The release follows the recent arrival of his debut album The Evil Genius, an art and music fusion experience.
Recorded between Accra in Ghana and Ouidah in Kidjo’s home country Benin, and driven by lush guitar arrangements and percussion drums, ‘Òròkórò’ is themed around gratitude, relying on the emotiveness of their native Yoruba language, which the song is largely performed in.
The visuals for ‘Òròkórò’ were helmed by filmmaker Thomas Leloup from French creative collective Minuit Une. Filmed in the locales of Paris and la forêt de Fontainebleau, the video is a visual manifestation of a spiritual musical, seamlessly blending modernity with legacy while offering a rich tapestry of spirituality and cultural heritage. It also draws upon the aesthetics of West African traditional religion and pays tribute to the significant historical site of Kidjo, a five-time Grammy Award winner and 2023 Polar Music Prize laureate’s birthplace in Benin – a focal point for West African spiritual culture.
Throughout the video, Mr Eazi embodies a prophet sharing his message of thanksgiving, while Angélique Kidjo reigns as a queen symbolising strength and resilience.
Recorded over two years between multiple cities around the world, The Evil Genius comes on the back of Mr Eazi’s seven-year career among Afrobeats’ biggest names. The project blends Afrobeats, Afropop, gospel, hiplife, highlife and folklore.
With production from an international heavy-hitting cast including Kel-P (Nigeria), Michaël Brun (Haiti), Knucks (UK) and Nonso Amadi (Canada), as well as guest artists such as fellow Nigerian star Joeboy, and South African group Soweto Gospel Choir, The Evil Genius is Mr Eazi’s most personal work by far, and it sees him diving deeply into strong themes around love, betrayal, loneliness, and family, expressed through three distinctive movements or acts, throughout the album.
The album also birthed 16 art pieces to accompany each track on the album, with each song represented by a unique physical art piece that Mr Eazi has commissioned from different contemporary visual artists that he encountered while travelling across Africa recording the project. Noting a lack of alignment and collaboration between Africa’s exploding pop music industry, and the continent’s fine art creators, Mr Eazi says the LP is highlighting the power of such collaboration by incorporating the work of these artists – representing eight African nations and a continent of aesthetics – into The Evil Genius.
With over 4 billion streams, Mr Eazi is also the voice behind Afropop hits ‘Pour Me Water’, ‘Skin Tight’, and ‘Leg Over’, as well as ground-breaking collaborations with the likes of Beyoncé, J Balvin, and Bad Bunny. His global travels birthed two acclaimed mixtapes Life Is Eazi Vol. 1: Accra To Lagos and Life Is Eazi Vol. 2: Lagos To London. A serial entrepreneur, he founded emPawa Africa in 2018 as a talent incubator programme designed to accelerate the careers of African artists.
