( ENSPIRE Music ) Toosii Releases His Debut Album, “Naujour,” and Will Be On Tour
ENSPIRE Contributor: Wesley Tran
Earlier this month, 23-year-old artist Toosii released NAUJOUR, his debut album, via South Coast Music Group/Capitol Records. The 19-track album includes the Platinum-certified “Favorite Song,” which is No. 1 on Rhythm radio and is currently top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, subsequent versions of “Favorite Song” with Khalid and Future. Hailed by Complex as one of “music’s brightest stars,” Toosii will support the album with an extensive summer headline tour.
Born Nau’Jour Lazier Grainger in Syracuse, NY, Toosii began focusing on music after he moved to Raleigh, NC, as a teen. He says, “I had always told myself that when I dropped my debut album, it would be a self-titled album. I feel like there is a difference between NauJour and Toosii and with this album, I am actually giving people the real in my life.”
Throughout NAUJOUR, the 23-year-old artist oscillates between disarming tenderness (“Favorite Song”) and jagged cool. He trades bars with 21 Savage on “Pull Up” for an effortless blend of menace and machismo. On “Rich Ridin,” he coasts over insistent percussion as he lets loose emphatic flexes and implicit warnings for his enemies. The slow-burning “FWLM” blends raw lyrics with elegant instrumentation as Toosii swings from brash and confident (“Backseat, Double R, let me set the bar”) to vulnerable (“Brought her to the studio / Just for her to break my heart and play me like a Yu-Gi-Oh!”). Toosii shot the immersive, atmospheric official video for “FWLM” in downtown Los Angeles with frequent collaborators Joan Pabon and Logan Fields (Rod Wave, Syd).
Named by Billboard as an early contender for “Song of the Summer 2023,” “Favorite Song” has amassed over 260 million combined global streams. The audio has been featured in over five million global TikTok creations, earning over three billion combined views. XXL Magazine put “Favorite Song” (feat. Future) [Toxic Version] on its list of the best new hip-hop songs and Brooklyn Vegan observed, “It’s a syrupy slow jam that Future is perfect for.” Praising the remix with Khalid, HYPEBEAST said, “An R&B song reflecting on the woes of heartbreak, the resulting collaboration is a series of layered, drawn-out vocals, subtly punctuated with the tapping of drums.”
Toosii even recently performed “Favorite Song” during the two-hour live season finale of Season 23 of NBC’s four-time Emmy Award-winning competition series “The Voice” and on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”
NAUJOUR is further proof of Toosii’s willingness–and his power–to succumb to the emotional compulsions the world says Black men shouldn’t acknowledge. With this comfort, he writes more earnestly while singing more passionately, signifying his total artistic control. “I want NAUJOUR to be a classic, timeless project,” Toosii says. “I want people to understand who I truly am and recognize that I am an artist that’s going to be around forever and not for the moment.”
To listen NAUJOUR, be sure to click here.
To get more information and get tickets for Toosii’s tour, click here.
To support Toosi be sure to check out his YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook.
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