TUNDE OLANIRAN

The Second Transgression

tundeolaniran.com

When Prince has nightmares, the background music—and you know there’s background music—probably sounds something like Tunde Olaniran’s dark and delirious 21st century R&B. On his second in a series of five EPs, the perpetually project-hopping singer-producer fits rap verses, soulful vocals and bizarre samples—those are Chinese schoolchildren on “Brown Boy”—over paranoid electro-funk synths and vintage hip-hop beats. On “Autonomous,” he pairs sub-bass throb with distorted rock guitar, making the line, “If there’s just one thing I can say / it’s that I’m restless, feel like I’m in a cage,” feel utterly redundant. “I’m every single thing you think of me,” he sings elsewhere, inviting all definitions, adhering to none.