FrontPage Nigeria | Nigerian Songstress Rukmani Embraces the Balance of Softness and Strength on Intimate Sophomore EP

Nigerian Songstress Rukmani Embraces the Balance of Softness and Strength on Intimate Sophomore EP

23 October 2026

by Cypress

Award-winning Nigerian R&B songstress RUKMANI embraces desire, sensuality and self-assurance on her highly anticipated sophomore EP SOFTIES VIBE, an 8-track offering that gathers together different versions of herself from different moments in her life into an intimate exploration of tenderness and sensuality.

Driven by her distinctly emotive vocals and poetic songwriting over lush R&B, soul, afrofusion, dancehall and amapiano-inflected textures and soundscapes, Rukmani moves through attraction, desire, pursuit, temptation, intimacy and uncertainty with striking emotional range across Softies Vibe. With sensuality emerging as its connective tissue rather than by conscious design, the project sees Rukmani exploring what it means to want deeply without surrendering the confidence, boundaries or sense of self that sit at the heart of her artistry, and revealing a side of her that could be tender and emotionally open without ever surrendering agency or self-respect.

The EP opens with ‘MOG’, short for “Matter on Ground”, where Rukmani arrives with complete self-assurance, fully aware that she is the subject of attention and conversation, and sets the tone with an easy, composed confidence. ‘Lock It In’ featuring Ema Onigah pushes that confidence towards flirtation as she challenges a love interest to stop hesitating and act on what is already between them.

‘Down for It’ gives Rukmani space to lean further into desire and attraction, playing with the knowledge that she can remain on somebody’s mind long after the moment has passed, while ‘Sneaky Link’ complicates that attraction with secrecy and borrowed time. Built around trumpets, electronic textures and relaxed percussion, the track finds Rukmani caught in the thrill and moral tension of being the person somebody cannot stop thinking about even when he goes home to someone else.

That push and pull between confidence and emotional exposure becomes even more pronounced across the project’s second half. On ‘Property’ featuring Tar1q, Rukmani makes no attempt to disguise who she wants, with Tar1q meeting her energy and turning the song into an exchange built around mutual attraction, trust and emotional surrender.

‘Whine’ sees Rukmani and F3line slow everything right down into a more intimate space shaped by close dancing and sustained chemistry. Then ‘Top 5’ unsettles that certainty. Faced with someone who has yet to decide where she belongs in his life, Rukmani allows vulnerability into the room without abandoning her standards, making it clear that she may want him but has no interest in being treated as one option among many. The EP closes with ‘Check on Me’ that reconnects with the self-assurance of ‘MOG’, and brings us back to the idea that Rukmani remains the “matter on ground” as we reach the EP’s immersive final moments.

Softies Vibe builds on the emotional intimacy of Rukmani’s earlier work, from her Angel On The Run EP, and the love, lust and loss explored on debut album 3XL to the playful confidence of her recent singles ‘Serial Kisser’ and ‘HIH (Hot In Here)’, while giving fuller shape to the “Softie” identity that has become central to her world. For Rukmani, softness is not passivity and vulnerability is not weakness. “Being vulnerable doesn’t erase the fact that I’m hardworking.

It doesn’t erase the fact that I’m loyal or that I’m a trustworthy friend. It doesn’t erase the fact that when I want something, I go after it,” she says. “I think that’s the irony of being a Softie. We can be tender and emotional and vulnerable, and at the same time, we can be incredibly strong”. On Softies Vibe, that contradiction is very much the point. Rukmani is not presenting a single version of herself, but allows tenderness, lust, uncertainty, confidence and self-respect to exist together, revealing a fuller portrait of the woman behind the Softie.

MORE ABOUT RUKMANI

Rukmani is a Nigerian singer-songwriter whose music sits at the meeting point of R&B, soul and afrobeats music, shaped by her distinctly affecting vocals, poetic writing and a deeply personal approach to storytelling. Born and raised in Port Harcourt and now based in Lagos, she began singing in church from the age of six, discovering early on that music could be both refuge and release.

That emotional honesty remains central to her artistry today. Whether exploring womanhood, desire, vulnerability, heartbreak or self-discovery, Rukmani writes from lived experience, creating songs that feel intimate, deeply relatable and emotionally unguarded. As she once put it, “I can never separate [my personal experiences from my artistry] because my art is very personal to me. How can I express myself without expressing exactly what needs to be? […] I need people to know that I’m just like them” That instinct has helped her shape a sound that is soulful, soft, self-aware, and widely resonant.

Since beginning her professional journey in 2021, Rukmani has steadily carved out her own space within contemporary African music, balancing softness, sensuality, strength and soulful depth with striking clarity. Her early releases introduced a distinct new voice unafraid of intimacy and spontaneity, while projects like Angel On The Run expanded her reach with an R&B-led sound positioned for wider international recognition.

Her debut album 3XL further deepened that emotional world, confidently and gracefully exploring the complicated interplay of love, lust and loss as interconnected parts of the human experience. Influenced by both her personal journey and the musical legacy of artists she grew up listening to such as Styl-Plus, 2Face and P-Square, Rukmani continues to build a catalogue that is emotive, honest, nuanced, and stylistically fluid, making music that offers not just feeling, but recognition, comfort and connection for listeners navigating their own lives in real time.

‘SOFTIES VIBE’ EP TRACKLIST