7th June, 2024
By Taiwo Okanlawon
Grammy-winning Nigerian singer Temilade Openiyi, also known as Tems 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.
In the 18-track album, Tems enlists Asake, the Afrobeats star and J. Cole, the US rapper.
The tracks in the album consist of ‘Born In The Wild’, ‘Special Baby’, ‘Burning’, ‘Wickedest’, ‘Love Me Jeje’, ‘Get It Right’, ‘Ready’, and ‘Gangsta’.
Other tracks are ‘Unfortunate’, ‘Boy o Boy’, ‘Forever’, ‘Free Fall’, ‘Voices In My Head’, ‘Turn Me Up’, ‘Me & U’, ‘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’.
Tems had previously put out two songs off the album — ‘Me & U’ and ‘Love Me Jeje’.
The singer released her self-produced debut single ‘Mr Rebel’ in 2018 and then followed it with ‘Try Me’, her 2019 hit song.
Tems had earlier revealed how a “serious illness” forced her to delay the release of her debut album.
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’ highly anticipated debut album ‘Born In The Wild’ will be released onthe 7th of June.
The singer released her self-produced debut single ‘Mr Rebel’ in 2018 and then followed it with ‘Try Me’, her 2019 hit song.
Tems started to gain popularity in 2020, courtesy of her collaboration with Wizkid on the song ‘Essence’.
In the same year, she released her debut extended play (EP) ‘For Broken Ears’.
The singer will also be kicking off her world tour immediately after the release of the album, starting in Europe on June 12 and wrapping up in Australia on November 15.
Stream ‘Born In The Wild’ Here.