After a hardscrabble childhood in Nigeria, the genre-defying artist chafed against his family when he moved to the UK – but the struggles find stunning voice in his music
Steven Umoh, the musician known as Obongjayar, bangs our cafe table hard, and not for the first time. A waitress looks slightly alarmed. Discussing his debut album, Some Nights I Dream of Doors, he’s emphatic, unreserved, even rather forward at times. “What makes someone think that they deserve anyone’s ear?” he asks with passion. Being an artist, he decides, is about “being brave enough to think that”.
His music is a heady mixture of electronic, alternative, hip-hop and west African influences; earlier standouts include the wondrously rhythmic, touched-with-genius collaboration Gone Girl with producer Sarz, though it’s last year’s feature on Little Simz’s Point and Kill that put him on many radars. He’s a master of tone – flitting between his Nigerian and British accents, his voice is by turns gravelly and lilting, regularly sounding subdued, coaxing and militant all at the same time. Giggs, Sampha, Pa Salieu and Danny Brown are among the other stars whose tracks he’s graced, often stealing the show.
