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Ruger shares his perspective on his Debut Album ‘Ru The World’.
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My debut album ‘Ru The World’ is very relatable – Ruger
Nigerian Afrobeat and dancehall artist Michael Adebayo Olayinka, popularly known as Ruger, sheds light on his forthcoming debut album, ‘Ru The World‘.
After making a notable entry onto the music scene in 2020 with his debut EP ‘Pandemic’, he has quickly risen to prominence as one of the influential figures shaping the landscape of Nigerian mainstream music.
Ruger released the popular single “Asiwaju” ahead of the release of his debut album. He then followed it up with the fascinating songs “Jonzing Boy” and “Kristy.” On September 1, 2023, the gifted genre-bender will release his debut album, titled “Ru The World.”
Ruger discusses his inspirations, what keeps him grounded, and what to anticipate from his new album in an interview with Apple Music Africa Now Radio.
D’Prince, who signed Ruger to his Jonzing World label and mentored him as he rose to fame, was responsible for his discovery. Ruger claims that D’Prince is a genius whose specific talent is identifying those who have the potential to break out and become stars.
“Shout out to the Prince you know, that’s one of his great talents, scouting for talent, knowing exactly where everyone’s strengths are. But I think he saw the confidence because I’ve always been a confident person, even when I was back on the streets and all of that. So I feel like that’s what he saw and said like ‘Someone like this is going to fight the battles of this music.’ I had the perfect voice to put myself out there so why not? He put me on and big thanks for him.”
Ruger has made a name for himself as an artist who doesn’t enjoy singing about wanton pleasure and recreating this pleasure on stage.
Despite whatever listeners may deduce from his art, Ruger shares that he’s a reflective person who spends time evaluating his actions.
“I stay praying you know? Most of the time I like to just be by myself reflecting on whatever I’ve done, whatever I’m doing to know when I’m doing something wrong or right. It’s important to always sit down and reflect because sometimes if you’re just living life nonchalantly, as it comes, sometimes you can make some mistakes and you don’t even worry and you don’t even know why you made that mistake you just moving on. So you have to have the time where you sit down and just re-evaluate and reflect and know where you have to do better and change or do more.”
Despite mostly employing the Dancehall style that he brilliantly and uniquely deploys in a Konto style, Ruger is versatile and he promises that listeners will find different genres in his album.
“It’s just every element of Ru is in this album. And you know some of the things that I’ve gone through, that I’ve put in this album, some people are actually going through it, it’s a very relatable album. It has African sauce, it has Dancehall sauce, it has R&B, it has pure reggae. Everything you want to listen to, it’s there, whatever you want just pick your poison.”
On September 1, 2023, Ruger’s ‘Ru The World‘ is set for release, and music fans can’t wait to hear the album, which Ruger claims has parts of his reality.