Nneka is a Nigerian singer/emcee who has been building an international following the past few years. One listen to Soul Is Heavy, and it’s easy to see what the fuss is about. Nneka to writes incredibly smart lyrics to music that seamlessly moves between R&B, hip hop, reggae, Afrobeat, and straight-ahead pop music. She’s got plenty of charisma, and the comparisons to heavyweights like Lauryn Hill and Erykah Badu are completely justified. If this album blows up and Nneka becomes an international star, I won’t be the least bit surprised.

The album doesn’t take long to reveal itself. The opening track, “Lucifer (No Doubt),” builds slowly on ominous guitar chorus and muted trumpets play against the melody to create tension, but it explodes into a pop reggae song that has a great melody and chorus that immediately feels familiar. Nneka doesn’t possess a huge voice, but she has great control of the voice she does have, completely owning the slight rasp to her delivery. She also has a great feel for phrasing and placement of her voice amongst the arrangement of the song. She’s never singing or rapping over the music, but rather with it. “Sleep,” with Ms. Dynamite, is where you can really hear the Lauryn Hill influence as she is able to move between singing the chorus and rapping a verse with no pause, all while delivering sharp lyrics that balance personal introspection with social criticism. “My Home” does a great job at balancing reggae rhythms with classic Girl Group arrangements that makes for an interesting take on the retro soul movement that’s happening right now. There are a few times when the music gets a little too generically pop for my tastes, such as the saccharine “J,” but even then it’s still decent and inoffensive. It’s more that it’s not my style more than anything else. It still has some nice arrangements and a good bridge to it. The title track is the strongest effort on the album, with a great blend hip hop, reggae, Afrobeat, and rock coming together as she lays down impassioned lyrics that speak to her struggle to balance her feelings of obligation to help and speak for her fellow Nigerians with her new found success. Nneka felt so strongly about her lyrics for this particular song, she made it a point to put them in the video for the song. It’s incredibly moving, and if I wasn’t already on board with Nneka by the time I got to this song, it would be pretty hard to deny her at this point. Just in case any hip hop heads think that Nneka is too pop for them (which is ridiculous, but whatever), I strongly recommend “God Knows Why,” a powerful song featuring Black Thought from The Roots. It’s an aggressive mid tempo song with lots of tension built between piano, guitar, bass, and keyboards as they trade verses about trying to find meaning behind the suffering of people based on class and race.

I see no reason why Nneka’s music won’t spread around the world. All I know is that there are few artists that can maintain this type of widespread appeal while still making sophisticated music with both musical arrangements and lyrics that really challenge and educate their listeners. For these reasons, I sincerely hope that Nneka continues on the path she is on. I’m excited to see where her career goes from here.