EKENE knows a thing or two about the weight of expectation and escapism as a salve for heavy burdens. A sense of palpable tension has been a near-constant in his music since he started sharing his songs with the world on SoundCloud. He made a definitive step forward in his career earlier in 2026 with the June release of “Red Benz,” a sweeping imagination of a furtive romance whose routines are typically confined to the intimacy of a car. It’s less the actions being described by EKENE, and more about how his voice cloaks those routines in a sense of trepidation. 

That pervading sense of doom is an intrinsic part of his debut EP, ‘Little Us.’ Across seven intense vignettes of his life, EKENE unpacks his familial trauma, a fixation with morbidity, and, most of all, the healing required to fashion a path forward. It’s a gift he hopes that listeners pick up on when they press play. “I really  hope it allows people to connect with a part of themselves that they might have ignored for a while or allow them to sit in feelings that they might have put back or pushed back for the sake of just moving forward,” he told Apple Music’s Africa Now Radio about the project. “That’s really what I want.”

This conversation has been edited for clarity. 

What are you proud of in terms of your music?

The fact that I stuck to this, the fact that I’m currently 24 and I’m still doing this. I’m still spreading the message through music. I’m still creating the music that I feel like I’ve always wanted to create. Growing up, my closest musical outlet was the church, it was the choir. I think having that expression or having access to that kind of musical expression early on definitely set the pace for my love for music and for my expression through music moving forward. I think it primed me to be ready for the exposure I got when I grew up and was able to be exposed to more music. 

When did you realise the impact of your music?

In 2019, I posted a song I wrote and the reactions I got were amazing. That was the first time I got that kind of validation for anything I’ve created musically. It wasn’t just the validation but the fact that people would message me and tell me that they relate so heavily to what I just said or this reminds them of this time or this is how they felt at this specific time. I was like,  “Okay wow, music I’m making actually has a connection to people outside of just the fact of enjoying the process.”

What was the thinking going into making ‘LITTLE US?’

It was healing in many ways. I feel like I got to talk to a part of myself that I kind of ignored. I’ve listened back to the EP even more recently and I’ve realized that it almost feels like an apology almost because there was a point in my music making process or just in my love for music where I ignored the idea of taking this as an actual career path or actually sticking to it. I feel like, in ignoring that, I ignored that part of myself. So, the process of making the EP is like checking in and telling my younger self that, “Okay,  that’s never going to happen again one,” and two I’m going to stick to this and three when you look back at this you’re going to see me and you’re going to see all the dreams that we had when we were younger were actually possible and I’m actually going to make it happen. So it was almost like a healing apology kind of.

Do you approach music like a diary?

It’s a mix, and the idea of a diary is so true to what this EP is. I’ve come to realize that music really in a way is my diary. I feel like it’s the only way I could say it’s such a beautiful thing right? Because you can say and be as vulnerable as you want to be but people will read your lyrics and hear your lines and all they will see is themselves and not you. So, it’s like an open personal diary in a way. I think it really helped with touching those vulnerable parts and not having to worry about shame or being scared about putting the songs out because I know people are only going to see themselves when they hear this music. It’s not just me. 

How did you make “Lullaby?”

What inspired that was a very intimate conversation with the producer, Tudor. Shoutout Tudor at the time. We had a very intimate conversation about our grandparents and one of our grandparents had suffered from Alzheimer’s at the time. It felt only natural that by the time we wanted to start the studio session that we would make a song true to the conversation we had just had. I tried to navigate that feeling throughout the song. The feeling of losing yourself in someone that should know you for who you are; someone who should love you then looking at you and wondering who you are. The pain of loss but not losing the person in a way. It’s almost more painful because this person is right here but they also aren’t. I tried to navigate that feeling throughout the song, that’s the emotional core of the song.

How did you ideate “Red Benz?”

It’s so funny because the song isn’t about a red Benz. I think the Benz is just how expensive the feeling is. I was walking through my university at the time and I saw a car, right? And I imagined myself having a car in uni at the time. How I’d pick up my hypothetical love interest from class, we’d skip classes, we’d take long night drives on the uni roads, we’d eat takeout in the car, and we’d listen to music in the car. I thought that telling a song through the story of this car would be a nice way to go about a love song. 

How “Relations” came about?

We had a songwriting camp in Ghana at the time. We missed the session, so we had to have the session at home in our Airbnb. It was me, Breye, and Duke. So, we were talking and we kind of settled on the idea of a relationship but one where things aren’t working right and it feels like you’ve put in too much to just let this go. So, you’re stuck in this space where it’s like, “Should we continue? Should we work on this? Or should we just allow things to be and just go our separate ways?” So, I wrote the song, we wrote the song about that specific moment in time, that specific moment in a relationship. 

What do you feel about staying in relationships where things are not working out?

This is me for the most part. There’s this thing about sunk cost, and I feel like it applies too much to relationships too. It’s like even though the signs are telling you that this thing isn’t working, but because of the amount of energy and effort you’ve put into this, you just can’t bring yourself to say, “Oh, I’m going to let this go.” Something in you just wants to keep putting more into it. It’s a difficult decision to make and I really try to represent that in the song. It’s my baby. I’m so proud. It’s like I finally addressed something. It’s like having, I wouldn’t say beef per se, but having an elephant in the room that I finally addressed. It feels almost like closure. I’m so happy and I’m so proud of the project.

What would you say to your fans and long term listeners?

To my fans, to everyone who has been supporting me throughout, I really hope the EP makes you guys proud. I know it’s been almost three years now and I know I’ve been saying it’s coming, but I’m happy it’s finally here. I really hope it makes you proud. To everyone who’s going to listen to it, I really want you to sit in it. Really sit with the emotions and with the story.  I really  hope it allows people to connect with a part of themselves that they might have ignored for a while or allow them to sit in feelings that they might have put back or pushed back for the sake of just moving forward. That’s really what I want.