Pop hitmaker MNEK is raw, sexy and vulnerable on new album BULLDOZER!! (EXCLUSIVE)

After stepping away from his solo career to write and produce songs for other renowned artists, MNEK has returned to the spotlight after eight years with what he describes as a “deeply personal” sophomore album that has big club energy.

The 11-track record titled, BULLDOZER!!, is all about big beats and big personality, with an energetic sound that draws from house, garage, two-step and ballroom, while incorporating pop and R&B influences. Beneath the uptempo club production, are raw and emotional lyrics that reflect a period of “metamorphosis” that occurred in the artist’s life after the release of his 2018 debut album Language, during which he experienced changes in his body image, gender expression, relationships and career.

With the release of his new project on Sept. 18, MNEK spoke with Attitude about the inspiration behind the album and why he refuses to make himself smaller.

“I am the bulldozer”

“I am the bulldozer, this album is the bulldozer,” he explained, calling it a befitting title for the project. “It doesn’t feel like a small album and so much of it talks about not wanting to shrink myself and to stand in my purpose.”

“This album really is art imitating life because I was going to the club every weekend for the past two or three years, and I just wanted to make something up-tempo,” he says. “Also I was going through growing pains, I was entering my thirties during the process of this album and experiencing a lot of changes in my friendship dynamics and professional life.”

“Whatever it is I thought my career would be when I was a teenager completely changed and so I think this is like the dawn of a new life for myself.”

Those feelings are front and centre on tracks such as, ‘THE WALL!!’, a catchy and upbeat pop song driven by powerful vocals which serves as an unofficial mission statement for the record.

“So much of this album is about me breaking through these walls that I’ve built for myself, or that have been there to make me feel that I can’t be an artist or I can’t be a pop star. That I’m too much for certain people and I’m too intimidating or all these negative thoughts that can easily make you shrink yourself,” he added. “That is the wall I want to break through with this album.”

Working with the stars

In the years since the release of his debut record, MNEK – born Uzoechi Osisioma “Uzo” Emenike – has taken up bigger behind-the-scenes roles in the music industry writing and producing hits for top artists like the British girl group, Flo, and pop’s new princess, Zara Larsson.

He ended the drought in June with the first single off new album titled, ‘REVERSE!!’, an aggressive and confident track that has the singer threatening to pull an “Uzo reverse” and “make a thug cry.” It preceded the heavy-hearted and bouncy single, ‘OH NO!! ALL THE BOYS!!’, which is steeped in regret over a series of missed romantic connections. But it’s the third single titled, ‘MUSCLE MARYS!!’, which drives home the album’s message of self-acceptance and taking up space.

On the track, MNEK sings about body image, self-worth and the challenge of dating as a bigger man in the gay community.

“We’re all kind of going through it” – MNEK on ‘MUSCLE MARYS!!’

“This song is based on my own relationship with my body,” he explains. “But I think the whole Muscle Marys thing is kind of beyond even just bigger boys, the slimmer boys feel as well. We’re all kind of going through it.”

The accompanying music video is set in a gym locker room with half-naked “Muscle Marys” flexing their biceps and chiseled abs, juxtaposed to MNEK’s thickset, bear-type body.

“The notion of me kind of just being more revealing in the video and then the visuals for this album have been all about me breaking through these walls I’ve built for myself and feeling like someone like myself can be sexy or can be vulnerable or can be naked on the artwork or whatever.”

He adds, “So I’m just trying to give myself a chance and also have fun. I won’t lie, I want to be on people’s Pinterest boards and all that stuff as far as there being images of bigger Black guys who are objects of desire.”

BULLDOZER!! album highlights

Other highlights from the album include the country-influenced track ‘WANNA BE WANTED!!’ which capitalizes on the global surge of country music in recent years.

The final two songs – ‘WORLD DOESN’T HAVE TO BE SUCH A SCARY PLACE!!’, and ‘CALIFORNIA!!’, include the album’s only features: vocals from Nigerian-Californian artist Adanna Duru and the London-based House Gospel Choir.

MNEK describes those tracks as conversations with himself around the idea of outgrowing the place he has considered home his entire life, and explores whether he has reached the ceiling of what home can offer him and whether there might be somewhere else where he can access a fuller version of himself.

Despite taking nearly a decade to release his sophomore album, MNEK won’t wait that long to share his next project.

“I wanted to make sure that if I was going to come out with new musical stuff that I could really stand behind it and to start the wheel of continuing to make more music,” he says. “So, it’s not going to be another eight years until I release another album.”