Lojay, Refinement & The Sonic World of XOXO

The last time The Floor sat down with Lojay, LV N ATTN had just announced him to the mainstream. Songs like Monalisa and Tonongo were moving fast, pulling him out of the cult favourite territory and into global conversations. Three years on, we’re back and the energy feels different. There is an air of calm and confidence.

We reminisce briefly on the first conversation, about how quickly everything moved after LV N ATTN, and about the songs that still follow him everywhere. But Lojay isn’t stuck there. When I ask what’s changed most in the last three years between then and now, he doesn’t frame it as a reinvention.

“I wouldn’t say much has changed” he tells me. “I’m just a more refined, more assured version of myself”.

That refinement, he explains, comes from proximity. Being around juggernauts like Burna Boy, Davido and Wizkid, in an environment where he can simultaneously collaborate and observe, has elevated both his sound and perspective. The ambition is evidently sharper now, and the decisions are far more intentional. He knows who he is, and more importantly, who he isn’t trying to be.

That clarity is all over XOXO.

Listening to the project, what stood out most wasn’t the level growth or newfound maturity but how comfortable it sounded. He was settling into his identity as an artist. The music feels smoother, looser, more confident in its skin, and yet more deliberate than anything he’s released before. It sounds like someone stepping fully into their own sonic language.

Lojay agrees. XOXO gave him room to explore without panic.

“I wanted to be as diverse as possible,” he says. “I didn’t want to stay in one space”.

That openness is reflected in the features: just four but all feel very deliberate. Odeal on Mwah!, Feid on Body, Tyla on Memories and Victony on Sawa. None feel ornamental, with each collaboration coming from genuine chemistry over album strategy.

“They all came from sessions where we blended naturally,” he explains. “There were other people I made songs with during that time, but these ones fit the world I was trying to create”.

Most of those moments happened in-person and in the studio, building energy in real time (with Victony being the one exception). Cohesion seems like a core aspect to the work that Lojay conjures, where everything and everyone has its place.

When asked about the emotional space he was trying to create with XOXO, Lojay laughs before landing on a deceptively simple answer.

“I just wanted to make music that made me feel sexy. What can I put together that makes me smile and feel sexy That was the driving force for the entire project”.

Although it was a moment rooted in light-heartedness, it gave deeper insight into how he constructs his bodies of work. One thing Lojay has always done well, across every project, is sequencing. His tracklists are sentient in the way they move and transition. There’s a narrative logic to how this album and other EPs unfold.

So how does he decide what makes the cut? He’s meticulous about it. Almost obsessive.

“I care about the body of work more than one or two songs,” he reasons. “I never try to create an album around a song”.

Instead, he starts with intention and “feeling”: a sonic world. Once that world is clear, the decisions around the creation becomes easier and in turn, it becomes easier to choose what belongs and what doesn’t. At times, that world becomes visual in his mind, a physical space he can step into. And fittingly, he mapped XOXO out on a whiteboard. Laughing, he tells me he still has it.

“I went back and looked at it recently,” he says. “Out of sixteen songs on the board, only four made it”.

Nothing is concrete until submission day. A song might still make the cut, but its tempo may change or the existing intro might disappear. A track can evolve so much that it no longer fits the mood it was meant to serve. The process is long, but never tedious because he loves it.

The joy is audible. You can hear it in how XOXO breathes, and the vitality felt from track to track is directly linked to how personal the album is to Lojay. It comes from the epiphany and acceptance of his talent and knack for composition. And in the words of Spider-Man’s Uncle Ben, ‘with great power comes great responsibility’...

“I want to create something bigger than Afrobeats. Bigger than Nigeria. Something that people from different parts of the world can connect to”.

The proof that he is making strides towards his goals are evident. That connection he speaks of is happening worldwide with people finding themselves in his music, which is leaves him with a feeling he struggles to articulate.

It was a touching moment that separated Lekan Osifeso Jr. from Lojay, the artist.

Building the world of XOXO is a laborious but rewarding task. The avid listeners and admirers resemble its inhabitants, tending to and cherishing its beauty. In many ways, Lojay made the album for others to live within it, to come an go as many times as they please. However, the true charm lies in the necessity to create a playful, dilligent and intentional world for himself.