In recent times, having to make Afrobeats music from the diaspora is something not many have been able to score correctly and consistently. This year, J’ray has set out to make an exception to this unfortunate reoccurrence.
The multi-talented Nigerian Afro-fusion singer and songwriter has been putting out music officially since 2017 but this year, he’s applying pressure. His first record of the year “Thinking Out Loud” was released in February with a brand new single still on the way. It would be the first time the act has put out 2 singles in the first 4 months of the year. So as said, applying pressure.
On Tuesday, we became one of the very first publications to have an exclusive chat with the super-talented Afro-fusion artiste.
Q: Hello J’Ray, for your potential new fans, officially introduce us to J’Ray
J: My name is Morojuoluwa Oke, known as J’Ray. I’m an independent Nigerian Afro-fusion singer, producer and songwriter. I’m a Graduate of Texas Tech University and an established Full Stack Software Engineer.
Q: How long have you been doing music?
J: I’ve been creating songs probably since about 8 years old but I didn’t drop my first official single till 2017, so for about 6 years now.
Q: Tell us a bit about your background, how it shaped who you are now
J: I was born into a musically gifted family in Lagos where I spent a lot of time in the church, learning and picking different musical instruments before I actually started putting lyrics together. My dad was a choir director for sometime which was where most of my love for music came from.
J: Growing up with that sort of background naturally made me drawn to the music, at that point, it was inevitable to drop something.
Q: Interesting. Why Afrobeats? Or what genre of music would you say you do?
J: I would tag my genre Afro Fusion because I tend to sing a bit of everything, soul, country, pop, r&b , and so on.. So it’s difficult to tag what I do to a specific genre.
Q: For your kind of music, Who would you say you draw musical influences from?
J: There’s quite a few, obviously my dad, Sir Shina Peters growing up, but more recently Fireboy, Roddy Ricch, and The Weeknd
Q: Tell us about your forthcoming new single out this Friday
J: “My Money” really came about when my producer sent me the beat… The moment I heard the beat, I knew I had to get BM Casso on it. It’s an uptempo, life of the party song certain to get you moving. it’s one of my favorite records so far so I’m super excited.
Q: It features BM Casso, quickly talk us through how y’all got to connect
J: Casso and I met through a mutual friend, a fellow artist, Millian probably about 2 years ago. Prior to actually meeting him, I had heard a couple of his songs and I knew we definitely had to cook up something. “My money” is only the first of many collaborations we already have.
Q: You know we about the projects. Is this a sign of a body of work to come??
J: Possibly, but we would like to see how things play out with this release then we’ll go from there.
Q: What to expect from you in the nearest future? Tours? Shows? More collabs??
J: Yeahhh, all of that. In the next couple of months, i’d be playing a couple of local shows in Austin, and Texas as a whole while also working on more collaborations, features and singles. My official merch should also be going live on my website in the next couple of months.
Pre-Save/Pre-Order J’Ray and BM Casso’s collab “My Money”, out this Friday.
