MNEK

MNEK is a musical polymath, able to translate perception, feeling, and mood into singular recordings and formal bodies of work utilising his instincts. “I’m nuanced, it’s not descript at times. I create for myself and for others,” he says. As a songwriter, producer, and front-of-house artist, MNEK has traversed the music industry since his mid-teens, his curiosity for the artform converged with the advent of social media — a catalyst for his migration into his vocation. Raised on a varied diet composed of Mariah Carey, The Sugababes, Spice Girls, Whitney Houston, Mis-Teeq, David Morales, his ear grew wedded to a miscellany of genres, regions, and sounds.

It was the anthemic, emotive collaboration “Never Forget You” that broke not just himself, but frequent collaborator Zara Larsson simultaneously. A sentinel blend of euphoria and melancholy, the emotive release captured the world the quirk in its synths hypnotising a global legion of ears. A top 30 success across the UK, US, and a wide cross section of European markets. His global resonance would all but continue in successive solo and songwriting releases including the urgent Beyonce single “Hold Up”.

Proving that he could not only craft complete albums for himself, MNEK went on to executive produce British girl group, FLO’s debut album Access All Areas (AAA), alongside Zara Larsson’s comeback LP Midnight Sun fulfilling a career-dream. Called the unofficial fourth member across FLO’s debut era, AAA earned the quartet a Grammy-nomination last year for Best Progressive R&B Album; simultaneously Midnight Sun’s eponymous single scored a Best Dance Performance shortlisting.

This all but sets the stage for Uzoechi Emenike’s formal return to the spotlight. It’s come after years of deep introspection and self-soothing. Aptly titled BULLDOZER!!, the album is an embodiment of MNEK’s career to date — circumventing traditional structures, rules or perceptions and succeeding on one's own terms.

Loud, playful, tender, and audacious BULLDOZER!! boldly showcases Uzo's ruminations as a 30-year-old. A “REVERSE!!” and its “POW”-laced sample indicative of his strong additions to the canon of Black British music, “LADY!!” a symposium on contemporary masculinity and queerness, juxtaposed with an “OH NO!! ALL THE BOYS!!” which serves as an unapologetic embrace of MNEK’s past, melancholic in the lessons it bestows on the listener. On his sophomore, MNEK is acutely aware of who he is.  “It’s my most certain piece of work,” he says. With a career's worth of experience (and success) under his belt and a horde of intersectional listeners that cross continents, identities, and generations, Uzoechi Emenike firmly articulates to the world that he’s not just ready to radiate once more, but that he was destined to. 

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