Odie

A vocalist and composer whose smooth delivery and perceptive reflections on ordinary experiences resist easy categorization, ODIE draws from sources as varied as Fela Kuti, Coldplay, and Kid Cudi. His first full-length project arrived in 2018 as Analogue, which spotlighted the tracks “Little Lies” and “North Face,” and subsequent standalone releases have included the 2020 single “Miss Summer” along with 2023’s “Go Boy.” The EP N.F.A. DEMOS surfaced in 2024.

ODIE, whose full name is Odunayo Ekunboyejo, entered the world in Montreal and passed his childhood in Toronto before relocating with his family to the Bay Area at twelve. A household soundtrack that began with the highlife, jùjú, and Afrobeat favored by his Nigerian parents soon broadened to encompass current R&B and rap. After brief structured lessons on piano, he taught himself to compose and learned to reproduce popular numbers such as Timbaland and One Direction’s “Apologize.” Together with high-school companions Yaqob and Chris, he later formed Unité Recordings. Early momentum came through SoundCloud postings, while his first widely available recordings, “Crescendo” and “Trance Dance,” each neared or surpassed one million streams within months. In early 2018, newly partnered with Empire for distribution, he issued several singles—one of them “Night Terrific!” featuring Yaqob—that paved the way for Analogue and its breakthrough cuts “Little Lies” and “North Face.” Later that year “No Signs” appeared on the soundtrack for They Fight, and 2020 brought the well-received “Slowly” and “Miss Summer.” Following a lengthy hiatus, ODIE resurfaced in 2023 with the characteristically candid “Go Boy,” then delivered N.F.A. DEMOS, an acronym for No Future Ambition, the following year.