A female Nigerian artist with two letters and a dot as their stage name. How about that for stylistics? Encountering Abuja-born singer Ruth ‘ru.’ Unde, was the rather unintentional product of mid-day Instagram doomscrolling, which ground to a halt after seeing Muyiwa ‘Donawon’ Awoniyi’s post about a project he was proud to share with the world. In the caption, he mentioned how ru.’s March 2025 snippet (for i think i love you 2) led him to her music. Startled that she had only one song out and had only begun making music a year before, he pondered what her music would sound like in a decade. And now, her debut EP, SILK, has arrived via Faceless Inc, a little over a year later. Aren’t the fates just kind?
For context, Awoniyi’s ear for talent is undeniable. He famously managed Nonso Amadi early in the R&B singer’s career and has been Tems’ manager since the first two months after the pair met. As CEO & Founder of BSB Management Agency, his clientele briefly included Omah Lay, and is home to CLARITY OF MIND’s chief producer, Lekaa Beats, till date. For further context, Faceless Inc is the distribution company Awoniyi set up sometime in 2024, as a way to subvert industry messiness, with the uber-viral Serotonin-featured hit, Venus to the distro’s credit. What sealed the deal was the creative direction for the project. A monochrome close-up of the singer’s face, partially shadowed, with her name and the EP title in metallic cursive . It evokes a similar grandiosity to Kelela’s Raven, even though the closest similarity would be that the visualiser for track 3, Colours, sees ru. emerging from a swimming pool like that Golden woman in Jibaro, just as the figure in the former’s artwork. It was then left to discover what SILK sounded like.
In typical one-listen fashion, there were no skips, rewinds, fast-forwards, or pauses. Certain reactions have been edited for appropriate language. All opinions expressed are those of the writer as parsed in real time.
Fewer trends have been as consistent this year as project intros beginning with grand chords. Entertainer follows in-step, progressively accentuated by o-so-groovy trumpets. ru. swings for the rafters with her very first words (“Said I’d be lying if I said I don’t want, I’m coming to the dance floor). No doubts whatsoever about her intention. Her voice alternates between husky drones and high-pitched delivery for backing vocals. Bouncy, playful rhythms to boot. There’s no holding back the sultriness on the second verse, although we could do less with another lyric about ‘vibes.’ (Leave that for the Alté winds of yesteryears). This is a fair introduction to the singer, not particularly revelatory, but enough to make you want to hear more. It didn’t help that this writer’s thoughts randomly veered off to Sarz and Flash’s Afro-House number, Get Up, as ru. sang about being a “damn good dancer!”
That intuition would prove valuable as the EP segued into Girly Girl, an Afro-House record channelling Niniola with elegance. The song moved along rather quickly. Perhaps a consequence of failing to catch up as she sang about how so many things weren’t just as they seemed (ojú lásán kọ), from diamonds to kisses on her feet. Or the extra seconds spent considering whether the strings—might have been flutes—at the beginning interpolated BNXN’s Aduke (Sweet Tea). Point being that a moment too soon, Girly Girl was over.
Colours showing up midway made for a much-appreciated tempo descent. And having heard portions of the song in the aforementioned visualiser, it was fun to listen even further to ru.’s clearly sensual side doubling as her Afropop leaning side “Believe or believe her/If e reach fight then deliver,” she tells her lover before asking him to show his true colours. Someone tell Amaarae, Mellissa, and Moliy that Nigeria has a new queen of falsetto pockets. Because what she did on this song’s second verse? Incredible! Music moving to the bass line with a highlife bent. Music to definitely move your waist line too. The producer and guitarist—if there was one—must have had fun concocting the instrumentation for this song, if only as much as ru. did inviting her love interest to be honest with her.
In what could be taken as a direct thematic follow-up to Colours, she returns singing about a lover she has fallen for on Falling. It’s not as mature or as erotic as the previous love songs. More vulnerable, and if you didn’t know better from the previous songs, even innocent, like when she declares “Got me looking your way, like could I resist it” somewhere in the first verse, and much later admits “It’s in the way that you make all the pain go away.” However, what really sells this record are the guitars deployed like literal ammunition. The bass guitarist strummed away on the chorus as if trying to steal the song. Close to the final notes, an electric guitar appears out of nowhere to give Falling a little funk. Her voice is at its most dynamic here, as well, especially before the chorus comes on. If one didn’t know better, given that nothing is guaranteed when it comes to audience acceptance, one would suggest this song be pushed to TikTok’s younger demographic.
In fact, you could even say that it makes for a much stronger outro than the actual final track, Adam. Funk, yet again. A call for her love interest’s honesty but with more acceptance of an alternative outcome. Her “Wells Fargo/Rahman Jago” money-spending couplet wouldn’t sound out of place on a street-hop record. Unconvincing Afro R&B. A downer conclusion to the SILK experience.
ru.’s debut EP is a ‘sufficient’ body of work. ‘Sufficient’ in the way that Ayra Starr’s eponymous debut EP and Tems’ For Broken Ears were sufficient: offering much insight into the artist without an excessive burden of expectation, per se. Her syrupy vocals are utilised to show range—so much so that this writer itches to hear what she sounds like on longer, more fleshed out compositions. Her songwriting is at a point where passive listening might not be feasible for many. You’d miss entire passages if you aren’t paying rapt attention. She clearly has a lot to say about romance in particular, but the drawback of love songs lacking captivating lyrics is in effect.
SILK joins Africaine’s For Me, This Time, Lodù’s Wine & Honey, Salle’s Only Sad People Smile: Only Hurt People Heal, Celeste Ojatula’s Our Time in the Sun, Esoterica’s Avant God, Fave’s RnBling, and Sewa’s Detox (Deluxe), in a wave of soulful R&B, pop, folk, and soul projects that have made 2026 a standout year for female Nigerian music. Apollo and Aphrodite are happy. Osun rejoices. Now, to see what ru. serves next as she attempts more experimental work—a likelihood going by the production on the EP.
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