First Lyrics – Tems | from “Love Is A Kingdom”

Tems has this quiet power in her music, turning personal shifts into something that resonates wide, and First captures her leaning harder into self-priority after the wild ride of Born in the Wild last year. She co-wrote and co-produced it with GuiltyBeatz, keeping the sound intimate—breathy vocals over warm, minimalist Afrobeats grooves with subtle R&B swells that let the lyrics lead. It’s all about breaking free from expectations, that moment when you decide to move different, put yourself first, and rewrite the story on your terms.

Lines like “they keep trying to control me” hit as a nod to the doubters and the noise, but she flips it into quiet defiance, blending spiritual undertones with raw honesty about healing alone. She teased a snippet on her stories last week, and it already had that meditative pull, like a late-night journal entry set to melody.

This one’s the gateway to Love Is a Kingdom, a seven-track exhale exploring love’s messier sides—self-worth, doubt, surrender—without the big stadium polish of her debut. It rolls from this self-love declaration into I’m Not Sure’s romantic second-guessing, Big Daddy’s epiphany of independence, Lagos Love and Mine’s devoted glow, What You Need’s hazy pull, and closes on Is There a Reason’s stripped-back prayer. The whole thing clocks under 25 minutes, a blend of soulful alté and faded R&B that’s more headphone confessional than club banger, all helmed mostly by Tems herself with touches from AOD and LONDON.

Tems is owning this phase at 30, fresh off Grammy nods, that Oscar buzz for Born in the Wild, and headlining spots like the FIFA Club World Cup halftime with J Balvin and Doja Cat. She’s talked about needing space to process after the whirlwind, launching her women-in-music initiative across Nigeria and Kenya, and this EP feels like the result: less about chasing the next hit, more about building that inner kingdom where she calls the shots.