“I just wanna say, ‘SWAGUU’ means style – it’s a local way of saying swag in Nigeria,” Seyi Vibez explains, voice raspy. We arranged to call in the brief window where Los Angeles and Lagos overlap in waking hours, catching Seyi just before he turns in for the night. “SWAGUU is just my state of mind. I'm trying to bring my two worlds together: my international world and my local world.”

The Nigerian rapper is a powerhouse, where his afrobeats sound has amassed a devoted following and opened doors to collaborations with Quavo, Trippie Redd, and NLE Choppa. His sixth studio album, SWAGUU, released in September, is a candid portrait of Seyi’s life in Lagos and a response to growing fame.

At first glance, SWAGUU reads like a typical rap album – private jet, nice car, Instagram models, new money – raps about the luxury in songs like “Diamonds.” But Seyi Vibez’s portrayal of excess is more nuanced than it first appears. “Diamonds” shares space with “GTA,” a psychedelic trip complete with pole dancers in the heart of the jungle. Visuals aside, the song draws as much from Seyi’s own experience in Lagos as it does from the video game itself. “I’ve been playing the game since I was young,” he explains, “The lifestyle in Lagos is like Grand Theft Auto. [Everyone’s] just trying to survive. Some go to the nightclub, some are bashing [a] car, or each other.” The sounds of sirens punctuate the track, echoing the everyday clamor of the city. “Every car has siren, but you don’t even know who’s inside – they just want to pass.” In a soundscape underscored by the constant sound of sirens and hum of generators, Seyi captures the contradictions of a city where the pursuit of luxury unfolds alongside daily struggle.

Seyi moves between Yoruba, Pidgin, and English, peppering the three languages between bars. When he’s not rapping in his other tongue, Yoruba, his English flows differently from an American counterpart, a holdover from Nigeria’s colonial history. “Whenever we speak pidgin, it’s still the white man's language, and we have to twist it up to become African,” Seyi says. His refusal to conform to a single language is an act of resistance. “I feel like my real life is SWAGUU – the flight, the luxury, the cars, the money, the pain, the down times. There’s more to it than just the style.”

Seyi Vibez started his career at fourteen, but building his sound didn’t spare him from the upheavals of adolescence. “A lot has happened since I was a teenager – I’ve been to secondary school, university, I’ve been on the streets, I’ve stayed with people I don’t know. I lost my mom.” After being dropped by his label at seventeen, Seyi Vibez has managed his career independently, building his own label with his career. “It's not easy to be independent. In Canada, in America, you can try that. But in Nigeria, it's [harder]. All my peers that came up were signed to a label. But I have a different story. I feel like I'm a Destiny child.”

Now 26, Seyi Vibez has risen to become Nigeria’s most streamed artist since 2024. The limelight raises the question, What does it mean to back an entire country? Seyi says it’s the people that keep him going. “I feel like I belong among them, and they all want the best for me.” Does the pressure ever get to you? I ask. He doesn’t pause. “That’s where talent speaks for itself. No matter the pressure, you just have to handle it.”

As SWAGUU comes to arenas in Lagos in London early next year, Seyi comes face to face with the fans that carry his sound beyond Nigeria. “I look at everyone the same way: happy people struggling. Their vibration can make me feel anything – I’m up here and I feel their love, their pain. I see people coming together, just because of me.” Seyi Vibez sends love – from Lagos to London to Los Angeles. “[At my shows,] they’re not showing me the love, but we’re all showing ourselves the love. I love [everyone] so much. I would love to be in Nigeria even when I come in my next life.”