Raytheboffin is a music producer from Jos, Nigeria, until recently based in Kyiv, Ukraine, who experiments with unique sounds to build his musical universe, taking listeners on a journey through his world of alté, R&B, and hip hop.
Run Boy, Run is Raytheboffin’s debut solo project, released via London and Johannesburg-based record label Outer South. It follows his recent feature with Joel Prodigee on ‘Fist Up’, and his debut single ‘Don’t Kiss and Tell’ is Raytheboffin, set to be released on April 29th.
Ray describes the project as a depiction of his journey so far and his reason to keep ongoing. Despite many songs on the project having significant time between creation, Ray’s projects still maintain the same soundscape and messaging, with a range of topics being explored in each song.
As much as Ray needs to tell his own story, he finds it equally important that those contributors to his story and universe are artists that can share and understand his vision; this is mainly why most collaborations were with artists with whom Ray had a good relationship with. Ray’s project coming together with the manga is like an origin story, they are an introduction to his world. The beginning of a series and this is just the first chapter.
The tape is an excursion through alté, hip hop, and house with a jazzy inflection, and features a host of bubbling talent from Nigeria including Iverivers (Riverays), 3kene, Barelyanyhook, Julrity and Alex Zido.
After finishing the project, the war in Ukraine broke out and Ray was forced to escape first to Romania and then back to his home of Abuja, leaving all his belongings and his music equipment in Kyiv. It’s given a new poignancy to the title, Run Boy, Run.
From the tender age of nine Ray’s interest in music was sparked by his music teacher’s offer to teach him the guitar. This helped ignite his musical curiosity, which led to learning more about music production and eventually spending every day in the music studio of his hometown before leaving for higher education in Ukraine. In 2018 Ray decided to pivot his attention back into music, teaching himself music production and audio engineering.
Which opened him up to experimenting and creating a unique sound for himself. Whilst on his journey of self-discovery Ray met Iverivers which led to the creation of Riverays.
The duo released their first project titled ‘Riverays’ in 2019. This project garnered a notable reception from around the world. Such welcome from a diverse set of listeners fuelled the making of more projects which included jointly working with Yinoluu on the Petal Scents EP, which garnered support from Apple Music, Pan African Music, Drummr iMullar and 49th Street, which Ray also mixed and mastered. In addition, Ray has worked with up-and-coming artists 3kene, Jess ETA and Julrity forging new and refreshing sounds.
Two track project ‘A Riverays Two Track’ saw the pair dip into alt-rap on the spellbinding ‘Hot Tub’, which saw support from Spotify and More Branches.