Following the resounding success of their genre-defying debut single – “Runaway” with Mavin’s Pop Princess Ayra Starr and the Amapiano hit record ‘Monalisa’ crooner, Lojay, NATIVE Sound System, a DJ Collective and production supergroup under the Lagos-born media company, “The NATIVE Networks” gears up for the release of their forthcoming eponymous debut album. Their second single, “Wedding Ring”; which is beyond doubt, a late contender for song of the summer, featuring Alté music fan favourites Odunsi The Engine (Tipsy, Star Signs) & BOJ (Lazarus, Awolowo), with assists from WANI & Odeal boasts of a track laced with unquestionable replay features.
Looking back at April 2022, NSS (NATIVE Sound System) delivered the aforementioned musical components with their gripping debut single, “Runaway”, calling on Ayra Starr & Lojay, two prime talents of a new generation of dynamic musicians from the continent. “Wedding Ring” is yet another infectious dance rhythm, impeccable masterpiece, which falls into the Summer section of the album’s records, which highlights the sonic shifts in the seasons in Nigeria: Rainy Season, Summer, Christmas and Harmattan.
According to Native Sound System: “When we started making this album, we had a bit of a pipe dream to do these almost fan-fiction style collaborations we’d grown up on in the Mo Hits era, or after that with DJ Khaled’s early stuff. Taking different artistes with passionate and converging fanbases, and putting them on one track, the result is almost this R&B/Afropop cypher you probably won’t hear anywhere else, or ever again. Even the way it was recorded was really something out of a rap camp of which you rarely see these days. What makes this record really resonate is that whilst it is a truly danceable Afropop hit, it is a slightly tongue-in-cheek response to marriage culture in Nigeria and for Africans around the globe, with lines like Wani’s: “Pinky ring till I buy you Wedding Ring”. Underneath the gbedu, it is a mirror up to African society, the pressure we put on marriage, and how skewed it is especially towards women. We think everyone can relate to that, even in the dance.”
In this track, WANI,BOJ, Odunsi, and Odeal joined forces to form a symphonous rhythm with a piece from each of their personal music styles. WANI introduces the song in an exceptional manner by bringing into play a clear and pleasing melodic flow that breathes life into the musical record. It must have been a great delight to have him on the project. Still speaking of flows, BOJ comes in with his detectable voice and immediately fluxes into tune with the instrumental. Odunsi and Odeal forbye came to sound by syncing into a perfect mix therewith bringing the track to a close. Wedding Ring perfectly fuses the sounds of the aforementioned artists over a Trill Xoe production, providing the perfect soundscape for Summer.
Produced by 22 year old Lagos beat-maker, Trill Xoe, “Wedding Ring” symbolises not just the vibrancy associated with this season in Nigeria, but calls on the diasporic ties of Africans in London, Paris, Atlanta and the DMV, who no matter where they reside, will always relate to wedding culture and the mammoth as well as the all-encompassing celebrations that accompany any African union. “This track for me is a fusion of different styles. It was about creating a track that is essentially a combination of these unique sounds that are often very locked in their own genre, so working on this felt like a chance to really combine them into something more evolved and just as beautiful.”