This masterpiece soundtrack is one of the hit records which makes up Savage, marvellous body of work called “Utopia”, an impressive project, which houses ten amazing solid and dope joints featuring high profiled musical artists namely, Emtee, Buju, Kida Kudz, Kojo Funds and many other lyrical geniuses.
He wrote: “My friends call me Savage because I’m plain; I’m a real person,” the artist born Godson Ogaga Essi tells Apple Music. “I don’ t know how to hide my feelings. My friends will l be like, ‘You’re always just so savage with your replies’—so that’s when the name came in place. Now people actually read meaning into what I say, and sometimes I don’t really mean it that way. And I don’t always smile in public. I try to smile, but my face just remains so straight because I’m an introvert. So people just read that, ‘This guy’s a savage’ So okay, let’s be Savage.”
After studying mathematics at university, he moved to South Africa and launched his own clothing brand, Savage Space Couture. “That’s how I became popular in Cape Town—because of my denims,” he explains. “My first release sold out that same day. I had plans with my music as well, but I decided to do denim [first] and go popular with that. And the whole music thing—people didn’t see ‘Confident’ [his 2021 single with Buju] coming. It’s a big blast.”
None of his creative endeavours have been by accident; and with his debut album, Utopia, Savage gets to live out his biggest dream. “Mathematics has actually played a big role in my life because before I do anything, I know my next two steps ahead and calculate; I know what to do,” he explains. “The reason I named the album Utopia is because I know that it’s out of this world. I feel like I’m living my dream life: everything I dreamt and I pictured in my head, I’m just seeing it come to pass.”
The result of those dreams is a body of work that celebrates being African and revels in the beauty of African women, interspersed with mediations on the hustle. “Everyone f**ks with the Afro sound now—everyone in the world now wants to listen to ‘Afro’. This is Afro-pop; Afro-fusion. Rema would say Afro-Rave, so maybe I should call this Afro-Savage!” Here, he gives us a track-by-track breakdown.