When Kenyan journalist Larry Madowo interviewed Pheelz earlier this year and asked him what makes a great collaboration, his response was swift and simple: “The absence of ego. I believe for true art to reign, ego has to be left at the door.”
It’s a profound statement because the Nigerian music industry has never been short of talent, but has always been starved for seamless collaboration. The willingness to share a creative space, to subordinate personal glory for the sake of something greater, remains one of the most underrated virtues in artistry.
However, a steady but exciting culture of collaboration has begun to bloom across Afrobeats, and the results have been nothing short of electrifying. 2024 gave us a scorching pairing project from BNXN and Ruger: two of the genre’s most combustible personalities colliding on wax with explosive results. In late 2025, Pheelz and Fireboy served up a warm, soulful joint EP, “Peace By Piece”, that reminded listeners of their shared roots. Asake and Wizkid recently delivered “Real Vol. 1,” a project drenched in lively party tunes. And now, arriving with a deliberate sense of identity, comes Agaba Romantic, the joint EP from Wizard Chan and Joeboy.
The title, Agaba Romantic, alone tells you everything you need to know about how intentional this project is. “Agaba” is a word rooted in Delta culture, Wizard Chan’s home, referring to the Masquerade, a figure of mystique, power, and ancestral presence. It is, fittingly, the identity that Wizard Chan has built his artistry around. “Romantic,” on the other hand, is pure Joeboy, a word that could serve as the subtitle of his entire career as an artiste whose music has always been fluent in the language of love and tender feeling. Together, the two words sketch a portrait of two distinct creative worlds deciding to occupy the same canvas.
Long before this EP, the two had already been building an organic creative rapport. Their 2024 collaboration “Loner (Alone)” was the first public proof of it. On the new EP, Agaba Romantic, they extended that ease into something more expansive.
The opener, “Fall Back In Your Arms,” sets the tone with a soulful, folksy tune featuring Braye, built around the emotional weight of dependence and the comfort found in a lover’s presence. The lyrics paint a portrait of incompleteness in absence and wholeness in reunion. “When I’m with you, it’s a paradise / But now it’s dark again / Tomorrow I’ll be hoping for your morning sun,” Wizard Chan sings, and the imagery is as vivid as it is vulnerable. Braye’s feature elevates the listening experience considerably, adding a layer of warmth that makes the song deeply emotional.
“100 Metres” is the most spirited moment on the project. Over Ghanaian Highlife production adorned with soft, rolling guitar riffs, Joeboy enters with his signature sultry ease while Wizard Chan anchors the hook with control. It is the sound of two artistes genuinely feeding off each other’s energy.
“Woman” carries a different kind of charge. The production is rooted in Galala, a Nigerian offshoot of Dancehall that ruled the 90s, and beneath its energetic pulse lies a deep current of devotion. Joeboy commands the track with an infectious hook drawn from Bob Marley’s 1974 reggae classic “No Woman, No Cry”, by reframing the original’s consolation into something closer to a vow. It is an inspired interpolation, and it lands beautifully.
The reggae-influenced “Love Sick Crazy” features Qing Madi and is propelled by the interplay of bass guitar and saxophone, crafting a soundscape that is soulful. But it is Qing Madi who delivers the song’s most gripping moments, her voice carrying the full, hopeless weight of love’s grip: “E no get anywhere you wan go / Cause you belong nowhere but with me / And that is beyond my control / I lose my soul anytime I picture life without you,” she croons.
The pre-released “Loner (Alone)” is an anthem for self-reliance and a declaration of guarded independence wrapped in melody. The line “I’m a loner, I’m a one-man soldier / Only me fit watch my shoulder” distils its message with clarity.
Wizard Chan has never missed an opportunity to champion the soundscapes of his roots, and “Lazarus” is his most vivid expression of that instinct on this project. He draws Joeboy into the rhythmic, percussive world of Ijaw sound, a gyration-driven texture that feels ancestral and alive.
The EP closes with “Forever”. A swell of choral vocals opens the track, lifting the emotion before Joeboy steps in with some of his most purposeful writing on the project. The song is a testament to resilience and the faith of a dreamer who never folded: “I’m never losing sha / Do it for the love of the music ah / When I dey feel low / I no fit stop, I no fit let up / I cannot Jonez / My destiny e dey for my hand / Na wetin me I know / I no dey fear no evil o / I’m always grinding, hustling / Remember rainy days, now my sun is shining.”
Agaba Romantic is, at its core, a project about duality: the ancestral and the romantic. What Wizard Chan and Joeboy have achieved here is a carefully constructed emotional landscape in which two distinct identities coexist without either dimming the other. The themes that run through this EP— devotion, independence, cultural pride, and the resilience of a dreamer—are not forced into conversation. They flow naturally without losing their current. That thematic coherence is what separates Agaba Romantic from a mere collaborative effort and elevates it into a genuine artistic statement.
The production deserves its own reverence. Across seven tracks, the sonic palette is remarkably considered, moving fluidly between Highlife-kissed guitars, Galala rhythms, Ijaw percussion, Reggae warmth, and choral vocals without ever feeling scattered.
The featured artistes, too, were chosen with intention. Braye’s contribution on “Fall Back In Your Arms” adds emotional depth without overshadowing, while Qing Madi’s performance on “Love Sick Crazy” is nothing short of revelatory. Ultimately, Agaba Romantic EP stands as one of the most complete and compelling collaborative projects to emerge from the Afrobeats space in recent memory.