In the vast terrain of Nigerian music, Tay Iwar is something of an enigma. His presence has transcended over the years yet he has still managed to feel contemporary at any given moment in time. His 2014 mixtape ‘Passport’ offered early representation of R&B within a Nigerian youth context with tracks like ‘P. Juice’ fusing dulcet, soulful vocals with insistent Afrocentric percussion. Meanwhile his creative community BANTU Collective, formed alongside his brothers Suté and Terna, acted as an incubator for Abuja’s creatives, a vibrant network where the likes of Lady Donli, AYLØ and Preyé made their musical and creative bones. Quickly becoming understood as a touchpoint for alternative expression, he developed fresh tracks alongside the likes of Odunsi and Cruel Santino, witnessing the growth of alté and contributing to the foundation of the sound itself.

Now, Tay is old enough to bask in the glory of the career and music scene that he has helped to develop: racking up star collaborations, witnessing what was once “alternative” penetrate the mainstream; and watching his community of collaborators ascend to global greatness along with him. “A lot of shocking things have happened over the years,” Tay says thoughtfully. “Every day I'm just waiting for what's next in this musical journey. Right now, we're in a heavily experimental era. People are liking all sorts of songs. They're expanding their markets.”

Tay has positioned himself at the helm of the scene while making incredible strides within his own career. He has snagged a Grammy nomination for his songwriting on Wizkid’s ‘Made in Lagos’ (Deluxe), sung ‘True Love’ to an eager crowd at London’s O2 Arena, and worked with continental giants from Tiwa Savage to Kenya’s Bien. This year alone has seen him make his debut on the infamous COLORSXSTUDIOS platform, and in July, release his timely EP ‘Summer Breeze’. “The project is really as the name is,” Tay says. “I had this idea to make music that feels like we're on the beach in Spain.” He accomplished just that across eight tracks filled with restorative calm. Embedded with Tay-brand tranquility, relaxation is its primary mandate. And while cohesive, the project still manages to expand the sonic boundaries of Tay, offering the dynamism of UK rap and trap with collaborators such as Knucks, Kojey Radical and IDK alongside more laidback contributions from Juls and Twelve XII.

When I ask Tay about this seeming knack for reinvention - the ability to consistently reproduce his classic sound in fresh and diverse ways - he corrects me carefully on my choice of words. “The focus is never on reinventing yourself,” Tay begins. “It's just on making beautiful music in whatever way it comes. There’s one weird thing that the music industry gets artists into where they feel like they need to change themselves constantly. All you need to do is be a musician. You're not there for afrobeats or R&B or hip hop or whatever. You're there for music. And if you're there for music, you make different types of music. Naturally, that is reinvention. I think that's why I can make a project that is cohesive with different sounds. That's the job of a musician.”

Tay’s sharp attention to authenticity is a trait that penetrates his entire craft. Beyond being an R&B guy making waves in a nation where afrobeats is the ley of the land, or an Abuja-native captivating a Lagos-centric creative scene, his defiance of status quo is also heavily identitarian. “I’m a Tiv guy, a minority tribe within Nigeria. All my life, all I've heard is that in the music industry, you have to be Yoruba, Igbo or Hausa, or speak those languages to cut across. So for me, the whole point is to show people that it's possible to actually connect all of these sounds and make them global.”

With such intentional representation and an even more robust track record, it comes as no surprise that Tay was selected to perform at this year’s ART X Live!, the show that rounded off the eighth edition ART X Lagos. The art fair’s 2023 theme, ‘The Dialogue,’ focused heavily on community-building between creatives and there was no better place to witness this community unite than on stage at ART X Live! where Tay headlined alongside Azekel and Dope Caesar.

“It was great – well organised and the sound was amazing,” Tay reflects. “It was my first performance in Lagos in about four years, and my last performance in Lagos was Felabration, and before that I did Asa’s show. Those were really high-quality productions as well, so I was really impressed. Being able to perform around so much art was also a great experience. I went to the art fair before the concert so I got to see the pieces and get myself immersed in the vibe of ART X.”

It’s clear that Tay sees himself as part and parcel of the art world, and that he understands music as a critical component of the vast constellation that is African arts. I ask him what he sees as his role so far in the global growth of the African creative scene. “R&B is the reason why Afro became digestible to the whole world,” he begins thoughtfully. “That was the initiation of all of this. When you bring R&B into the conversation of Afro, you make it more sexy. We made that shit slower, we made it more syncopated, the drums are different, we brought R&B chords, people singing high notes, falsettos. We were the reason Afro became sexy. ”

No one finds it difficult to conceive of the breadth of Tay influence and the extent of what he has contributed to Africa’s creative ecosystem - not even Tay himself. He makes it clear that this impact is ever-growing, that it is global in scope, and that it will long outlast this moment. “I’m always gonna be around on the pulse of things. Because that's the whole point of what we’re doing - it’s large. The vision is huge. It’s always been about expanding the idea of what’s possible within the African set.”