Stubborn

Though he certainly made a name for himself with 2017 hip-hop mixtape The Outlaw King, subsequent EPs Saturn (2020) and Outlaw (2022) and a string of hits including “Pray” and the Mayorkun collab “Holy Father”, Nigerian rapper, singer and songwriter Victony leans into the idea of reintroduction for his debut album. Across 14 tracks, 2024’s Stubborn represents a fully realised version of the artist, whose boldness and propensity to experiment with a variety of sounds and moods underscores his maverick approach to both life and career. “With Outlaw, I tried to let people know that [I am] different,” the artist born Anthony Victor tells Apple Music. “Here, I’m continuing with that stubbornness, telling people we haven’t switched lanes. I’m still about being me regardless of who likes it or not. And just reflecting back on everything that I have been through and where I’m coming from—because it’s not necessarily a land of dreams. It’s not easy to be from Lagos. You have to be hopeful, because there’s not much to give you hope around you. Victony is resilient, and I feel like this album truly represents who I am now.” Here, he talks through key tracks from the album. “Oshaprapra” (with Shorae Moore) “‘Oshaprapra’ is a Yoruba term for when somebody is shining. I’m saying we’ve been through a lot, but we’re still shining. I’ve been through hell, but my skin is still glowing. That’s the metaphor in that song, and it kind of just embodies everything that the album is about. So it felt right to make that the intro. Shout-out to Shorae; he’s an upcoming Nigeria singer and songwriter. When he laid down his melodies, he kind of inspired me to do more on the song.” “Anita” “This was produced by P2J—his production is always a masterclass. Having that amapiano element makes me excited to be part of this whole new movement, but in my own way. Because he didn’t do it in the traditional way; he was very creative with it, and that was very exciting for me, because this is something new but it’s still going to be particular to me.” “Everything” “This is the oldest record on the album; I made it in late 2022. It’s produced by BlaiseBeatz, who made ‘Kolomental’ from the Outlaw EP. I loved [Post Malone and Swae Lee’s 2018 hit] ‘Sunflower’ so much that I took the song to Blaise. I’m like, 'Bro, I want to make something like this for an Afrobeats song.’ And then we just played the exact chords and I did what I did, and we put the sample on there. It meant so much to me that Post Malone and Swae Lee would actually give me the permission to do that, because these are people that I grew up listening to. So that was good encouragement for me to keep creating, to also understand that there are no boundaries with arts—anything is possible.” “Risk” “‘Risk’ is produced by P.Priime. I had recently recorded ‘Stubborn’, and it was my favourite song at the time. I kept playing it over and over again. I feel like that’s the reason why I approached ‘Risk’ with that energy, because it has the ‘Stubborn’ energy in a very different way, in different pockets. And I think ‘Risk’ was the song that made me realise that it’s a whole new thing now—the way I do my music now, it’s new levels. The way I’m able to fuse some elements of trap, even the Afrobeats and some Fuji melodies and all that. That’s when I knew that, okay, we were onto something.” “Tiny Apartment” (with SAINt JHN) “SAINt JHN is actually one of my top five biggest artists of all time. I admire his work, his writing, his everything. He’s such an incredible artist. Just being in the same studio as SAINt JHN was very, very inspiring because getting to make music with the people you adore is something else. It was a very, very collaborative process. It turned out to be a very interesting mix because I did it in the most local way possible. Tiny apartments in Nigeria are called ‘face-me-I-face-you’. So that’s what I was thinking about: What would it feel like missing your lover in that kind of situation? And I believed he did the same. So it’s just having both worlds come together to create that. It’s just magic. It’s one of my favourite songs off the album. [The spoken-word intro] was SAINt’s idea in the studio; he directed the whole thing.” “Slow Down” (with Teezo Touchdown) “Teezo’s album [How Do You Sleep at Night?] was my favourite album in 2023 because it was fresh. He was a breath of fresh air. He was intriguing. I’m like, ‘Who is this guy? I have to work with this guy.’ We went through different beats. Shout-out to [producer] Nineteen85. Teezo is such a creative artist, but a very intentional artist at that. I feel like this was the longest session that I had for the album because it took a lot of times to figure out what we actually wanted, but I’m glad that we arrived that time. I had to slow down because it was just so perfect for both of us. It was new for me, new for him, but at the same time, it didn’t lose touch of our original elements. It’s the melodies that we are very familiar with.” “Stubborn” (with Asake) “‘Stubborn’ inspired everything. When we were done with the session I kept playing it; it became my favourite song at the time. I thought a collab would be interesting, because it’s a new sound. I felt like it’d be interesting to have someone on it, and obviously the melodies and the character and the song were such a perfect match for Asake. I told him, ‘This is just me reflecting on life and just being grateful, but reaffirming that I’m still on course, I’m still about what I’m about. I’ve never changed. I’m not changing for anybody, that this is me, this is Victony, right?’ We had that conversation, and he was tapped in and he did his thing.” “Kolo (Kolomental II)” “I did ‘Kolo’ the same day I did ‘Stubborn’; I just wrote with the same energy. And listening to the song, I realised that it was the same type as ‘Kolomental’, the one off Outlaw EP, but it was now a different character, a different purpose. Because the first ‘Kolomental’ was basically saying, like, 'Look, I don’t want to think about anything. I don’t want to be sad.’ But this ‘Kolomental’ is saying, 'I’m not that person anymore. Don’t try me,’ basically. And it kind of represents the phase that I am now with this album.” “Pier 46” (with KTIZO) “We did this in LA—and in LA, I was in a very experimenting mood. I just wanted to try new stuff. With ‘Pier 46’, I was thinking, ‘What would Billie Eilish sound like on an Afrobeats record?’ Because I had just met Billie two or three weeks before. And I spoke on this idea with Hoodini [one half of production duo KTIZO]. And I just kept experimenting and trying out new stuff, where I would lie down, he would keep playing the beat, and then I would get up again, do something. It wasn’t even a very serious session. Hoodini named the beat ‘Pier 46’. I asked him what it meant to him, and he’s like, ‘In New Jersey, they are different docks that they go to.’ He used to go out there to chill. And when he made the beats, that’s what he thought about. And I felt like that was interesting.” “Sunday School” “‘Sunday School’ was produced by P2J. He spoke to the guitarist on how he wanted something he could play at the beach. That’s how it was feeling, and I just trusted the whole thing. And it’s a very interesting mix, because it’s a heartbreak song, but a groovy one. The lyrics are super sad, but it’s still groovy at the same time, and that’s what makes it a very, very special record, because he has so much pain in it. But still, you still want to move to it.” “Street Affair” “I made this in LA as well. I told [Hoodini] to just keep sending me beats. ‘Street Affair’ kind of stood out and it spoke to me. I went in the studio and just reflected on recent happenings in my life, things that have hurt me. So ‘Street Affair’ is a prayer basically saying, 'I don’t want... All the bad things happening around me, I don’t want to be identified with that. I want people to see me in a different light.’ It was a prayer, like a silent prayer to God. And it felt right to close the album with a prayer, because the album kind of starts with prayer. That’s reaffirmation of…I’ve been through fire, we’re here now. It can only be through grace and just ending with the prayer.”