Tracy Aint Home EP Launch

Tracy Ain't Home
2022- 2025

Tracy Ain't Home represents a pivotal chapter in my creative practice. Originally conceived as my second EP, the project became a space for experimentation rather than a fixed destination. During this period, I explored new approaches to songwriting, production, visual storytelling, and live performance, releasing a series of standalone singles while allowing the wider concept to evolve organically.

Although the EP was never realised in its original form, the ideas developed throughout this period continue to influence my work today. Rather than viewing it as an unfinished project, I see Tracy Ain't Home as a creative transition that laid the foundations for my current interest in world-building and interdisciplinary practice.

Outcomes

- 4 singles released
- Funding by Sound and Music Network / Arts Council
- Lead Single - Tracy Ain't Home
- Social Media and Visual Assets
- 3 Lyric Videos
- Played on BBC radio 6 , NTS radio and more

"The Tracy you knew isn't here anymore."

The title Tracy Ain't Home reflects a feeling of transition. It wasn't about a physical place, but about recognising that I was no longer the same artist or person I had been before. I was interested in what happens when familiar ideas, identities, and ways of working no longer fit, creating space for new directions to emerge.

This period became an opportunity to experiment without feeling tied to a final outcome. Through a series of singles, evolving visual concepts, and live experiences, I explored themes of identity, growth, resilience, and self-discovery. Instead of building towards a traditional EP, the project developed as an ongoing conversation with my practice, allowing ideas to be tested, reshaped, and carried forward into future work.

Buy Cheap Buy Twice (2023)

Buy Cheap Buy Twice is my reflection on the ebbs and flows of life. It's about accepting that we often have to experience the difficult moments before we reach the good ones, and I wanted that journey to be felt as much as it was heard.

As the sole producer, I built the track from over 50 stems to create a dreamy, textured sound world. I embraced experimentation throughout the process, allowing accidents to become part of the composition—like the panning percussion that moves around the listener to create a greater sense of motion and immersion. The song unfolds as a three-part sonic odyssey, using shifts in sound, energy, and atmosphere to mirror changing emotions. I wrote lyrics that are both inspirational and abstract, leaving space for listeners to find their own meaning within them.

Although the song was created in joy, it was finished through grief. That contrast shaped every creative decision and is why, despite its uplifting energy, there's an emotional weight running underneath it.

Tracy AIn't Home (2024)

Tracy Ain’t Home was created in collaboration with producer Koji. We built the track around a voicemail to an ex who keeps calling—leaning into a classic R&B feel, which is a space I don’t usually work in. The production centres natural, human textures, including percussion and tongue clicks/smacks against the side of the mouth, echoing the idea of knocking and persistent contact.

Stills from Tracy Ain't Home Lyric Video (2024)

The visual identity for Tracy Ain’t Home was built around the feeling of looking through someone’s window. I collaborated with photographer David Kwaw Mensah to bring the idea to life. I designed the set in my studio, with the challenge of transforming an art studio into a believable living room that felt intimate and lived in.
I centred the colour palette around my signature green and red, colours that represent a rose and have become part of my visual identity. I also filled the space with everyday objects that reflect who I am, making the set feel personal and authentic—as if you were catching a glimpse into my world.

Buy Cheap Buy twice Promo images shot by me

I was drawn to the themes of business, value, and self-worth, so I built the visual identity around the aesthetics of a shop. This concept developed from an earlier project, Tray's Dada, where I transformed my life into an online retail store to explore identity, value, and consumer culture. The cover artwork for Buy Cheap Buy Twice is a direct cross-reference to that project, using one of the product images from the online shop as the single cover.

The photograph itself carries a deeper personal meaning. It shows me at five years old wearing a gingham suit with shoulder pads. My parents always dressed me for success, and that image reflects the ambition, confidence, and work ethic they instilled in me from an early age, while also honouring my Nigerian roots.

As an independent artist, I photographed all of the promotional images myself and also shot the footage for the lyric video. I was inspired by surveillance, which naturally fed into the CCTV and VHS aesthetic running throughout the visuals. The set design was influenced by 90s game shows like Supermarket Sweep, with its bold graphics, clean layouts, and retail environment. I extended this language by using receipt typography and shop-inspired graphics across the project, creating a visual world that felt playful while reinforcing the song's themes of value and self-worth.

Stills from Buy Cheap Buy twice Lyric Video

Reference from Tray's Dada Project

I was shaped by my references to Supermarket Sweep (1994–2000) and discount supermarket, Kwik Save, pulling from that working-class British 80s/90s high-street aesthetic. I leaned into an “anti-design” approach—bold, functional, and intentionally cheap—using blue tones and graphic patterns to reflect mass-market retail and broadcast visuals.

The set design and costume of the video was inspired by the classic Nollywood films I grew up watching up watching. Nollywood is known for its do it yourself nature. I knew I wanted vivid colour. I wanted objects that formed together to resemble a skyline. I wanted it to feel sculptural. I liked the idea of a sofa. I liked the idea of me doing something mundane like my nails. I made the dress myself as I knew I wanted to wear something that no-one else had to make the video unique.

Tracy Ain't Home Lyric Video (2024)

Inspiration from early 2000s Nollywood films for set design and costume.

Tracy Ain't Home Visualiser (2024)/ Shot by David Kwah Mensah / edited by Tracy Sada - David and I shot the visualiser video in soho. I wanted the idea of being followed. It attributed to the idea of not being home. I also wanted a video that contrasted with the lyric video that was shot inside

I handwrote the lyrics and scanned it and manipulated it on photoshop. I used it for my promo assets.

These behind-the-scenes images were captured during the production of Shake It Up in my studio building at Set Woolwich at around 2am. The sequence was entirely self-produced. I designed the set, sourced the props and filmed the footage using my iPhone and a VHS camera. To achieve the overhead shots, I rigged the camera to the ceiling and repeatedly performed beneath it until I captured the movement I envisioned. This process reflects the resourcefulness and hands-on approach that has become a defining characteristic of my creative practice

Tracy Ain't Home Series Episode 1(2024)/ I had the idea of creating a series based on the song. I was going to base the episodes on going to different places in the world. it was kind of roped around eat love and pray. When you travel to get over an ex. I shot in VHS and edited it. I love shooting in VHS as I feel like it gives you the licence to be creative.

BTS editing the lyric video. Spent two weeks creating this video. I was very particular as I had limited footage. Thinking of ways to bring some sort of a narrative

I knew I was going to Nigeria so wanted to get all my footage on my trip. I used VHS again as thats my signature. I wanted to use blue again. Blue is a nod to my vhs aesthetic , reminds of static. My nod to Nollywood. The song felt like my return to back home. First time in ever 25 years back to my birth country.