"All you had to do was see me Really see me Recognize the workings of my mind And then touch me Like something holy And then touch me Like something that is now but could never be"

"I saw you throw your hands in the air and say a prayer Your eyes closed, your nose breathing in the salty air There was nothing you could do to make me love you anymore"

"The moon was full and it left me howling My head was spinning and my heart was growling I received crimson stains on my sheets that morning The world felt big and the tides were moving"

"On days you'd sail away I would try to find my own way On days you'd sail away I would try to find my own way home"

"I stand here with all my love Uncover the windows Let in the light Grab the hand that's reaching out... This world can cater for us all When the sun rises, it rises for us all"

"Days move on and times they change In a blink of an eye things rearrange We're moving We're sucked in and we're spat out On the other side of the rabbit hole But we find our way Find our way Do you want to be just a machine in this crazy society? Pick the lock Grab the reigns Forget there ever were chains 'Cause there never were chains"

"It's all lies And my limbs have danced for the Amsterdam sunrise With not one restriction and not one disguise Monotony is what I despise Integration to society would be my demise It's all lies"

"Music came back to your ears And you danced and you danced For all of the years You’d forgotten how To live for the now"

"Oh society... You took it away from me When you brainwashed me with formulas of how I should be Shaped me and raped me of my individuality Schooled me and fooled me Told me what I could and could not see Took me and shook me Of my urges to be free"

"She looked out out to the horizon She didn't have much left to see Greed had taken the trees away Greed had taken the bees away ...She looked up to where there should've been stars"

"And there is a place where we one day will delve Where there's no more walking on eggshells Where ideas are for free, oh it's the place to be Your great mind's no longer the minority I'll see you there with your hands in the air Where the canvas is bare And there's no more despair... and I'll see you there"

"But don't leave that fiery heart behind Take it along for the ride And don't leave that fiery mind behind Take it along for the ride And...I'll have to say fair well so long"

"There's an empty space whеre you once offerеd yourself to me My mom knows I'll be alright, but she'll be glad I'm home She's always casting spells for me Keeping guard for me, working hard for me I swim out of the window and into the night I am smiling, I am screaming, I am glowing from inside"

"I've got so much to say And yet nothing comes close To the way we communicate When we don't say a word I hear you clearly without sounds Oh, I don't need these ears when you're around"

"Every plant given life by His hands Every stone placed to build pathways in the sand There was a magical feeling surrounding that land A mystical feeling surrounding that land"

"Koko and I somehow had the ability to walk alongside our hurt and disappointment; we never let it get ahead of us or lead us astray.’"

"I definitely feel the world lacks a sense of humour"

"I don’t think all women need to birth themselves"

"I try as a reader to put myself in places I’ve never been to, in the shoes of people I would never meet"

"I write for myself and then I edit for the reader, to make things easier for them, to refine the ideas"

"It’s always the youth that are making the sacrifices. When I think about the Soweto riots in 1976 in South Africa, it wasn’t people that stopped working and said, we are going to fight against these policies, it was the school children"

"It seems as if the whole country is falling apart, so why be a good person, why be good to yourself, when the country is not being good to you, it’s not giving you the opportunities you need"

"It’s fantasy when white people write it. When black and brown people write it, it’s magic realism"

"Being liked is not nearly as great as being happy with the decisions I make. I'm not money, so I know not everyone likes me"

"Things that lurk in the shadows do not like the light. People get used to one tiny light and begin to seek out more of it in the world and in themselves – that’s how the light liberates us."

"The city is like that: it loves new and shiny things; which also leads it to be a graveyard of previously beautiful relics."

"I birthed myself; it was bloody and painful but now I’m standing on the roof of a city as something new."

"How could he possibly describe anything when the world around him had lost its colour"

"I do like this idea of time. For me there is no before or after. It’s all during. It’s just a bunch of “durings.” I don’t think of myself as someone in the past, I’m a person going through something. I do like to see how these “durings” influence the future."

"I didn’t think I would go so far. I thought I should just get the experience and move on with my life."

"I thought singing would be a hobby; a second love to be done in my spare time. I never thought of it as a career really."

"But I wasn’t thinking about how to be better in the limelight, I was just thinking of how to be a better person in general, the best possible version of myself. And I think once you start being visible, a lot of these things that you didn’t know existed start coming to light, you start knowing yourself more, too."

"'On the dark side of the moon Yeah is where I felt I reside Till the day I met you I was cold, Frozen inside."

"Many are grateful for this year Be happy you are still alive I'm going to get all my love for you I'm happy you're still alive Put it in there Tell him you understand Please forgive each other Mistakes happen."

"When you are being real, there’s no one like you, and there’s so much power in that."

"I feel like being honest helps me heal. I decided to put that in my music. I hope they [fans] notice how I stand out."

"When I started out, I had an idea of what I wanted my sound to sound like. But I didn’t know what steps to take and how to say it so I just winged it and hoped for the best. My references were the people who I looked up to. I listened to them and took what I liked from them even though they come from different genres. Chronixxx does reggae, there’s Rihanna, Daniel Caesar and Caiphus Semenya. A song that impressed me lyrically was amaGama by uNathi. That’s the writer I want to be one day."

"My music is based on touching you in a certain way. I don't have a wall, that's my brand."

"https://thenationonlineng.net/tems-my-songs-are-mostly-from-experiences/"

"“I think it’s important to be real with yourself and the people around you.”"

"When did I realize I was blown? When I got a DM from RiRi."

"I can understand, when it's the speaking."

"It’s not necessarily people, it’s really just a system. But once you’re an artist you’re not really an artist, you’re an entertainer – your life is entertainment for people. It’s a system of distraction."

"I think the perfectionism is definitely a Nigerian thing. For me, it’s definitely Lagos. Because if you check around the world, Nigerians are always the best at whatever they’re doing, whether that’s braids, hair, make-up, doctors… They’ll give you food and it’ll be over good, so that when you’re paying them, you know why."

"When I see any one of you gracing a stage, I feel like that’s me. We’re all winning and we’re about to move in like a tsunami… know that love lives on this side. As we show the world how it’s done."

"I don’t want to be somebody that follows; I don’t want to be the ‘after’ person."

"The more power the people have, the greater we become as a whole."

"What I hope that God does through me, is for the image of the African woman to be changed to something luxurious, or desired, or sought after. For the demand of the African woman to go up… Let us not be chasing foreign things, let us be something to be chased. And that can’t just happen with me; it’s a together thing. It has to happen with a whole industry of women already doing real and amazing things. That’s the future."

"I had a show the night before, so on Friday I was just sleeping the whole day."

"Well, I’ve never felt more connected with my fans like that before. It just felt like we were all in one room and it was a lot of people, but it felt like we might as well have been in a big ass living room, just vibing. I really felt like that experience and the presence was just incredibly intense. I haven’t let go so much as I did before that day in terms of performing."