.png)
Behind The Hits: Lagos Artist Jeneral Doomsta Is Blending Worlds Into One Sound 🔥
- El Barto
- May 4
- 12 min read
Updated: May 12
There's a certain kind of artist you don't discover all at once.
You hear them…then you hear them again. Then somehow, they're part of your rotation without you even realizing when it happened.
That's the space Jeneral Doomsta is moving in right now.
Not loud. Not forced. Just real… and spreading.
We sat down for a conversation that doesn't chase numbers—but doesn't ignore the motion either This is Behind The Hits.
🌌 Identity + Presence
You carry a lot of musical worlds in your sound — reggae, dancehall, Afrobeats, R&B, hip-hop.
But it still feels like one thing when you hear it. How did you find the thread that ties all of it together?
Jeneral Doomsta: "Well, I grew up listening to a variety of music genres because like I said my brother, my late brother, was a British winner of the family—a Marine also DJ—used to play a lot of music, um different styles of music, different genres. And I often would play hip-hop like records like Tupac and Biggie Smalls. And when it gets down to the R&B, rhythm and blues, we get to hear big tunes like Keith Sweat, Donell Jones. So like I listen to all of these different styles of music from my brother. And personally, I love music so much. Not necessarily my favorite genre of music—you know when I listen to music that sounds good, man I would tell you, man, this music is good, sounds good. So I love music. It has always been part of me, you know. So I love different types of music. And yes, I was blessed particularly to make reggae music, you need to know that. But you know what, where we are at the moment, you can't make a pure reggae music looking at the market. There are factors that influence my fusion at the moment. If you make what we call pure reggae music, people here—and because of the country where I come from, Nigeria—is made of different tribal people with different mentalities and different ways of doing things. And they do their different tribes with their different style of music. So there's a part of Nigeria where you get to play reggae—like where I come from, the eastern part—they love reggae music so much. In general, I mean, you play reggae music to people, they listen, they love it. But in the southwest where I'm staying at the moment, I mean Lagos, the people because we have the Yorubas here, they don't like that, you know. So we have that difference among us. But they like if you do Afro music, yes, they're going to vibe to it. Uh, hip-hop, they're going to vibe to it. But they don't really like pure reggae because um it has not been part of their tradition, traditionally. We from the eastern part of Nigeria, we love reggae music so much because it has been part of us. So, and in particularly, I was destined to make reggae. So you need to understand that."
You started performing at the University of Lagos in 2012 — in the middle of campus energy, social events, finding your footing.
Do you feel like the artist you are now was already in that version of you… or did he have to be built from scratch?
Jeneral Doomsta: "I'm just a lover of music, you know. I'm just a lover of music generally. It could be any type of music. If it sounds good and it sounds good in my hearing and I love that, I vibe to it, I dance to it. So I love music. That's all about. I'm not just being particular about a particular genre of music."
🔥 Music + Emotion
"Fine Girl" feels like a record built for a specific feeling — that moment in a room when everything just clicks.
When you made it, were you chasing that feeling… or did it just come out that way?
Jeneral Doomsta: "Well, fine girl does not necessarily um represent my um my maybe pursuit or romantic relationship or something with any female in particular. I love good—I love um I have always love um love songs about the female. And that's why I I like good music about ladies, um the female, you know. Like I, because you know, when you make music, if you don't make music about the female, is something like something is missing. Uh I'm not saying I don't make music that reflect on reality of life. I do, and I have many of those sounds, uh tunes like that that are unproduced. I have not you know, you know started working on those ones. But yeah."
Take a listen to Fine Girl by Jeneral Doomsta available on Spotify:
Your music lives in attraction, romance, nightlife — but there's something underneath it that feels personal.
When you step in the booth, are you telling stories… or are you processing something?
JD: "I have so many songs, great songs unproduced, you know. So I hope to you know I hope to make my impression felt in the field of music, in the industry, music industry I mean, internationally, not locally. With regard to the LP, um which is projected to be out in 2027, uh just just my stepping stone. It's not just it mean it's just my introductory part of my music career. So I have not even started yet. They have not seen, they have not heard anything yet, just a little bit of thing to introduce, to introduce myself into the industry. So they're going to get the best of me, uh by God willing. Uh I believe in God Almighty because uh he's the only one who makes it possible for me. God gives talent. He's not man."
🌍 City + Reach
You're based in Lagos — one of the most musically rich cities on the planet right now.
How much does the city itself show up in your sound, even when you're not talking about it directly?
