Tunde Olaniran
Transgressor
QUITE SCIENTIFIC
7/10
Tunde Olaniran’s is a voice and a viewpoint so varied and singular that it must be heard to be believed. Transgressor is a strong album that’s as vulnerable as it is courageous, with bare beats, giant hooks, and multitudes of personality. The Flint, Michigan, musician’s new full-length has its share of radio-ready summer jams, from lead single “Namesake” to the brass-bolstered, self-actualization anthem “Don’t Cry (feat. Invincible),” but it’s the fearless title track that serves as the thesis for the rest of Professor Olaniran’s lecture: “These bricks are nothing to the walls I’ve built / If I can break ’em, I’ll be stronger still / And like Berlin I’ll keep a piece of it / A reminder of the braver things I did.” Olaniran is the kind of artist and activist we need in 2015, and Transgressor is an exciting and refreshing view into his kingdom of possibility and positivity.
