Tim Godfrey Wants You to Enjoy Gospel Music Without Labels

Tim Godfrey is not your conventional gospel artist. In the 2000s, at a time when Nigerian gospel largely depicted brooding, praise-led inspiration, he was already fusing Afrobeats with messages of God and His word, joining other Afro-gospel songs you should know. “If you know me well, I’m always the one that breaks ceilings,” he tells OkayAfrica. “The one that dares to go where everybody is avoiding or afraid of. Everything about me has always been about amplifying things I believe we need for the next generation.” 

When he released his first Afrobeats album in 2006, it was “totally rejected,” he shares, “and people [queried] if it would be accepted in the next ten years.” He doesn’t think the church has completely done so, but more than ever, Afro gospel now operates at a degree of perception previously attributed to only pop stars. And for a pioneering figure like Godfrey, who has bolstered his conviction in his art. He pours all this into his new album, No Label, a project that’s already subject to online discourse over its overarching ambition. 

Featuring Oxlade and Spyro, some questioned the religious (and perhaps moral) implications of featuring pop-aligned artists who make ‘secular’ music. “The No Label direction has to do with sound,” he explains, “don’t label God with a sound. Don’t make it look like it has to be slow for it to be godly. We all don’t have to do praise and worship. Some people can do love songs, some people can do party songs, some people can do inspirational songs. The moment there’s no vulgarity, we’re all representing the same thing. The sound from the album is not what you hear every day. We’re trying to break that label, especially for the younger generation and the people outside the four walls of the church.”

Tim Godfrey’s ethos indeed colors the music with incandescent energy. From album opener “Praise The Lord,” which pairs amped-up vocals and an urgent drum pattern, the listener is cast onto uplifting territory. Everything from the synths to the Pidgin English-delivered lyrics points towards an alternative, however well-realized vision of gospel. Even by Afro gospel standards, it’s quite Afro-heavy. Godfrey surges on with the intent, with records like “Goodness And Mercy” and “Cho Cho Cho” reflecting similar vivacious ideals — the latter even carries the distinct flavor of amapiano’s buttery log drums. 

On “Infinity,” the lilting vocals of Oxlade stream beautifully across the warm soundscape. It’s clearly a project standout, making it even more ironic that the soul-influenced singer was the feature who drew the strongest pushback before the release of No Label. Beyond stressing the creative license of his artistry and this album in particular, Tim Godfrey really just wanted to make a project that goes against the contemporary leanings of despair. 

“I feel like there’s a need for it in the world that we live in right now. Joy is something that is really scarce,” he says, “happiness happens like the word ‘happy’ happens, but joy is something from within. As much as possible, I want to share joy, especially if it’s from God, because the joy of the Lord gives strength.”

From Keyboard Auditions to the 'No Label' Movement

Tim Godfrey didn’t want to do music initially. Like many who grew up in urban areas of Nigeria, the game of football was a domineering influence in his youthful days. “I was actually going to go professional before God arrested me,” he recalls, “but I also played the instrument. I play about five instruments. ‘Cos I was born Christian, loved God, experienced God, played in church, from primary school I was in a choir, always loved music, but I took it seriously around 1999. It might be hunger, frustration, it might just be God that dragged me into a situation where I needed to find him.” 

Godfrey had been a music director, but it was the half-decade between 1999 and 2004 where he “rededicated his life to Christ and started to go all in to serving.” Not long after, he put together the group now known as Extreme Dynasty, going on to change what gospel music meant, especially when filtered through African consciousness. It was through the organization of this group that he met Masterkraft, the Nigerian producer whose continued love for gospel has been quite understated. 

Nowadays, Masterkraft stands on a podium of greatness, which includes Don Jazzy and Sarz, but Tim Godfrey met him in quite different circumstances, however, no less inspired. “Masterkraft was not Masterkraft before; he was Sunny basically,” says Godfrey. “I think in 2006, [Extreme Dynasty] were auditioning for a keyboardist, and I’m always big on God speaking to me, giving me signs. We had auditioned so many keyboardists, and he came; he just finished secondary school that time. He walked in with his school uniform, slippers, and, if I remember correctly, green pants and a faded yellow t-shirt. When he walked in, I saw him. I said okay, just play; play any song you wanna play.

“And he played probably one of the greatest songs ever written and one of my favorite songs as a person because of the things I’ve been through in life, ‘Great Is Thy Faithfulness,’ and he played it so well, and God said, ‘That’s the sign.’ He joined the band as a keyboardist and lived with me for so many years, and that’s when he got into production. He played for seven or eight years, worked with me as a music director and lead pianist. He was the one who produced my first and second albums. We stopped working [together] in 2015, but we’ve always kept in touch. We started working again this season, production-wise, and it was beautiful that we were able to connect again. We finished seven songs in two days.”

In fact, Masterkraft produced six songs on No Label and featured on “Miracle,” an ode to God’s assuring love. It’s a beautiful reminder that lasting connections can be made from music, which also ties back to the No Label message since Godfrey could have easily labeled Masterkraft, but rather he gave space to expression rather than act on already conceived notions of the youngster musician. On the thought-provoking album cover, four depictions of Godfrey project him with colored locs, sporting tattoos. It’s almost as if he asks, does the outwards design of a vessel change the quality of the oil inside? 

“It’s beyond the music, it’s a movement,” he says of these convictions. “Music is just one way we’re using to talk about it. We have the No Label podcast, the first episode is going to be dropping soon. We have a No Label movie coming out in December. Beyond all of this, it’s also my life as a person — I have been labeled in so many ways. Because my personality on stage comes with energy and thanksgiving, people label it as entertainment or performance. Because I don’t do the slow songs or I don’t look sad, I don’t dress a certain way, there’s label in that. All of these are man-made labels. The moment I get into Christ, no matter how terrible I am, I don’t have to be good to get to Him. If I get to Him, He starts all the work on me, and I get better every day. We’re all work-in-progress as far as God’s kingdom is concerned.”