JD: "I'm based in Lagos. Um the irony is that um the people, the local people, especially the Yorubas, who are the majority tribal people of Lagos state, south western part of Nigeria, don't really like my style of music because uh they prefer music that are done in uh in their native tongue. I'm not saying that we still have some of their youth that listen to my style of music. Yeah. Like fine girl is actually uh fully welcomed. But you know what, and there's a lot of tribal concern going on where I exist where I exist at the moment. And the people, the key players in the industry that's supposed to um show a little bit of support to promote the song to make it go viral and and give a little bit of opportunities to um shows, performances, they're not doing that. So it's um something difficult, situation that's difficult that you may not understand how it works in Africa, how things are done here. Like I said, where I'm in Nigeria, I don't know what—I don't want to say things that may sound strange to you or um negative, you know. Nigeria is made of tribal people who more concerned about the tribal things and stuff like that. So and I'm not a Yoruba person. I'm an Igbo person from the eastern part of Nigeria. And uh because the way um socio-political, economic uh structure of Nigeria is just between Lagos and Abuja, the federal capital territory, so here uh it's not easy. And that's why like um if you check my the Spotify, the level of streams I've achieved so far majorly from foreigners, strangers helping me outside, do things. So it's quite difficult, you know."
Your influences stretch from Jamaica to New Orleans to Congo to Compton.
What do you think someone in a completely different part of the world hears in your music that feels personal to them?
JD: "Most of the people I've come across, whenever they hear uh my song like Fine Girl or Satisfy, they tend to ask me questions like, 'Do you have more songs? Do you have videos?' Um the problem is that um yeah, it's not it hasn't been easy. The journey has not been easy with me because uh I don't have funds to do things. Yeah. Many of times people come around chatting me on Facebook, 'What's happening? Are you for real? We love this music. Um do you have a EP? Do you have LP? You got videos?' These things I do not have yet because I'm an independent artist. I'm pushing independently. No one is helping me. No funds. I'm just trying to do things. I pray every time God should just uh you know, see I mean come across a helper, maybe or an investor who can come uh can come for me and uh and make some funds available for me to make more music."
🎧 Discovery + Connection
Someone hears "Fine Girl" for the first time and immediately goes looking for more.
What do you think they're searching for when they do that?
JD: "Yeah. Someone listen, if anybody listen many fine girl and satisfy, yes, resonate very much with the international community. I mean people, I mean across the borders of Africa, I've received a lot of comment, positive ones, from the people from the American people, Caribbean, European people, even down to Australia. They've told me, they've uh—most of them gave me uh my flowers. Um I mean, I've not done much yet, just like they said, tip of the iceberg. And I've received so many praises. Uh yeah. But in most cases, they usually look forward to hearing more. And that is why I I work hard. I pray that I'm able to um meet their expectations that uh I don't disappoint people because uh some usually say I've heard people say things to me like uh oh, you're a mainstream artist. What's the problem? You're not out here. Your songs are not properly promoted. You don't shoot videos. You know, they don't know. It's just u personal individual pushing. I don't have funds. I don't have people supporting me financially."
You blend so many sounds that listeners might hear something different every time they come back. Do you think people understand your full range yet… or are they still discovering who Jeneral Doomsta really is?
JD: "And um in that, there's going to be a variety of different styles of music, genres of music uh you know the Afro. Like uh I have a particular song apart from bad because uh after fine girl, I intend to re to mix fine girl's fine girl from the beginning, mix and master it once again. It was locally mixed in in Lagos here. So I would like to take it uh send it across to a friend of mine and a sound engineer uh in the states who is going to do the job, make it better, sound better than what it is now. Is that guy that makes Satisfy. If you listen to fine girl um closely, you will know the difference between the I mean the the cleanness, the clarity between fine fine girl and Satisfy. Satisfy is quite uh clear and it's clean sound, far better than fine girl. So I hope to clean it up once again and make it better. Then another song after fine girl is called bad. You know, bad is coming, is the next tune I'm going to release, followed by a particular one. This one is Afro, Afro, Afro tune is big party, Afro party song. It is titled Danzanova. I don't know, maybe next year. I'm looking at that coming out next year. Uh because um I just have to take things gradually because of funds. There's no money. There's no money. So I have to work in order to raise money to I pay for the studio production and I'm I'm choosy when it comes to how I do my things about produce my sounds and stuff. So I pay for everything. Mixing and mastering I pay, production I pay. So I take my time to do things."
🧠 Awareness
Your debut single is out, the LP Surprise is coming in 2027, and the momentum is building.
Do you feel like you're at the very start of something… or already in the middle of something bigger than people realize?
