FAVE has quietly become one of the defining voices of contemporary African R&B, building a reputation on rich songwriting, understated vocal control, and an ability to make deeply personal stories feel universal. Since breaking through with records like Baby Riddim and Mr Man, the singer-songwriter has continued to expand her artistic identity, culminating in RnBling—a six-track EP that embraces vulnerability, romance, and self-assurance through a refined R&B lens. As she enters this new chapter, we sat down with FAVE to discuss the making of the project, her creative evolution, and the stories behind RnBling.
Why RnBling, What inspired that title?
I think for me, i just love to play on words, you know, like, I just love to be very cheeky like that, because RnB is already a very established term or word. And I was just kind of thinking, of what it would seem like to use the term or use the word, but then change what the B stands for, i feel like there’s the R & B, soul essence that I bring to music and then being African and growing up in a place where rhythm has always been at the crux of our being, it’s a part of me that I cannot deny. Even when you go to the studio to work with producers who are African, you know, there’s just always this rhythm and like drums that they bring to their beats that gets your body moving, gets you grooving. So when you mix that with a soulful kind of energy or delivery, then you have Bling, which in my definition is like loud and something that vibrates, something that gives you a lot of energy and confidence. So that was really how I came to the title.
In comparison to your previous EP, Dirty Love. What would you say is the biggest growth?
Between the two projects. So there definitely is growth in my craft because every step of the day is me trying to become better at, you know, what I do. Learning, experimenting even more, just doing new things that you haven’t done before. So obviously that, like, you’re gaining knowledge and you’re gaining skill by doing that and by existing every day. So I will say, yeah, i have grown as a person and as an artist.
This project felt very personal because even with the features, Yemi Alade & Chike. The chemistry on both records felt like you had a personal relationship with them. So how did those features come about?
For Yemi Alade, I already had a prior relationship with her, we had done a couple of songs in our first Session, which was how i got to be a featured artist on her record as well a couple months ago and that record is worry. So in the studio that day, we did a bunch of songs and it was more so a situation of which do you prefer? And she really liked Worry, but I was more in tune with Paparazzi. That was kind of my vibe. I just felt like that song transcended, and it felt way ahead of his time, as well as feeling very nostalgic. So that kind of happened that way. I’ll forever be grateful for the universe just bringing us together because it was something that just needed to happen. She’s such a great vocalist and lyricist. For someone like me, I spend a lot of time writing, in the studio, you can have me sitting there writing a song for, like, three hours, four hours, and the when it comes to, like, recording, I could take maybe, like, 30 minutes to record a whole song and hers is more like the other way around, she doesn’t really, like, take so many hours to write, it comes so easy to her, And then she could be, like, recording the song over a couple of days because, you know, she wants to perfect a lot of things, but her voice is just so amazing, and i’m glad i had to witness that.
Miss you with Chike, I would say Chike is a phenomenal artist, and i love how he came into the song. , I think if you don’t understand Igbo, you wouldn’t really understand what he did there. But when he came into the song, the first line of the song was literally the igbo translation of my first line. So I really loved that he did that, because me, i just really like it when people are cheeky with words and writing in general and i also ike that he also brought that igbo essence. Our collaboration happened actually through the Producer, which now ended up being really, really nice. So I am grateful to have both of them on the project as my first ever features. I would say that I’m pretty happy about it.
Why do you take songwriting especially very seriously, which isn’t really a popular thing amongst artists in the scene. So why is it so important to you?
I think i fall in love with the story, before i fall in love with the song itself, which is why, growing up as a child, I would always google lyrics to songs while I’m listening to those songs, you know, and platforms like Genius. I’m like a geek for genius, because i really like to know what the person is talking about. And that’s why when people say, oh, they don’t hear what I’m saying in my songs that I’ve been singing. I’m like, yeah, you’re not just dedicated, because if you are, you go and google the lyrics of the song and then you sing along with me as you’re reading it. So I’m not going to change my style of singing because someone doesn’t understand. If you actually wanted to know, you would go and actually find the lyrics. But for me, I just feel like it makes a song 10,000 times better when the lyrics speak to me when there’s a story. I love storytelling. I like puns. I just like people being very expressive. And maybe it has to do with me being an art student or a literature geek or just loving arts in general. So, yes, sometimes with Afrobeats, you do have to, like, dumb it down a little because it’s kind of like the status quo. You don’t really want to say all the big words in your head. You have to try and make it into something that is easily digestible.
