LYRXX might have only released his first official track, “Balenciaga”, in 2025, but the singer’s emergence represented a stylistic leap for Nigerian music. By melding keen, diaristic writing with a polished pop outlook, the Ibadan-born-and-raised singer revealed himself as an Afropop savant whose sonic choices pull references from various eras of the country’s musical history. With his debut EP MYSTERY RIDER, the singer tackles angst, romance and success with a wholesome sort of candour. Project opener “OAU Fine Girl”, built on a jazzy cocktail of muted drums and lilting guitar riffs, is inspired by trips to the campus of Obafemi Awolowo University. “I believe in love and everything it can offer,” he sings atop the whistling instrumental of “Honeymoon in Paris”. “Bad energy no near my zone/I’ve been down too long/I dey find my peace,” he offers on “Aye Santorini”. For all the daydreaming that comes before it, there’s a narrational levelling-up on the project’s title track—a deft fusion of melancholia and chest-thumping firmly in the lineage of southwest Nigeria’s truest oral music tradition.