Right before he began work on his second album, someone told Obongjayar it was time to “start writing songs”. “I remember being really pissed,” laughs the artist, whose real name is Steven Umoh – though, in person, he goes by “OB”. “Like, what the fuck? What do you think I’ve been doing this whole time?”
The incredulity seems fair. The 32-year-old Nigerian singer has been releasing work for more than a decade, running the gamut of genres from hip-hop to Afrobeat to experimental electronics to spoken word, alt-rock and soul. It has made him something of a critics’ darling, but if you’re not familiar with his solo music (his debut album, 2022’s Some Nights I Dream of Doors, was stunning), odds are you’ve heard his lithe, gravelly inflections on Richard Russell’s Everything Is Recorded project, or warming up UK rap star Little Simz tracks such as 2021’s glorious Point and Kill, or sampled by super-producer du jour Fred Again on the 2023 behemoth Adore U.
