John Alone grapples with the fame monster on new track, 'Ego'

"Creativity, by its very conceit, is designed to instil a god complex."

Nigerian-born, London-based R&B artist John Alone makes a rapid return with his latest single ‘Ego’, an R&B track that combines rapping and singing, reminiscent of Drake, Frank Ocean and Tyler, The Creator. Since 2014, John has performed under a myriad of aliases, and his prolific songwriting saw him release two albums in 2020 as John Alone, ‘Spanish Blue’ and ‘Babel!’.

For John, music has always been a personal pursuit of spirituality, independence, and self-preservation, which lends to the crafting of his latest identity. In a completely new turn, John confronts his ego on his latest single, where we see him grappling with the fame monster – hazy guitar cutting over the mellow lo-fi chatter of electric piano.

John says, “Every musician that thinks they’re halfway decent suffers from an ego problem. It’s almost a trope at this point – the notion that most artists, regardless of their level of success, are fame-hungry, clout chasing ego monsters with no notion of perspective. I think it’s something that is incredibly easy to fall into as a creative person, regardless of how self-aware you are. Creativity, by its very conceit, is designed to instil a god complex. You’re literally making something out of nothing. Why shouldn’t people pay attention?”

‘Ego’ is out now on Lonely Sun DMY. Listen here.