Odunsi (The Engine)

“hectic” was interesting because the first part of it was just 234jaydaa. I was just recording with her, and we were trying some stuff. I wrote that

part, but I wanted someone else to sing it. We were also trying to work on another song, that’s why, if you notice, at the start of the song, she

says, “I’m just gonna read it,” but the recording already started. She was reading and singing it and it just sounded so beautiful. I was thinking

of making it a full song, then I made this other song, “hectic.” I sent it to Amaarae, and she just slides on it. It was the kind of R&B stuff I

grew up on. For me to hear myself making music that sounded like what I grew up on, it just gave me confidence that it was what I was meant to be

doing. It sounded like the quality level that I admire. At that time, Solis was already sending me demos. She used to sing covers on her webcam. She

was just coming up and making lo-fi pop vibe, and I thought she’d do well on it.

I always wanted to make a song that was neo-soul but had an afro bounce to it. It didn’t exist at that point, so I was like, “I wanted to make one.”

In my brain, I just knew that it was possible to do it. I used to think about it all the time because I love neo-soul. So, I would always think of a

way to do it with gbedu. When I did the chords and put the drum pattern together, I was like, “Yeah, this is it.” It was exactly how I imagined it.

I sent it to Tay after a while. I already had the song for a bit. Tay and I were exchanging music. We have so many songs we’ve not released. One

day, I just sent him “green light.” I wasn’t sure he’d like it that much, but he sent it back right after, and I was like, “This is perfect.”

This one is very interesting because I was making that beat for Santi. We were all in the crib in Magodo (Lagos), and I was in the studio cooking

up. This was a period when there was a series of nights out, and I just made the beat off of that energy, and I had Efe Jazz come play that guitar

riff that’s now become super popular. At that time, Ifeanyi (Nwune) was managing Runtown, and Runtown was in Los Angeles. Ifeanyi told me he’d send

the song to Runtown, so I sent the song to him. I wasn’t thinking much about it like that, and then, one day, I got a FaceTime video call from

Ifeanyi. He just has his phone up and he’s smoking a blunt. He was in this studio that’s like an open studio, and Runtown is in the back, and I’m

hearing Runtown’s verse. I’m telling myself that this is the craziest Runtown verse I’ve ever heard. I was like, “Yeah yeah, this one is perfect.” I

didn’t even hear the final thing until later, but just off that phone call, it sounded great.

I like this one a lot. I made it one week after I made “wanted you,” and I was like, “I want to do more of that” because I had so much fun making

“wanted you.” Off the confidence of how “wanted you” sounded, I knew I wanted to make something like that again. While making it, I wasn’t sure it

was going to be on the project, but it made it.

Nasty C was in Lagos, and we met up. That was actually fun because we would go around Lagos at night, and I was with Santi and one of my homies,

Genio. So, we met up with Nasty C, and we made that song. It was a very interesting one because at that time, South African-Nigerian link-ups were

very popular, but there wasn’t anything really happening in the underground like that. Working with Nasty C and having Santi on it was very

important.

“take a break” and “outcast” were made around the same time, maybe between two days. I was just realising that I could say things, like I could say

what was directly happening to me. I had just gotten off the phone with my mum because I wasn’t really seeing my mum a lot since I started working

on music. I was just able to put the feeling directly into the music. I just had to figure out that I was talking to myself. It feels harder when it

feels like I’m talking to people. When it’s just a self-dialogue, it gets easier without knowing that I’m making a song for people or that they’re

going to listen to it.

I love “angel,” this is my second favourite song from the album. It was an interesting song to make because at that time, I was conceptualising the

idea of an offspring, and I was thinking of what song I would like my kid to hear from me if I had a child in the future. In my head, “angel” was

that song, and that was the concept behind it. Duendita was an artist whom I had found at that time, whose voice was very special to me. I just

messaged her about the song, and we made it.

I don’t remember the era I made it, but I was getting very bold because I remember making it, and GMK was in the bathroom. He came out and was like,

“What the fuck are you doing? This is weird,” and I was like, “Yeah, I like it.” I remember making the beat separately and recording the song later

that night. I was just super inspired by the ‘80s classics by Bobby Brown and Ralph Falcon, just that smooth ‘80s programmed drums, reverbs, and

snares. That was what motivated that one.

