CKay has revealed that “Bye-Bye,” the closing track on his new album “Banga Boy,” was written for one specific woman and nearly did not make the final cut because he felt it exposed too much of himself.
The Afropop singer and producer described the song as unlike anything else on the project. Most of the album came together with relative ease, he said, but “Bye-Bye” was different.
“One song that was a bit challenging to make was Bye-Bye, the last song,” he said. “The reason is because it was very vulnerable. In fact, maybe too vulnerable. Like I almost removed it from the album because I felt like the things I said were too personal.”
He kept it on at the last minute, driven by a single purpose. “I wanted the person it was meant for who is out there somewhere to hear it,” he said. “That song was for one specific person. It’s not even for fans.”
When pressed on who she is, he kept it brief: “Yes, she used to be in my life.” As for the details, he pointed listeners back to the music itself. Everything I said on the song,” he said. “The whole song is the tea.”
The album as a whole follows a deliberate arc. “Banga Boy, the album begins with a breakup,” CKay explained. “The in between the first track and the last track is a whole period of healing.
It’s a story of going to the club, partying, indulgence, and eventual healing in the end.” He wanted the surface experience to feel celebratory and club-ready, a departure from the intimate sound he built his name on, while the underlying narrative carried real emotional weight.
The album is also structured in two sides, inspired by his habit of listening to vinyl records while making it. Side A leans into faster, high-energy records, while Side B moves into mid-tempo territory.
He wanted the sequencing to feel like a coherent playlist from top to bottom, with the second side marking a distinct new chapter in the story.
One of the album’s standout collaborations, “Para” with Phyno, came together through a chance encounter. CKay had long wanted to work with the rapper, and the opportunity arrived unexpectedly.
“I ran into him at the airport in Houston,” he said. “I was going back to Nigeria and basically at the airport I saw him and we just got talking and we’re talking talking and we’re like yo we need to do something crazy.”
Back in Nigeria, CKay went looking for the right fit. Phyno initially sent over an instrumental that leaned heavily into highlife, which CKay appreciated but felt was too predictable. He pushed for something different.
His production team, BMH Vision, built the beat instead. “I usually like to freestyle a lot so I freestyle build up the thing,” he said, “and I sent it to him and he really liked it and he did his verse which was crazy.”
On the broader question of how he approaches making music, CKay is consistent. He describes every song as a diary entry, an attempt to document a specific experience as accurately as possible rather than simply assembling pleasing sounds. I need it to also represent what happened in my life,” he said. “That’s kind of what I mean by diary entry.”
He applies the same thinking to the question of making music for international audiences. The song that brought him global recognition was not built with that goal in mind, he noted, and he believes chasing a perceived international sound is more likely to undermine the work than elevate it. “People respond to feelings, vibes, not just songs,” he said. “That in itself is not really restricted by language or culture.”
