Odeal on His New EP ‘For a Good Time,’ Wizkid’s Genius & Being Misunderstood
Categoria: Musica
The singer-songwriter dives into his love for J Dilla, comparisons to Brent Faiyaz and why he’s more than just an Afrobeats artist.
Por Billboard | 03/09/2026
As summer begins to wind down, Odeal’s affinity for movement and dance remains infinite. On his latest EP, For a Good Time , Billboard’s 2025 Afrobeats Rookie of the Year gloms onto the dance floor, penning sugary bops tailor-made for the club. Built around rhythm and feel, the project draws creative fuel from stops in places like Colombia and Los Angeles. “Rush” and “Get Down” form a seismic one-two punch designed to get bodies moving, while the Jorja Smith-assisted “Coming Home” sees Odeal stepping into house music. “I was taking inspiration from everything around me while working,” says Odeal, who recorded For a Good Time while touring with his LVRN labelmate Summer Walker. “Every song had to stand the test of location and time. Everywhere I went, I listened to the record from the previous place and asked, ‘Are they still fire? Are they still good?’ If they weren’t, I scrapped them. Make new ones and keep moving. The chaos of the parties made that project.” After a fiery 2025 campaign that included two EPs, The Summer That Saved Me and The Fall That Saved Us , Odeal has yet to hit pause on his burgeoning career. Following the success of “Miami,” featuring Leon Thomas, and “Nights in the Sun” with Wizkid, he continued flexing his muscles as a featured artist. Skating across Wale’s “City on Fire,” 6LACK’s “On Me” and Latto’s “Anxious,” Odeal has steadily established himself as a versatile force who can move between R&B and Afrobeats with elastic ease. “Every single track that I approach, I ask, ‘What’s the beat saying to me? What’s the instrumental saying and needing?’ And I adjust to the feeling that it evokes,” he explains. “That’s how I attack it. I really like to understand the world that the artist is in so that I can approach it from that level. How can my verse best describe this whole situation? ” Billboard spoke to Odeal about his new EP, For a Good Time , the mislabeling of his music, the genius of Wizkid; and why he considers critics’ comparisons between him and Brent Faiyaz “lazy.” I’ve always felt a certain level of intentionality with your releases because they almost feel like soundtracks for different seasons. Is that something you consciously think about, or has the timing just worked out that way, especially for this project? Yeah. I think every project I’ve released is like a reflection of where I’m at in life at the moment. We have The Summer That Saved Me and that was coming off the back off of Lustropolis , which was in the winter and kind of a dark time. I was touring the States, doing things I haven’t done before and just growing as an artist. Then, I went onto do The Summer That Saved Me , which was a brighter record. It’s how I felt coming out on the other end of that and in a much better place. As I do, every summer, I release a tape and the intention for this summer tape was for people to have a good time. Enjoy yourself, be present in the moment and press play on any of these records