STILL: Live in Toronto (Video Album)

TOBi’s 2019 debut LP, STILL, marked the arrival of a promising new hip-hop/R&B star. It’s an intense album that looks inward and outward, reflecting the Nigeria-born, Canada-raised singer/rapper's experience while also putting into perspective a whole lot of big ideas around family, history, and betterment on both personal and societal levels. Suffice it to say, TOBi (real name: Oluwatobi Ajibolade) is an artist so obviously on the cusp of something huge that it wouldn't be wrong to feel lucky to catch him on his ascent. "I am the child of African American music, Yoruba culture, Western education, and Eastern philosophy,” he says at the beginning of this exclusive live performance film, which was captured on the night of STILL’s release at the tiny Velvet Underground club in his adopted hometown of Toronto. "Every day I wrestle with childhood core beliefs, in a constant tangle of learning and unlearning.” It’s a self-analysis that doubles as a guiding light—for how he thinks, how he writes his soulful, introspective songs, and how he passionately cruises through all of the album’s tracks in this concert. “Growth” is a natural starting point—an eloquent meditation on his own self-actualization—and “City Blues” is a jazz-infused hip-hop jam that tells a story of hardships overcome. But he saves the most poignant for last: “Come Back Home” examines TOBi's struggle of being “caught between two worlds”—the journey of searching for one’s home but finding one’s self.