*Original Press Release*
Naira Marley, the most notorious artist in Afrobeats, is capping off a phenomenal year with his debut EP: LOL.


As well as standing for the obvious Laugh Out Loud (Naira’s response to most of the challenges life throws at him), LOL is an acronym of Lord of Lamba - Lamba being a Yoruba slang term to mean dancing, partying, and generally wiling out like your life depended on it. If anything, 2019 has proven Naira can claim this title like no one else.


Whether it’s been his show stopping appearance at StarBoy Fest @London’s O2 Arena, his own massive Nigerian MarlianFests drawing in upwards of 30,000 people, his staggering increase in social media presence that saw him go from 100K instagram followers to 2.2m in under a year, or his series of chart topping hits - Soapy, Opotoyi, Mafo (lead single off the project), PXTA, the infamous Am I A Yahoo Boy (the satirical track about fraud that saw Naira jailed by the Nigerian government) and more, Naira has reigned supreme in 2019.


His sound has eschewed the saccharine commerciality of the Nigerian AfroPop mainstream, proving that hit records can still be unpredictable, wild affairs. On LOL he digs deeper into this raw, creative urge to deliver a work of outsider art that surpasses expectations.



Comprised of 6 tracks of dancefloor fire, the main body of the EP sees Naira jumping on four tracks made by long-standing collaborator Rexxie. Like Naira, Rexxie has made his name from pursuing a unique aesthetic. His frantic, techno speed riddims clatter with percussion, otherworldly synth stabs and skittering, tripped out vocal effects. Naira rides these riddims with glee, spitting out bars that spiral between exhortations to live the high life and pinpoint take-downs of social injustice. He’s a jester in the court of life, able to sweeten the bitterest truths with a grin and a wicked one-liner.


With a commitment to trying out different ideas, one of the EP tracks, OJA, has been left open for fans to deliver their own verses - with Naira’s famous friends including Wizkid, Davido, Burna Boy and more, we can expect a host of versions to come in - the best of which will be added to a deluxe re-issue of LOL scheduled for January 2020. Elsewhere on this first release of the EP, features are kept to a minimum. The one major exception is an appearance from Mayorkun, himself a Nigerian A-list singer and rapper. The two come together on the raw, bashment influenced closer YanYanYan, a swaggering street track that harks back to Nai’s early days in Peckham.


All in all, LOL is another high point in a journey Naira started with independent label Moves Recordings in 2017 - with a run of now classic singles behind them, from the UK street rap anthem Money on the Road, to the Nigerian football anthem Issa Goal, to the runaway success of his jail-time narrative Soapy (currently on 20m streams across DSPs), he has grown step by step to become one of the biggest artists in Africa. Now he’s delivering his most cohesive body of work to date