When he dropped Show You Off, the afrobeats-influenced song that put him on the map in Africa, WurlD did a clever thing: he dyed his hair blue.
That has made him stand out in a very crowded scene. But WurlD stands out for musical reasons too.
Born in Nigeria, he moved to Atlanta, Georgia when he was 15, and for many years worked in the US mainly producing and writing songs for other artists in a variety of different genres. As a result his own sound is now quite different from that of artists fully baked in the motherland, he tells me:
I started making music in ATL, and it was very R&B, I was doing hooks for hip hop artists, I was doing top lines for house music DJs, I had the opportunity to create music for country artists. So my versatility comes from that.
When I started doing afrobeats, [I realised] I can’t do anything else but fuse what I’ve learnt and been exposed to. I call it ‘electro-fusion’ because you never know what song you’re going to get from WurlD next.”
It’s true that WurlD’s hits to date – including Mad, Contagious, Trobul and Stamina – are very different.
When I asked WurlD to pick a favourite from his 19-track latest album My WorlD with U, he went for Gucci, a smooth and dreamy number with a vibe all of its own.
For me every song is an experiment. I’ve been a fan of artists that have always been bold to try new things, and I know the feeling of sitting somewhere and you hear a new sound and it’s different from everything else and it’s well-executed. That is what inspires me.”
WurlD’s enthusiasm and excitement about his music is obvious when you meet him, and was proven by his decision to share his new song, Location, with me a month before he officially drops it.
It features Sarz and for me the sound is just [a] love sound. This is me pouring my heart out, and just effortlessly giving. It’s just the freedom of it, and not being afraid to be in myself and to be African, loving myself and the world and giving myself in the most pure way. I think people are going to hear that in this project.”
