While Lagos has long served as the hub for some of the most innovative music coming out of West Africa, the city owes some of its eclectic nature to the ever-evolving scenes in cities like Jos and Abuja that exist within close orbit. Over the years, the southern coastal city of Port Harcourt has produced a long string of talented stars who’ve taken Nigerian music by storm, but in Braye, the city has something of a virtuosic enigma. The rising star’s appeal does not lie in the time-honed ability to conjure spellbinding anthemic hooks or lead a new iteration of propulsive dance floor summons. Instead, Braye whispers to the soul, crafting delicate earworms that are definitive portraits of the human condition, with songs like “Painless Melody” and “Bossa Nova” showcasing a rare gift for cutting to the heart of universal struggles with an unprecedented level of clarity. On 2025’s I Wish I Had More Time, Braye broadens his horizon while setting on the nature of desire, the tricks of destiny and quirks of timing as narrational tools to ponder emotions like ambition, love and frustration. Expanding the jazz focus of his earlier releases, I Wish I Had More Time takes influences from soul, reggae and R&B while retaining the dreamy instrumentation that he first stepped out with on “Painless Melody”. Across four songs, the mood traverses between melancholic chagrin, braggadocious confidence and contemplative acceptance. On “Stuck”, it almost feels like he’s delivering a heartfelt message to both the audience and himself: “I think that you can be a star/You just don’t see yourself the way you really are.” It’s not all solemn, as the title track proves, where he sweetly croons, “It’s my time I want it all.” It all feels like Braye is intimately aware of the ephemerality of life and makes a case for seeking out the most important things while there’s time to.