period but I feel like February was when the universe aligned for me.

TTC: Artists usually have persons or people who have inspired them, they might be artists or other entertainers, can you let us in on some of the people who have shaped you as an artiste?

Brown Joel: Couple of artistes that have inspired my sound for me are people I grew up listening to; the likes of Runtown, Burna Boy, Wizkid, Kizz Daniel, Mayorkun, Davido, J Cole, Chris Brown, Drake, Kendrick. I listened to all of them, these artistes have different sounds and styles; all of which helped me to become versatile. I know people don’t know about my versatility yet but they will see it in due time. I have just two songs out but we’re up now and it’s gonna be more and honestly. The world should expect more greatness from me. That’s all I can say now.

Another person that inspires me is Steve Harvey; his stories really inspired me, talking about how many times he’s tried coming up, the come up for him wasn’t easy and he’s one very funny and good looking person. He’s good at dropping inspirational stuffs on social media and it just helps.

TTC: What should we be expecting from Brown Joel in the future, more specifically in 2023?

Brown Joel: There’s going to be a lot of good music coming out. For everyone who has heard about me as well as the ones who don’t know about me yet – I have a lot in store for the world to listen to and honestly, I’m not bragging and it’s not me being cocky or trying to blow my trumpet but there’s a lot in store. There’s going to be new music from me this year and I’m thinking about collaborations and I’m manifesting a collaboration, I don’t know who but I just know people are going to want to work with me.