“Before We Fall Asleep” is a collection of amazing stories and beautiful music. While JD’s debut album may be coming late, the wait was well worth it. In “Before we fall asleep”, Johnny stans tall as he preaches the gospel of love and light. We see Before we fall Asleep as A Love diary personalized with experiences, escapades, and a powerful message. The inspiration for this project is undoubtedly derived from real life. You can hear that all over the project. Johnny Drille’s love book will change your perspective about love.
Here is the chapterisation of Johnny Drille’s love dairy #BWFA as written by: Philemon
My Kind of Brown:
In this song, Johnny is speaking to his Insecure woman, who is beautiful but is unsure of herself. This woman lacks confidence even though she is the kind every man would worship the ground she walks on. All Johnny wants her to do is come out of the dark. You can hear the raging passion in his voice. This is a beautiful opener, Johnny’s vocals are so heartwarming on this record. This is such a beautiful record, this feels like Johnny’s version of Beyonce’s “Brown skin Girl”. The ladies would sing this one word for word in Johnny’s room live in December.
Loving is Harder
Sometimes love is not what people make it seem it is, while. It is a great and beautiful experience for some, for others, it is a terrible experience and leaves deep cuts. For Johnny, he is too deep in love, his fear is losing his beautiful insecure woman, maybe cause of a terrible past experience. It is nice to see johnny infuse lamba into his lyrics, hearing johnny sings words like “Manya” is beautiful.
Ludo
Ludo is a classic ancient Nigerian game, while on “Loving is Harder”, he was scared of losing his woman, unfortunately, on “Ludo”, he is the one leaving, his woman burned and bruised him just as he feared on ” Loving is Harder”. He is even accusing her of cheating, And even take shots at her friends. Johnny is fed up and is moving on to the next mission. The production on this record is great, so is the songwriting.
Ova
Johnny wants a second chance, while he was leaving his woman on “Ludo”, it seems he realized the gem he lost and is asking for a clean slate, Don jazzy verse added the need comic to the song, Being the member of The Stingy Men Association, DonJazzy had to denounce his affiliation to please this melanin looking lady. If this didn’t work, nothing will. It’s awesome to see jazzy bring his social media personality to this record. But I think his verse could be better. Another great beat, accompanied by excellent songwriting. Four records and this writer doubts if there would be any bad song of this tape
Odo
Johnny realizes the gem he has in his possession and is not ready to leave her at any point in time. Even though he gave the trauma on ” LUDO”, he is ready to sleep at her doorstep until she agrees to start all “OVA and be his ” ODO”. The legendary Styl-plus make a comeback on this record and they haven’t lost it one bit, they add their amazing vocals to this beautiful record.
Driving in the Rain
Johnny is available anytime his woman wants, he is only one call away even though he can’t get enough of her, It feels like he is intoxicated by her love he doesn’t mind driving in the rain just to satisfy her.
Before I let go
Unfortunately, Johnny’s relationship with his woman is not as great as it used to be, but rather than walk away as Johnny did on “Ludo”, his woman is willing to work things out only that Johnny doesn’t think he can hold on for much longer. The guitars on this record are heart-melting. This is another beautiful record.
In the light
Johnny wants to learn to love his woman all by himself. All he wants her to do is be open as he is. Remember Johnny’s woman is insecure, lets assume the discussion johnny speaks of is ” my kind of brown”. Johnny woman had it bad in her past relationship which resulted in insecurity and trust issues. Afrobeats princess “Ayra Starr” embodies Johnny’s woman. She hasn’t put a wrong foot since she was activated in January and she is on a different kind of fire.
Clocks
Johnny woman failure to be open is killing Johnny and it feels like he is giving up. He is doing all he can to reach out to her and he is running out of time.
Lies
Politicians are some of the biggest liars and surprisingly Nigerians don’t learn, They continue to believe the lies these people keep telling. Johnny takes a swerve from his usual Love ballads, The Nigerian General elections are fast approaching, and this time we hope Nigerians don’t make the wrong decision. Johnny is only trying to use his music for good, that said, JD didn’t really do justice to this rock beat, but he let the story he was telling take the centre stage, as it had done all through the album. However, JD might just be the first Nigerian Rockstar.
Lost in the rhythm
Johnny tells the story of a friend who was a victim of circumstance and due to lack of patience gets involved in crime and at the end of the day, bags life imprisonment. While making it and being successful is the goal, crime should never be an option. As said earlier Johnny is only preaching a message with his music.
Sweet as Mother’s Love
There is no love as genuine and beautiful as a mother’s love. While Johnny has a song dedicated to father [Papa], Johnny dedicates this one to mothers. A mother’s love is one Money can never buy, it’s one of the best kinds of Love one can ever experience. This sounds like one of those songs a black American choir would render in church.
Sister
Johnny is a family man, he has one for fathers, mothers, and now his sister. And once again Johnny continues preaching the gospel of light, all he wants is for her to open up because he is there, he is available anytime she wants, ready to join her in solving her problems. Who is that at the end? Its hard not to agree with the voice at the end, while some other artistes change their style of music after finding major success just to suit commercial taste, Johnny is one of the few to retain his sound even when he could switch it up to appeal to a more commercial audience, Tay Iwar is another honorable mention.
Sell My Soul
While the voice at the end of Sister refers to “Selling your soul” as giving up on your Niche sound, Johnny paints it in another light, Johnny woman has a dangerous chokehold on him. As dangerous as the one religion has on Africans (especially Nigerians). He is tempted to sell his soul, but rather than that, he would call it quits with her. This is a sad end to a great story. While Johnny really does not do justice to this beat, Lyricism takes center stage, as it had done all through the album. The same woman that JD adulated on “My kind of brown”, and was so afraid of losing on “Loving is Hard” and needed Don jazzy to appease on “OVA” and didn’t mind putting himself in harms way on “Driving in the Rain” is the same person he is ready to let go on “Sell my soul” all because some things worth more than money, this writer was expecting a “And we lived happily ever after” story.
This is a great album, shout out to the AnRs on this album, Kudos to JD and his songwriters, they found a story and stuck with it. No song seemed out of place sonically and cohesively, it was also nice to see johnny preach love in other dimensions like “Sweet as a mother’s love” and “Sister”. The features were also on point, even though Jazzy’s verse could be better, Ladipoe didn’t really strike the right chord on his verse, this writer feels he did not really stick to the topic. That said everybody brought their A-game, the Styl-plus feature was a masterstroke, Ayra Starr did justice and Chylde just got a new fan in me. The penmanship on this album was fantastic, the production was masterful all around. While it took us this long to get a Johnny Drille album, it must be said that the wait was worth it, from the album opener to the final track was pure bliss. If there is one word that would define this album, that word would be BEAUTIFUL.