Though very new to the music Scene in Nigeria, we cannot ignore the massive wave this young artist is making and so we place the spotlight on him.
Born in 1999, our Artist of The Week whose birth name is Michael Adebayo is a Nigerian singer and Songwriter. Born, Raised and Schooled in Lagos state of Nigeria. Might sound like cliche but his Career started in the Church Choir. He already had an interest in music from a young age and that didn’t come as a surprise as his family members were music lovers. He was also part of his school musical band and was already composing songs and performing in school events and shows in Lagos during his school days.
Ruger came in contact with Nigerian singer, D’Prince in 2020 who listened to some of his songs and picked interest in him. Now in January of 2021, D’Prince, Rema, and Don Jazzy took to social media to announce his record deal and welcome him to the Jonzing World record and right after in same January of 2021 he made his debut on the label’s single ‘One Shirt‘ featuring D’Prince, Rema, and Ruger. After the release of One Shirt, Ruger released his first music project ‘Pandemic’, a six-track EP, and the record ‘Bounce’ off the EP was a hit record that stayed at the top in various Nigerian music charts at the time of release and was among the Top 100 songs in Apple Music Nigeria for weeks.
No. 4. One Shirt: Jonzing feat. Ruger, D’Prince and Rema: The Hip Hop/Rap song was produced by Ditweni and the accompanying video was directed by Dk.
Ruger who was formerly known as Mikki Drey and in an interview said his musical influences were Bob Marley, Rihanna, Boyz II Men, Beyonce, R. Kelly, 2Baba.
No. 3. Abu Dhabi: This serves as the first track of his Debut EP, Its official audio has 381k views on youtube and its video has 50k views.
No. 2. Sidepiece: Projexx & Ruger. Released in October 2021, the song sees Emerging Jamaican singer and songwriter, Projexx work with Ruger to deliver an amazing Afrovibe. It has over 5k views on YouTube.
Now, Many have asked why Ruger has an eye patch on and the question of if he might be blind has popped up but in an interview recently he stated that he puts on the patch to respect someone, pressuring the singer to explain more said saying it or even talking about it is disrespecting that person already.
No. 1. Bounce: After topping the Nigerian Apple Music Chart at number one spot weeks after its release months ago, the song still remains a sensation as it bodies number 39 on the same chart even months after its release. The song serves as the biggest song off his EP “Pandemic” and it was produced by Kukbeats. 5 months after its release, the official video is doing well on YouTube with over 14 Million views. The song as a UK remix version which we teased you with at the start of this segment.