JD: "So many of the youths I teach that I come across don't know I make music because um I have to hustle. I have to work for a living. So I work at tutorial centers where they do extra lessons for students. So I teach in order to earn a living. Still they don't pay much, they pay pennies, but I I have to survive, you know, and to push my career, man. So um people many don't really know that I do music, that there something of that nature, talent in me. So that is why I decided to title uh my LP Surprise, so they're going to hear a surprise, that well. And the first time some some of them got to hear Satisfied, they couldn't believe it. So everything seems to come out. It's a surprise. So that is the strong reason I'm titling that LP as Surprise."
🧩 Inner World
Your brother — a Nigerian Marine and part-time DJ — was the spark that lit this for you.
How much of him lives in the music you make today?
JD: "Yeah. With regard to the inner world, my brother, my late brother, to say, so you know, we used to play um different styles, different genres of music. Uh spanning from Buja, reggae music, reggae music, real music. You know my style. I used to play big tunes reggae music. And you know in the '90s, reggae was big, you know, to the early 2000s, reggae was the best music of that time, you know. And he used to play a lot of them. And I got to hear Tupac songs for the first time in 1999, you know, as a little boy. Um someone played it somewhere. It wasn't even my brother. It wasn't a show, was just um an individual. The guy played uh California Love for the first time, Tupac song, you know. Because I love good music, I love good tunes, you know. So he played, I say, 'Hey, hey, play it again. Play that music again.' So he played Tupac. Who is this guy? He said, 'Tupac, shook.' And I I fell in love from that day. I had to find out. I used to buy um all these uh albums, you know, in form of cassette in those days, you know, before it was later CDs and stuff. I mean 1999 I was a young boy, was very young. And uh I I I have always loved music, reggae, hip-hop, R&B. I'm just a lover of music, you know. I'm just a lover of music generally."
You draw from Buju Banton, Fela Kuti, Bob Marley, Tupac, Keith Sweat — artists who all had very different relationships with their audience. How did Tupac impact you from the beginning to connect as a fan?
JD: "Because I love good music, I love good tunes, you know. So he played, I say, 'Hey, hey, play it again. Play that music again.' So he played Tupac. Who is this guy? He said, 'Tupac, shook.' And I I fell in love from that day. And yes, um what the people hear is just the beginning of it. They've not heard the best of me because I have so many songs, great songs unproduced, you know. So I hope to you know, I hope to make my impression felt in the field of music, in the industry, music industry, I mean, internationally, not locally."
🚀 Growth + Direction
The LP is called Surprise — which is a bold title for a debut project.
What do you think is going to surprise people most when they hear it?
JD: "With regard to the LP, um which is projected to be out in 2027, uh just just my stepping stone. It's not just it mean it's just my introductory part of my music career. So I have not even started yet. They have not seen, they have not heard anything yet, just a little bit of thing to introduce, to introduce myself into the industry. So they're going to get the best of me, uh by God willing. Uh I believe in God Almighty because uh he's the only one who makes it possible for me. God gives talent. He's not man."
You're building something meant to connect across cultures — Nigeria, the Caribbean, America, everywhere. City by city, stream by stream — what kind of story do you want that journey to tell over time?
JD: "I on the strong belief is that it is the will of God that I make music. It's not my willing. So, it's going to make the way miraculously one day something's going to happen. I'm going to be able to get out there and get the number of fans that I desire to hear my song and get my song to be really well, properly marketed across the world, across different platforms and the right people that love my music get to listen and you know patronize and you know appreciate my work, you know."
🎤 Final Word
Someone presses play on "Fine Girl" tonight, alone, somewhere in the world they've never been to Lagos.
What do you think they'll feel about you that you've never had to say out loud?
JD: "I appreciate your concern and all you trying to assist me one way or the other. I pray you you'll be a big, you know, company someday, a big platform that uh many fan flock to, you know, to listen to music and all right. Thank you. If there are other questions you would like to ask or you want to know more about me, I'm Jeneral Doomsta, don't touch that dial, brother."
✨ Closing
Some artists chase attention. Others build connections.
Jeneral Doomsta feels like he's building something you don't just hear…you recognize.
And if you've been paying attention, you already know—this is just the beginning.
🔗 Tap In
Follow Jeneral Doomsta on all platforms. Stay locked with Hit Talk. Because the next wave won't be announced… it'll be felt.
Stopped doing the newspaper sudoku when my eyes got worse and the grid shrank, printing my own sudoku at one per page with larger numbers has been a much better routine with morning coffee.
Putting the solutions on a separate page is a small thing that matters a lot.