Odeal talks new EP ‘For a Good Time,’ the mislabeling of his music and the genius of Wizkid in a wide-ranging interview
Odeal treats his projects like seasons, and For a Good Time is his sun-drenched high summer. The British-Nigerian singer released the EP as his first full project of 2026, a warm, groove-forward collection recorded between Medellín, Los Angeles, and London that finds him smitten with a love interest and with the whimsy of his own life. In a new interview with Billboard, he opened up about the record, the persistent mislabeling of his music, the genius of Wizkid, and why he considers critics’ comparisons to Brent Faiyaz “lazy.”
That intentionality is by design. Odeal has long framed his releases as reflections of specific moments, sonic snapshots of where he is in life. “I think every project I’ve released is like a reflection of where I’m at in life at the moment,” he told Billboard, tracing a through-line from the darker, wintry Lustropolis to the brighter The Summer That Saved Me. For a Good Time extends that logic, a record built for the season it arrived in.
A Method Rooted in Place
Odeal’s process hinges on environment. He has repeatedly credited his surroundings as the secret ingredient in his music, and For a Good Time is a product of deliberate movement across three cities. That geographic restlessness feeds a sound Apple Music aptly described as Afro-R&B, a fluid blend that lets him glide between R&B intimacy and Afrobeats buoyancy without ever sounding like he is straining to bridge them.
His approach to collaboration is similarly instinctive. Odeal has become one of the most in-demand featured voices in the scene, and he described a method rooted in empathy for whoever’s world he is stepping into. “Every single track that I approach, I ask, what’s the beat saying to me? What’s the instrumental saying and needing? And I adjust to the feeling that it evokes,” he explained. “I really like to understand the world that the artist is in so that I can approach it from that level. How can my verse best describe this whole situation?” That chameleonic instinct has made him a natural fit alongside a strikingly varied roster.
Rejecting the Easy Labels
For all his openness, Odeal bristles at being boxed in. He has grown frustrated with the mislabeling of his music, and he pushed back hardest against the recurring critical shorthand that likens him to Brent Faiyaz, calling the comparison “lazy.” It is a telling stance from an artist whose entire appeal rests on refusing to sit neatly in one genre, moving between R&B and Afrobeats with elastic ease rather than choosing a lane. He would rather be understood on his own terms than slotted into a familiar reference point.
He reserves genuine reverence for his collaborators, especially Wizkid, whom he praised as a kind of generational talent. The two have built real chemistry, from “Nights in the Sun” to the For a Good Time cut “N.I.T.S.,” and Odeal speaks about the Afrobeats icon with the admiration of a student who has studied the blueprint closely.
That his star keeps rising is not in question. After a fiery 2025 that included the twin EPs The Summer That Saved Me and The Fall That Saved Us, the MOBO Award-winning singer has kept his foot on the gas, notching features across Wale’s “City on Fire,” 6LACK’s “On Me,” and Latto’s “Anxious,” plus a Stormzy link on “24 Hours” and a slot at London’s All Points East. For a Good Time is the sound of an artist confident enough to make joy his subject and disciplined enough to keep evolving while he does it. The seven-track EP is out now, and on the evidence, Odeal’s most expansive chapter is still ahead of him.
