If you’ve been listening to Nigerian music in the last two years, you’ve probably heard VINKAY without knowing it.
Busayo Vincent Balogun and Oghenekome Otokumor are the songwriting and production duo whose names sit in the credit lines of “Carry” by Tmaro, “Woman” by Tmaro and Drexbeats, and “Omotena” by Tmaro and PapaRazzle. All carrying their fingerprints. All landing.
Their debut as artists is here. “Groove,” out May 1, 2026, is a two-track instrumental EP available exclusively on Audiomack and YouTube ahead of a full platform release. No vocals. No features. Just the duo and what they can build with bass, drums, percussion, and trumpets.
Market Dance is the opener and it doesn’t ease in. Bass guitar leads from the front, the drums hit immediately, and the whole arrangement feels like it’s been engineered for movement. Percussion stacks layer by layer. Trumpets show up and by the end, you realise the track has been doing a vocalist’s job the whole time and didn’t once feel like it was missing one.
Palmwine Bounce is where the EP shows its range. Slower mood, denser percussion, with the shekere coming in to give the track its character. The trumpets return and execute a small upward jump that’s the most addictive musical moment on the project. The pop bounce in the arrangement makes the track feel ready-made for vocals if VINKAY ever decides to revisit it, but the instrumental version is so complete it almost doesn’t need them.
Two tracks. Both percussion-heavy. Both stand on their own. “Groove” is short by design and confident in its brevity. VINKAY isn’t trying to give you a full album as their introduction. They’re showing you what they can do in two tracks and trusting you to come back for more. There’s reportedly a longer EP in development, and based on this opener, that’s the project to keep an eye on.
Listen to “Groove”: Audiomack