So what particular song on the project was one that felt maybe the most personal to you that listeners might not fully understand at first?
I think all of them are my babies, honestly. And I recorded them at different points in my life, so they just have their own individual lore, like Body Talk and Lalala. I recorded that with Duni. I will say that I really enjoyed my session with Duni because we are very in tune with each other, and i feel like she always understands the direction that I want to go, but if I were to, like, answer the question in a different way, I would say La La La is one song that I feel like a lot of people are gonna sleep on, and when they realize how much of a great song it is, it might be too late for them.
There’s a whole conversation about AI in music, and you are one of the first artist to gravitate towards it following the huge break of Intentions on TikTok. What was your reaction to Intentions when you saw the AI version of it doing bits on TikTok?
I made a video reacting to the song because i was so shocked. I mean, I wasn’t surprised that AI kind of, should I say refurbished my song or repurposed my song? But I was more surprised that people were preferring it to the original. That was my shock, i was like, are we hearing the same thing, guys? but i guess it kind of boils down to, you know, like, understanding how people receive things or, like, the kind of things that people enjoy, you know, stuff like that because part of being an artist is just being confused all the time. It’s like they say you should be yourself and you should, like, zone into who you are and never change for anybody but at the same time they say, oh, you’re not making music for yourself. You’re making music for people, so you’re just confused the whole time. But I would say for Intentions AI Version. I just didn’t want the record to be something that people listen to without there being a name attached to it. People are going to move on from stuff really quickly, and then it’s just going to be like, Urban chords made the song Intentions, a lot of people are not gonna try their possible best to do research and be like, is this an original song from AI or was it, like, taken from an artist and just made differently? So I just wanted to make sure that I was the one behind that song doing so well, because at the end of the day, it was my record. I don’t have any issues with AI currently being in music now. I just feel like it has to be done in a way that doesn’t feel like you’re stealing from the artist. I feel like I’m not opposed to AI being used for production. Because at the end of the day, it’s not everyone that has those resources available to them. But I still feel weird about AI being actual artists, having artist pages and stuff like that. I think in due time, it would get to a point where the only way you can differentiate an AI artist from a real artist is through live shows. So it might get to a point where maybe streaming is no longer the actual focal point. Maybe streaming numbers aren’t really what people will be looking at, but like your live numbers. It’s scary times, but at the same time, there are like different ages and stages that we enter into, like, as we continue to live, so i am just interested in seeing what comes next with AI, would there be laws to regulate them? But if AI decides to use your song, I definitely think you should get behind it and reclaim your work, it’s your sweat and blood.
So one thing I’ve noticed about your music, your pattern of release is different from the trendy pattern of churning out music every time. It’s almost like you work on your own timing. What’s that about? Is it that you regard patience and you take so much importance in your own timing rather than banking on that algorithmic visibility?
I will say that i don’t like to be the artist that I am right now. I don’t like to be the artist that people see as Oh, you don’t release that often. It’s not something that is within my control, because I will say that a lot of times when i release, it’s been after months and months of pushback. You know, it’s like several things are not in place. Next thing you know, the project that was supposed to release in February is getting released in July. I will say that I hope that from now on I can start releasing really, often and rapidly. Because, i’m always recording, i have so many songs, i even wanted to release an album last year, but things didn’t go as planned. But my dream is that I would no longer be the artist that releases periodically.
So beyond the streams and charts, what would make you look back at RnBling a year from now and call it a success?
I want to say I don’t know because I just feel like God works in mysterious ways. You might have a certain perception of what success is to you now and then it’s totally different a year from now, because you don’t really know what’s in store for you in the coming future so i just hope the project is a success. Whatever that success is going to be. I don’t know. God should surprise me.