So with this one, I woke up from one of those naps where you’re sweating. You just took an evening nap, and you wake up, and it seems like a war

just happened. I see like seven missed calls on Snapchat, and it’s from Tycoone, who’s David’s creative director. I hit him back, and he’s like,

“Where are you? David wants to see you.” I’m like, “What the fuck? Alright, bet.” So, I pull up and we go to this place called Shisha Lounge back

then. David has this whole entourage, and there were so many people around him. I think Peruzzi was with him at that time, and this producer called

Fresh. I wanted to sit on the other side because there were so many people, but Davido called me over to sit right beside him. I was nervous as

hell. I was very antisocial at that time. He then told me to start playing music, and I played “outcast,” then I played “falling,” and he said,

“Them go love you for Yankee.” He then asks me to play him stuff I’d not worked on, and I had the beat for “divine” from Hvrry, the producer. The

beat only played for three seconds, and he was like, “Yeah, this is the one.” That was the first time I’d ever seen someone do that; he hadn’t even

heard the beat for long enough, but he was just like, “Let’s go.” So, we got into the cars and we went to Eko Hotels. He rented out a suite, and we

set up there to work on the song. He kind of added some production stuff; it was the first time I’d seen him work in person, so it was interesting

to see how involved he was in the process. Later on, I found out that he used to produce music. Working with him was interesting. I feel like if

life permits it, and we work on music together again, it would always be interesting because there’s a certain understanding of production.

“outcast” is very inspired by my life experiences up until that point, when I was working on the album. I had a very interesting self-perception

where it felt like I wasn’t really fitting into places as naturally as I would have liked, even if I tried to. It was reflecting on the light that

came on me, so that’s why that song was a very interesting point for me. I remember making it and knowing that I know how to express myself on songs

easily without saying too much. I had just started recording music properly, like one and a half years prior. So, I was getting better as the second

passed and it’s a song that made me feel that I could say things easily. I was at Magodo (Lagos) in GMK’s house when I made “outcast.” It’s where I

made most of the songs.

I started this one and sent it to Hamzaa, and I was like, “Yo, just go crazy,” and she did. I feel like she’s one of my favourite vocalists that

I’ve ever heard. She’s one of the earliest people that it’s been super easy to talk to about music because she really loves soul music, and I love

soul music as well. She just understood certain things I’d say and be interested in, and she has a great voice, too. When she sent “take me there”

back to me, I was like, “Woah, this is such a big voice.” I loved it because I knew I wanted this song. At this time, I hadn’t even thought about

sequencing or anything, but I just knew that this song was needed because it had this kind of transitional feeling towards the rest of the project.

There wasn’t anyone around me who influenced me or this sound. I was really just interested in ‘80s pop music at that time because I was revisiting

some Nigerian classics and some TV shows that had dropped at that time. I found out Chris Okotie used to make pop music, and the quality of the

music was great. There was William Onyeabor as well. It was nice to see people who experimented with synth music who were from where I’m from and

looked like me. Making “falling” made me realise what the project was supposed to sound like. I teased it the night I made it, the video is still

somewhere on my Twitter (X), and from the response I got, I was sure that this sound was where I wanted to go. I was able to communicate as

naturally as I could, but it still had all the elements I liked.

I was actually devastated around this time because I had just lost my laptop. I was working on a different album, which I thought was going to be my

first album. Something happened to my laptop, and I sent it to someone to fix, and they just ran away with it. So, all the music I’d been working on

up till then was gone. I had to start from scratch. “Rare” was one of the last songs on the album. I had this guy called DAP The Contract help me on

that. He’s very great at arranging. I had met DAP through another friend, Seni Saraki. DAP and I would exchange music all the time, and I saw how

mature his perspective was. That was good for me because at the time, I didn’t have too many resources to see all the people I was studying on a

global level, but he gave me the same kind of feeling that I would have expected from those people because of the understanding he had, and he was

also close to home. He helped with the arrangement of “rare.” The song started with me hanging out with Hamzaa one day, and she was playing the

piano. I sent a voice note to her a few days prior, just saying those words, and she sang it that way. That’s how that came together, and we

eventually got DAP to do some additional vocals because I wanted it to sound like gospel or a choir.