The sound is unfolding right in front of our eyes. In early April, DJ and producer collective NATIVE Sound System unveiled the Ayra Starr and Lojay co-headline lead single, “Runaway,” as the first piece of the puzzle ahead of its anticipated debut album. Conceived during recording camps across London and Lagos in late 2020 and early 2021, the album has been billed as a trip through varying weather and cultural seasons, including rainy times, summer, Christmas and harmattan.

 

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As the album draws closer, NATIVE Sound System have, today, released the second lead single, “Wedding Ring,” featuring a one-time-only band comprising Nigerian singers Wani, BOJ, Odunsi (the Engine), and Odeal. Culled from the summer section of the NSS album, the new single is a mid-tempo bop with romantic overtones, symbolising both the breeziness of the season and the vibrancy of Nigerian wedding culture both at home and in the diaspora. Produced by Trill Xoe, “Wedding Ring” collects multiple influences, from folk-indented Afropop to soulful R&B touches, into a sweltering song fit for several purposes, including intimate moments and communal ones.

Exhibiting seamless synergy, the quartet offer admiration-based songwriting with their own personal twist. Wani leads proceedings off with the hook, his impassioned croon underscoring the devotion of an affecting line like, “Girl you know I’m a rider.” BOJ and Odunsi pass the baton within a verse, the former’s fuzzy baritone serving as a stylistic counterpoint to the latter’s atmospheric tone. Odeal joins in with a wonderful verse of his own, sealing the lovestruck verve of the song. With Wani returning a few times to sing the hook between verses, as well as its number of vocal contributors, “Wedding Ring” takes on the structure of a rap cypher, but with the soul of a confessional R&B cut, and the buoyant spirit associated with summer.

“WANI, BOJ, Odunsi, and Odeal came together in this really symphonous way, bringing something from each of their styles,” Trill Xoe says of the fusion ideal powering the single. That’s also emblematic of the upcoming NATIVE Sound System album, an amalgamation of dozens of artists and producers and support creatives, in service of championing the sounds of tomorrow, today.

Listen to “Wedding Ring” here.

ICYMI: READ OUR DIGITAL COVER, ‘PROJECT RUNAWAY’