Hip-hop Nas calls her “amazing” and “an incredible artist.” The Sunday Times hailed her as the new Lauryn Hill and said her debut album was “as good as ‘The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.’” And now award-winning Nigerian singersongwriter Nneka is back – with a captivating, reggae-tinged fourth album called ‘My Fairy Tales!’
“I decided to call this album ‘My Fairy Tales’ as a way of making subject matter that is sometimes quite heavy and bitter sound sweet,” says Nneka. “My previous albums had quite heavy names – like ‘No Longer At Ease’ and ‘Victim Of Truth.’”
‘My Fairy Tales’, Nneka's fourth album, is released through Bush Queen
Music and was born while she was studying French and living in Paris. It was
recorded and produced in France, Denmark and Nigeria. French producer Mounir
Maarouf produced five songs, the Danish Silver Bullit team produced two songs
and The Slag [aka Martin Nigsch] and Nneka produced one song. “I'd initially
gone for one month but ended up extending my stay for several months,” says
Nneka. “While there I met the producer Mounir Maarouf and I just started
recording every day after
school. It evolved into an album; the Parisian Sessions.”
‘My Fairy Tales’ is a concept album, exploring the lives of Africans in the diaspora and the struggles they face – focusing on the importance of being responsible towards children as well as the significance of culture, education and identity values. “I wanted to write about Africans' experience in the Diaspora,” Nneka explains. “How we are doing, hustling in another man's land. What we are going through. My travels around the world plus spending a lot of time in France have influenced me in writing an album that doesn't just explain the suffering of Africans, but also the aspects of endurance, perseverance and gratitude.”
The result is the stunning concept album ‘My Fairy Tales’. It has a retro groove appeal to it, with authentic afrogroove highlife blending with roots reggae. In the debut single ‘Book of Job’, Nneka sings: “No matter what comes, on my knees I will stay/ I keep beseeching , so let the storms come cos I know that love will conquer everything.”