00:00My name is Somi. I'm a vocalist and a songwriter originally from East Africa,
00:16Uganda, and Rwanda, but live here in New York City, grew up in Illinois, and I have
00:20a new record coming out that's all about my time in Lagos, Nigeria.
00:23Ginger me with pillow talk and pretty things, oh. Ginger me by candlelight and long walks
00:32by the lagoon. Ginger me with intellect and wine. Ginger me, boy, with kindness and cool.
00:42Yeah, so.
00:45Lagos feels like an African version of New York City. The cosmopolitanism, the energy,
00:50the intellectual community, the cultural scene. I mean, it's always been sort of a
00:54cultural giant on the continent, so I really appreciated that energy and being able to come
00:59and be a part of it as opposed to looking at it through sort of a diasporic lens.
01:03Ginger me with poetry and roses in the afternoon. Ginger me with trips to Monaco and to the Nile.
01:12Ginger me with power and humility, oh. Ginger me, boy.
01:19Ginger me with joy. Ginger me with joy. Ginger me with joy.
01:26Well, this record, I call it the Lagos Music Salon because it's sort of this room full of ideas
01:31and conversations I was having with the city, with fellow artists, with myself, really,
01:36for that year and a half I was living there. And I wanted to celebrate that diversity
01:41and celebrate all those different influences.
01:43Hold me closer. Show me your heart and I'll show you mine. Slow it down. Hold me longer. I'll be your girl if we do it slowly.
02:05Ginger me with unexpected kisses and a dance.
02:09So you hear a wide range of influences, maybe too many, but I feel as though the story is whole
02:17and the story is about, you know, just what inspired my heart and I just wanted to be honest with that.
02:22With your heart.
02:27Ginger me slowly.
02:33Yes, oh.
02:36What I would love anybody to know about my music is just that I try to be honest with myself, try to be honest with my heart.
02:42You know, it's really just about that visceral connection, right?
02:44So I hope that if they hear that honesty in my heart, that hopefully it connects with honesty in their own.
02:48Slow it down. Slow it down. Slow it down. Slow it down. Slow it down. Slow it down. Slow it down.
02:55Slow it down. Slow it down. Slow it down.
03:16Woo!
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