Chief Oyerigha Echo Toikumoh opens his four-track album “The Earlier The Better” with the title cut, a nine-minute record that gives the traditional Ijaw performance style room to unfold in full.
That extended runtime fits the wider project. So “Chief Oyerigha Echo Toikumoh The Earlier The Better” joins tracks like “Tamarau Ko Ewori Bra,” “Imiyen Ye Nimi” and “Erewou-Posi-Posi,” each running well past eight minutes across the 35-minute album. It follows a call-and-response, storytelling format common to traditional Niger Delta performance, where the message develops gradually rather than resolving in a tight hook.
Toikumoh has continued building a catalogue rooted in Ijaw language and cultural expression, with other releases like “Respect Yourself,” “Izon Zou Aru” and “PRAYER-PRAYER” following that same extended, communal style. The title itself carries proverbial weight, encouraging timeliness and readiness rather than delay, a message that fits naturally into the genre’s tradition of embedding life lessons within musical performance.
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