Life is full of challenges that could stop someone from achieving their dreams. On “Keep On Moving,” JToolz gives voice to Abidemi Ogunmilua’s inspirational songwriting, where she urges listeners never to give up on themselves and their ambitions. The song is written in English, Nigerian Pidgin English, and Yoruba to reach a diverse audience.

Ogunmilua opens the song with an admonition, expressing that she doesn’t know what the person (in this situation, a listener) is going through. But she believes that things, no matter how hard they are right now, would be alright. “I know life is fair to no one, but be strong, [and] don’t try to give up,” Ogunmilua writes, encouraging listeners to keep working and believe things would get better.

She offers a prayer in the subsequent verse, placing everything in God’s hands. As I’m working, God, please reward my efforts, she writes in a mixture of Nigerian Pidgin English and Yoruba. “Oh Lord, bless my hustle, make I no work in vain (Oh Lord, bless my hustle, don’t let me work in vain).” She asks listeners to say “Amen” to the prayer before further requesting that God shouldn’t let him be a slave to someone else, and never face disgrace but instead face grace.

In between the verses, Ogunmilua pens a delightful chorus to tie everything together, encouraging listeners to keep on moving and hoping they won’t give up on life. The bridge complements the chorus, adding a celebratory mood to wrap up the song’s desirable message of hope.

Though brilliant lyrics, their messages won’t be tangible without JToolz’s clear-headed interpretation. His delivery gives meaning to every verse, so that their heartwarming messages would soothe aching hearts contemplating giving up on themselves.

The instrumental arrangement, which joins Fuji’s carefree and Afrobeats’ untroubled styles together, gives the song a happy-go-lucky demeanour befitting a small house party or gathering.

The song, for all its honesty, relies on the overused phrase to keep on moving, regardless of life’s challenges. Listeners, undoubtedly, must have heard it many times and, perhaps, see it as a platitude, a ploy to sell records, which is somehow not well-intentioned. Lines like “life is fair to no one and the title’s exhortation to keep moving are bland sentiments employed by aspirational songs, unique to gospel singers, creating blind hopes, and don’t necessarily amount to what it preaches.

Ogunmilua’s writing works best in some specific details. The prayer for a hustle that isn’t in vain; the plea not to be made a slave to someone else, but the broader verses could use more specificity to paint a clearer picture and not just a mere assertion.

The idea to codemixes and switches between English, Pidgin, and Yoruba is a smart way to broaden the song’s reach. But the constant switches without properly dwelling on a language for clearer expression divert and dilute the messages. The Pidgin and Yoruba lines have more exciting and rhythmic efficiency. The English ones, on the contrary, serve mostly as translations of what is already said in Pidgin and Yoruba.

The Fuji and Afrobeats composition gives the song its party-ready charm. But it’s awkward for a song about battling hardship, fear of disgrace, and a prayer for success.

A song asking God not to let its narrator (and listeners) work in vain deserves an arrangement with room for that reflection. The happy-go-lucky groove flattens the emotional integrity, failing to hold the tension between struggle and hope.