A Rii Set

Long before 2022’s “Finesse” launched him to the top of Afrobeats’ taxonomy, Pheelz’s fingerprints were all over the genre as one of its most inventive figures behind the boards. As a producer, his “Riidiimacool” tag—sometimes shortened to Rii—became a gold standard, establishing his presence before we knew the sound of Pheelz’s voice. On A Rii Set, he blurs the lines between Pheelz the singer and Rii the acclaimed record producer, dissolving all notions of creative boundaries for an eight-song extravaganza anchored in free-flowing experimentation. A Rii Set continues Pheelz’s genre-agnostic outlook, borrowing influence from bebop jazz, hip-hop and zouk for a musical experience that traipses between sentimental lullabies for the soul and grooves that tap into Pheelz’s Lagos Mainland upbringing. On “DIRTY DIANA RIDDIM”, he helms a disco-tinged party banger, while “OBLEE” is 3-step-adjacent. The mood is mostly jubilant across collaborations like “ALL NIGHT LONG”, with Didi B, and on “STEPPIN” with Flavour. Still, there’s something particularly poignant when Pheelz leans into melancholia and reflection, as on the Ami Faku-featuring “RIDE OR DIE” or “I’M OK”, a jaunty duet with Tiwa Savage that lays bare his tensions and fears.