Fave Sets Her Acclaim with Sophomore EP, “Dutty Love”

Ferdinand Ekechukwu

Taken that the Afropop landscape has always been propelled by artistes with indelible personalities and even better discographies, the allure for many is to have a sentiment attached to people’s knowledge of their work. It makes them and their music an easy sell and, more importantly, reduces the need for the artiste to constantly explain themselves.

Singer and songwriter, Fave is believed to be consciously entering into that space in which a formal, more insightful look into her psyche as an artiste is long overdue as she’s a hotly tipped name in the Afro space, and has now solidified her acclaim with the release of her sophomore EP, “Dutty Love”, following her 2022 debut, Riddim 5.

The “Dutty Love” EP features seven tracks, including earlier released singles “Belong To You,” “Controlla,” and “No Games”. Now, with four additional songs: “Juju”, “Complicated”, “Lose My Mind”, and the title track “Dutty Love Song”. Fave delivers a full experience that highlights her signature sound and storytelling.

With “Dutty Love”, the Afropop artiste goes solo and takes listeners through themes of love, longing, and vulnerability, making it a must-listen for her fans and music lovers. The project traverses stylistic singularity, stirring an eclectic array of genres—from dancehall to R&B, Afropop to amapiano—in a vibrant and rousing melting pot.

In “Dutty Love”, Fave’s penchant for exploring the grimy, unpleasant parts of love shines through.  “The EP, for example, is centered on toxic love and all its weird negative sides that still keep drawing us closer to it. When I write about love, I always leave room for the imperfections,” she says.

Work on ‘Dutty Love’ spanned several years. As Fave says, its songs merge real-life experiences and romantic situations with musings and experiences she’s seen other friends her age go through. Newly signed Bad Habit/Atlantic Records’ Fave took the time out to walk through the new EP, track-by-track…

“Dutty Love” – My favourite thing about this song is the sample cause I listened to Nelly Furtado a lot growing up and I always admired how electric she sounded especially whenever she teamed up with Timbaland. “Boy you don’t mean no nothing at all to me” so I wrote about why this boy means nothing at all to me. Because he hurt me when he said he loved me. To me, it’s the perfect entrance into this dutty world.

“Complicated” – “Complicated” is a song I obsessed over for months from the first night I vibed to it with Damie. Describes the perfect dilemma of not wanting to lose someone over exclusivity yet you’re getting too jealous to be satisfied with crumbs. “I don’t want a piece of you: I want it all. I want it all”. It’s a Gen-z thing I don’t know why haha.

“Controlla” – For a long time I wouldn’t jump on an amapiano beat. Can’t believe this is me now. We made this beat from scratch inspired by a P2J beat and we just ‘duttied’ it a little bit. Don’t miss the first few seconds… It’s like the best part. My love goes out to Saszy.

“Juju” – Juju is ‘charm’ ‘jazz’ ‘voodoo’ in African culture. It’s common in my country to hear people say “you don use your love jazz me” and as much as people really are doing that, most times it’s just a figure of speech: Like this song. Cause this person won’t call me, won’t text me yet I’m willing to fight for what we have. What do we have?

“Lose My Mind” – “Lose My Mind” is really just one of my many odes to God. He’s such a wonder. Highlander is so sick with the drums.

“No Games” – Chxf Barry invented a new bounce on ‘No games’. We had a show in Uganda and later that night, we recorded this. I had never heard anything like it. I still haven’t. Sky B was my inspo for a couple pronunciations. ‘I’m calling’ was my favourite song for a long, long time.

“Belong to You” – “Belong to You” is my closer. It’s the end. It’s the fall. It’s the verdict. It’s where it all comes crashing down. The realisation of how twisted you just may be. How willing you are to carry on in a relationship that may not be good for you, just because your heart is unwilling to let go. Unwilling to start over… How do I let go when I belong with you? Axon produced this track. I can’t wait to go to Uganda again and invent more songs.