At the end of a gruelling three-year stretch touring the world, emo Afrobeats star CKay took some time off to reflect on how his life had changed on the back of his global hit, 2019’s “love nwantiti (ah ah ah)”, and 2022 debut album, Sad Romance. Holing up in his native Nigeria, he started to take stock of his life devoid of the frantic pace that life on the road required. “I felt like I really needed to take a break for my mental and physical health and a lot of things that were going on in my personal life,” CKay tells Apple Music. “During that break, I just really took some time to live life a little bit, because the thing about music is that it comes from experiences. It comes from vibes, emotions and feelings. So you have to actually live life to make music. I had to take some time to actually live my life a bit, reconnect with my family a lot more, and make music.” Pieced together over that break, CKay’s sophomore album, EMOTIONS, is a free-wheeling inquiry into the mind of a young Nigerian balancing the demands of superstardom and the tension that comes with life. Across 12 songs, there is a broader picture of the perspective that fuels CKay’s artistic narrative as romance, resilience and trepidation collide. “It’s a lot more than love on this album,” CKay says. “It’s my story and my struggles, all the stuff I had to go through to get to this point. It’s basically me talking about how many battles I had to fight, even with people that I love just because they couldn’t see the vision at the time. I just trusted that it was a good fight, like fighting you in love in the sense that, when you understand, you’ll catch up.” Still, there is the characteristic CKay warmth at the heart of EMOTIONS. Read on as CKay runs us through EMOTIONS, track by track. “THAT FEELING” “I made this one in Mauritius; it was produced by Reward Beatz. Basically, this song is after Sad Romance—I came to a point of not being in a romantic space at all. I was not really open to falling in love anymore. I was in a space where I felt I needed to really focus on myself, and I felt like being in a relationship didn’t really let me do that and there was a conflict. So it’s basically me declaring or stating where I stand in that respect. It’s a really crazy song. It’s a really interesting fusion of pop music, Asian music and bits of log drums that come from amapiano.” “EGWU EJI” “‘Egwu eji’ in traditional Igbo dialect, which is my language, means ‘something heavy’. ‘Egwu eji’ is used to describe an African woman and the beauty of an African woman, which is very fierce and is a very aggressive beauty. Basically, it is a song about meeting a woman in the club and the passion that follows. It is inspired by traditional Igbo music. The ọjà flute is a very prominent Igbo instrument. It has a very unique sound, and I was really in love with that sound and we made that. It was produced by Jay Synth; the flute was played by Ojazzy and there was some additional production from BMH as well. It is one of my favourite records on the album.” “RIDE OR DIE?” “‘RIDE OR DIE?’ was produced by Tudor [Monroe] and Moon Willis with a bit of co-production from BMH as well. The beginning has a sample in Romanian that means, ‘It’s written in the stars for us to be until the end.’ Anyways, it talks about some struggles in Nigeria, existing as a Nigerian, being with someone, and asking her if she’s your ride or die in messy situations, because in Nigeria, things get messy sometimes. You really need to ask the person that’s with you if they’re really with you. It’s a really amazing record. I love the sample and I love the sound of it as well. It was made in Lagos.” “IN MY BED” “I made this one in Saint Lucia last year. It’s a really cool song. It’s a really interesting fusion of Afrobeats and pop music. Like the song infers, it’s basically asking the girl to be in my bed.” “FALL IN LUV” “‘FALL IN LUV’ was produced by Ozedikus. It’s a really amazing song. I love this one so much. It’s one of my favourites on the album, and it’s about falling in love with someone after saying, ‘I didn’t want to fall in love in the beginning.’ Even though I love her, I’m still asking her to chill though, and not take advantage of that affection. There’s a line where I said, ‘Because I love you no mean say I be your maga.’ Sometimes, I feel love comes from a place of vulnerability, where, if you are in love with somebody, they could take advantage of it. I think that’s what makes love exciting as well, the risks and all that. It’s a situation of two people who are pretending like they’re not in love when they are actually in love.” “DORIME” (feat. Ty Dolla $ign) “‘DORIME’ is a really sensual record. I love it so much. I made this one in Paris and some of the guitar work on it was done in Mauritius by Mooneesawmy Devadasen. He’s a really talented guitarist and he really killed that one. I sent the song to Ty Dolla $ign, and he recorded the verse in less than 24 hours. When we made this one, I just knew that he would fit on it. It’s about a girl that likes love, but loves money more.” “WAHALA” (feat. Olamide) “‘WAHALA’ was produced by BMH with guitar by Mooneesawmy Devadasen as well. It’s a really crazy record. I think it’s also definitely one of my favourites on the whole album. Olamide killed his verse as well. It’s my second collaboration with Olamide, and I think we have something really interesting every time we collaborate. This is no exception.” “IT’S TRUE” (feat. Nora Fatehi) “I made this one in Spain, actually, in Mallorca. I was just vibing and I sent it to Nora. We’ve been in touch for, I think, almost two years. She did her thing and it was crazy. I’m excited that it’s finally out.” “ADDICTED” (feat. The Cavemen.) “We actually made this song two years ago. I’ve been keeping it for the right time. It was produced by The Cavemen., crazy musicians. They produce, they play instruments and they do everything. We did something really special on ‘ADDICTED’—it is about being addicted to love. We made something really sexy for the ladies and something special for everyone.” “MYSTERIOUS LOVE” “‘MYSTERIOUS LOVE’ is about falling in love with somebody in a mysterious way. In the beginning, I said I didn’t want to fall in love. But it’s finding myself in a place where I’m mysteriously falling in love with someone for reasons I can’t really explain. It’s one of the most romantic songs on the album.” “VANITY” (feat. Olamide) “‘VANITY’ was produced by myself and Reward Beatz and Eskeez. I made this one in Lagos and partly in Paris. I was just in a place where I was really feeling so many things in terms of real-life stuff, not just romantic stuff. I was going through a whole lot of stuff at the time and I was recounting a few things that happened. I was just speaking from my heart on that record. It contains a sample from a Wizboyy record called ‘Owu Sa Gi’, which is one of my favourite classic Afrobeats records. A big shout-out to Wizboyy for giving us permission to use that. Olamide did his thing, he killed it as usual.” “THE FINAL BOSS” “At the time I made this record, I just felt like so many people were against me for no reason. I felt like, for whatever reason, I was just fighting with so many people. I felt like I was in that part of the movie where there’s a protagonist, and that protagonist is trying to kill or get rid of the final boss of the movie. Only at that time, there are so many actors but the final boss is alone. Let’s say like Thanos and The Avengers—they’re all trying to destroy Thanos and they’re a whole team. That’s how I felt when I made this record, and it’s just me talking from my heart as well. ‘THE FINAL BOSS’ is not really any lovey-dovey type shit. It’s me just talking in real time.”