Features : “True (You)” Brings Peter KingKing Out Front With A Happy, Trippy Celebration Of Love

For his second career, the music career he has wanted since childhood, Peter KingKing begins with a fun, swinging pop–Afro pop love song called “True (You).”

“I was just driving in the car one day, and I was in a happy spirit,” he said. “And I already had the beat, you know, and I was just listening to it, and somehow the lyrics started flowing. The moment I wrote the first line, I just knew the direction I wanted to take the song.”

In his lilting tenor voice, he sings,

You told me you love me and I love you too
Ain’t nothing in the world is gonna come between us two
It don’t take non but a look in your eyes to know that it’s true
That’s why I’ll be here I ain’t going nowhere I’m in love with you.
…
Baby you know / you know I do
Baby you know / you know it’s true.

“It became a song where a man has been happy with his relationship and praising his woman for her commitment and her loyalty towards him and then reciprocating and then having, you know, a happy relationship together.”

Peter, born and raised in Nigeria, has lived in the United States for about two decades, attending the final months of high school in Miami and college in Michigan.

He has lived in New York, Washington, Atlanta, and now Los Angeles where he has owned an operated a successful car business since about 2010.

His heart, though, was always with music.

“Music is my life, my first choice of career since I was a child. I am very excited for the world to see the creative side of me.”

“True (You)” is his debut. He wrote the song in 2017-2018 but he didn’t record and release it until 2021. Now he is moving out into the public and promoting it.

“It’s a different vibe from the norm, from what people are used to listening to on a daily basis. It’s a song you can go to anytime, whenever you want to ease your spirit. You can turn it on and it don’t matter what you’re doing — in the car, in the kitchen or shower or anywhere at all.”

The song has a trippy beat and a dance-beat speed melody played in a variety of electronic guitars. It is fast and poppy and it has a tone now and then from Africa.

Or maybe the Caribbean. Asked about it, Peter laughs.

“When people ask me sometimes, ‘What genre is this song?’ I’m like ‘Call it whatever.’ You could call it Afro pop, you could call it pop, you could call it Calypso. It’s just a vibe, like a summery vibe, a summer song.”

He grew up with traditional Nigerian music, played loud by his father every morning, beginning at 5:30 when he was getting ready to go to work. An uncle who lived with them at the time leaned toward the American music of the period, late ’80s and the ’90s, and Peter acquired that lean.

When he talks about his influences, he names people like Toni Braxton, Whitney Houston, Brandy, and Akon.

“The older I got, the more I wanted to be a singer, and it just took off from there.”

He writes his own lyrics and melodies.

“Everything you hear is all me. I go to the studio and tell the engineers, ‘I want you to play the guitar this way, play to the bassline this way, and play the drums this way. I’m very particular when it comes to my music.”

What he wants now is to get his song “buzzing, taking off.” While he is doing that he is going to the studio, putting together videos, writing songs.

“Before, when I only had the music and I didn’t know where to go with it, I thought, ‘Okay, you know what? First, you got to go to the studio, put it together, record it, and then you shoot a video.’”

For now, “True” is out.

“I would love for the world to hear that song, because I love that song and the melody it flows on with all my heart. It’s a beautiful song. It doesn’t have any negativity around it. I want people to be happy whenever that song comes on.”

Be happy. Connect to Peter KingKing on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.

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