28 March 2025 |
5:28 pm
Nigerian singer-songwriter Ruger has returned with a brand new album dubbed BlownBoy Ru. The brand new 13-tracker options hit spins like ‘Jay Jay’, ‘Toma Toma’ Ft. Tiwa Savage and the Kranium-assisted ‘DuDu’. This comes scorching on the heels of his latest viral COLORS efficiency, during which he performs ‘Toro’. BlownBoy Ru, Ruger’s unbelievable sophomore album and the…
Nigerian singer-songwriter Ruger has returned with a brand new album dubbed BlownBoy Ru. The brand new 13-tracker options hit spins like ‘Jay Jay’, ‘Toma Toma’ Ft. Tiwa Savage and the Kranium-assisted ‘DuDu’. This comes scorching on the heels of his latest viral COLORS efficiency, during which he performs ‘Toro’.
BlownBoy Ru, Ruger’s unbelievable sophomore album and the follow-up to his 2023 debut Ru The World, sees him broaden on his globally adored Afrodancehall sound. Whereas his signature vitality stays, this undertaking displays his progress as an artist – as he explains:
“With Ru The World, I used to be proving some extent, exhibiting people who Ruger is not only a hitmaker however an artist with depth and vary. However on this album, I really feel extra snug in my artistry. My songwriting has advanced; with extra intentional lyrics, supply, and feelings I’m passing throughout. I nonetheless have that uncooked vitality, however now it’s refined, extra calculated,” he tells Guardian Music.
The album touches on Ruger’s journey, love, enjoyment, reflection, and simply dwelling life to the fullest. Sonically, it’s as eclectic as ever—RnB, pop, Afrobeats, dancehall, and even Fuji influences shine by way of.
“I by no means need to be boxed into one sound. My music has at all times been a mix of influences—Afrobeats, Dancehall, R&B, even Pop. On this album, I simply let myself be free,” he says.
Key highlights embrace the trap-infused ‘Give Away,’ that includes Nigerian rapper Zlatan, and the amapiano-tinged ‘Runaway,’ that includes Ugandan soul singer-songwriter Haile. Tiwa Savage joins Ruger on the high-energy ‘Toma Toma,’ which has already surpassed 30 million world streams.
READ ALSO: Rugers shares why he left Jonzing World, says they couldn’t push me additional
Since November, anticipation for BlownBoy Ru has been constructing. ‘Toma Toma’ grew to become a streaming juggernaut, whereas January’s ‘Jay Jay’—a tribute to Nigerian soccer legend Jay-Jay Okocha—racked up 234K opening-day Spotify streams and exploded on TikTok with 50 million+ views. Following the discharge, Spotify featured Ruger in its massively influential World Artist To Watch 2025 listing, alongside Lola Younger and Mercury Prize-winner Barry Can’t Swim. February additionally noticed Ruger nominated for the 2025 MOBO Award for Greatest African Music Act and making waves together with his BBC 1Xtra Reside Lounge debut.
Describing his music as Afrodancehall – a fusion of Afrobeats with Dancehall components – Ruger has created a list that together with his multi-million streaming information like ‘Asiwaju’ (#1 single in Nigeria, 130M YouTube views, 155M Spotify streams, 1M TikTok creations) ‘Toma Toma’ with Tiwa Savage, ‘Girlfriend’ (133M YouTube views, 75M Spotify streams) ‘Dior,’ ‘Bounce’ and ‘We We’. An in-demand artist everywhere in the globe, Ruger has additionally collaborated with an enormous array of celebrity artists, akin to Rema, BNXN, Clear Bandit, David Guetta & Anne Marie.
