Fuji Moto: The Seyi Vibez Philosophy

“I feel like I was born to do this. Every situation I was going through shaped the music.” — Seyi Vibez

What makes a star? Talent, creativity, some intangible spark? It’s a question that never seems to have a satisfying answer. You just know it when you see it. Seyi Vibez has that quality.

When Bad Bunny dropped DeBi TiRAR MaS FOTos, the internet was flooded with takes about how music can transcend language. Vibez connects in a similar spirit; wordless understanding that resonates with listeners across continents.

It’s this ability that has allowed Lagos-born Oluwaloseyi Balogun to nurture a cult-like following. Their reverence of his sound feels almost evangelical. The mysticism, his refusal to over-explain himself; his allure has a profound pull.

His highly acclaimed debut project NSNV opened with “Superstar,” a declaration of intent. “Yeah, I knew. My first song, my first everything — I was visualising myself becoming global. Becoming the star.” Over the next few years, Vibez would see the manifestation of that prophesy, cultivating a body of work highlighting his authenticity, his versatility and a penchant for transmuting experience into sound. Personal and artistic shifts appear project to project, but the core stays intact. “I feel like I was born to do this,” he tells me. “But at the same time, growth will change you. When you’re looking for money, when you’re moving back to back, everything grows. My sound, my swag, my life. Thank God for that.”

New album, Fuji Moto, arrives hot on the heels of Children of Africa, an EP that cemented his ambition to stretch his sound beyond the street-hop roots that made him. Fuji Moto carries his signature tone: a cracked, commanding voice that speeds through multiverses of heartbreak, romance, sensuality, and perseverance before it reaches you.

The album continues his fascination with global imagery. Japan frames the album visually and spiritually. “I have an icon, Nigo,” he says. “That’s my fashion star. Anything he wears, I want to wear it. I grew up loving Japanese games, Mario Kart, toy cars. Too many toys. So now I’m grown, I’m bringing all of that into the music…Mario Kart is in the album. The colours, the anime feel, it’s all from my childhood.”

Partially titled after Japanese mountain Fuji, the album fuses Yoruba culture with a Japanese visual language. Even the album’s title track, Fuji Moto, references characters he imagined while recording. Japan’s duality (its serenity and neon modernity) mirrors the world Vibez builds for his followers. They’re fast: “I love fast cars. Even in Nigeria, if I’m not in my Lamborghini, I’m in a sports car. It’s just me.” Emotional but unbothered: “I’m the type of artist who is affected by emotion. From the beginning, since I was nineteen, every situation I was going through shaped the music.” And humble but larger than life: “In my generation in West Africa, when you talk about swag, about lifestyle, I’m one of them.”

The album opens with Tortoise Mambo, an orchestral overture led by violin. The texture is stirring, cinematic, demanding attention. How Are You?, previously released and already a fan favourite is playful, skippy, full of sweetness. Vibez coaxes affection smoothly. There’s an unorthodox rom-com quality to it; the flirtation, the implied back-and-forth, the innate sensuality and almost comedic sincerity. By Universe, the soundscape expands. There’s a tactile use of ambient sound here; you can almost feel the space he’s inhabiting.

The first third of Fuji Moto feels sweeter, slightly romantic, maybe almost devotional at times, drenched in gorgeous backing vocals and slow-burning warmth. [Play AMA and think of your favourite person in the world]. Some tracks feel written with women in mind: “I grew up around women. My mum, my sister, my family. I connect to them. So you’ll always hear that in my music.”

The middle third shifts the vibe, and the party begins. The Fuji trilogy, anchored by Fuji Party featuring Olamide, delivers the album’s most exuberant stretch. We briefly reflect on his Fuji interlude in 2023’s Vibe Till Thy Kingdom Come. “If you trace it back,” he says, “I started this. I was the first young artist doing Fuji and taking it everywhere. After that, a lot of people followed. So now I can do Fuji Moto, Fuji House, Fuji Party.” [He references the old Fuji House of Commotion series that aired weekly in Nigeria.] “It’s a combination of all the Fuji I grew up with.”

Fuji House is a standout. It’s electronic but anchored, with a gospel-tinged organ undercurrent and live instrumentation that animates the album. The vibe is all-consuming, unstoppable even for the most rhythmically challenged. It’s a track made to be experienced fully: shoes off, voice cracking, body loose, dancing in the middle of a table.

By the time Mario Kart (already one of 2025’s best) arrives, the Tokyo motif fully finds shape. The track races forward, vivid and electric, whilst preserving the same soul that makes his quieter songs. It begins the culmination of the album’s thesis: On Chasing The World But Still Belonging To Yourself.

He closes our conversation with a slightly comic but sincere message to his fans: “I hope God blesses their pockets. Because their pockets need to be okay to listen to me and buy my tickets. May God bless their pockets.”

Fuji Moto shows an artist stepping fully into himself. Seyi has said this is his favourite project so far, and you can hear why. The album draws on the same childhood textures that shaped him whilst pushing them into a world he controls. The choices are deliberate. He isn’t trying to impress anyone; he’s recording from a place that feels familiar to him, and maybe you’ll feel it too, but he doesn’t need you to.

It’s a project that is melodic, soulful, uplifting; a soundtrack for the moments that make up a life. Lagos, London, and Tokyo all speaking the same tongue. That’s the Seyi Vibez philosophy; a world entirely his own, yet somehow feeling like home.

Perhaps that’s what makes a star.

Listen to Fuji Moto: HERE