After much anticipation, Tems, the Grammy-winning Nigerian singer, has finally released her debut album titled Born In The Wild.
The 18-track project was released via RCA Records/Since 93′ in the early hours of Friday.
The body of work contains collaborations with Nigerian singer Asake in ‘Get It Right’ and US rapper J. Cole in ‘Free Fall’ and previously released singles ‘Me & U’ and ‘Love Me Jeje’.
Other titles in the project are ‘Born In The Wild’, ‘Special Baby’, ‘Burning’, ‘Wickedest’, ‘Unfortunate’, ‘Ready’, ‘Gangsta,’ ‘Boy o Boy’, ‘Forever’, ‘Voices In My Head’, ‘Turn Me Up’, ‘T-Unit’, ‘You In My Face’, and ‘Hold On.
Speaking about the album in an interview with Eddie Francis on Apple Music 1, Tems said ‘Born in the Wild’ is “actually about my journey.
It’s about my experience as me and about the experiences I’ve had so far. And it really felt like the life I lived before, the life I was accustomed to, felt like a wilderness,” she added.
“Yes, I was raised in Lagos, and that’s a part of me, but it’s not really about the place; it’s more about the state of being. It was a wilderness in the environment I lived in and there’s so many things that happened and so many lessons I learned to come and be this person now. It is basically coming out of the wilderness.
The body of work arrives three years after her last EP ‘If Orange Was a Place’.
The singer put out her self-produced debut single ‘Mr Rebel’ in 2018 and then released ‘Try Me’, her 2019 hit song.
Tems, born Temilade Openiyi, started to gain popularity in 2020, courtesy of her collaboration with Wizkid on the song ‘Essence’. She released her debut EP ‘For Broken Ears’ the same year.
In February 2023, the songstress won her first-ever Grammy award. She bagged the ‘Best Melodic Rap Performance’ category for her role in ‘Wait for U’, the 2022 hit song by Future featuring Drake.
In March, the singer was honoured with a ‘Breakthrough Award’ at the 2024 Billboard Women in Music Awards.
Tems had earlier revealed how a “serious illness” forced her to delay the release of her debut album.
