Khidxavage has love on his mind on ESSENTIALS. He has desire there too. There are nights when he wants someone close, moments when he sounds completely sure of himself, and then there is the other side of the story — the part where success comes with pressure and ambition starts asking questions of its own.
That is where Khidxavage finds himself across the eight tracks on ESSENTIALS.
He opens with “Lost in Your Way,” and there is very little distance between him and the feeling he is describing. He is taken by someone, almost to the point of losing his bearings around them. It is an intimate beginning, and one that immediately places relationships at the centre of part of the story KX wants to tell.
By “Call,” simply being drawn to someone is no longer enough.
Khidxavage wants to reach them.
There is distance to overcome and an attachment he is not particularly interested in hiding. He wants the connection back within reach, giving the record a sense of urgency that feels different from the attraction heard at the beginning of the project.
Then “Like Me” arrives, and Khidxavage sounds like a man who has remembered exactly who he is.
The vulnerability gives way to swagger. Success, lifestyle and self-belief come to the front, with KX carrying himself like someone who knows what he brings into a room.
It is not quite the same Khidxavage heard searching for connection on “Call,” and that is the point. ESSENTIALS does not keep him in one emotional position.
“Putin” keeps some of that confidence but takes it somewhere more physical. KX is direct about attraction and chemistry, leaning into desire on one of the project's more sensual records.
There is more ease on “Show You,” featuring Mallvn.
Nothing feels particularly heavy here. Khidxavage is interested in somebody, he enjoys the feeling that comes with it and he wants to share the moment. After the longing of the opening records and the confidence that follows, “Show You” catches him simply enjoying himself.
And then comes “Pray.”
For the first time on ESSENTIALS, the person Khidxavage is chasing is no longer somebody else.
He is thinking about his own life.
“Pray” finds Khidxavage looking at what it takes to keep moving when ambition becomes more than a dream. There is the hustle, certainly, but there is also the pressure of protecting whatever that hustle has produced.
The further you go, the more there is to lose, and Khidxavage does not pretend that thought never crosses his mind.
It makes “Pray” one of the more revealing records on ESSENTIALS.
Success is often easiest to talk about after it arrives. KX is more interested here in the uncomfortable space around it working towards something, beginning to see progress, wanting more and still knowing that nothing is promised.
So he prays.
Not from a place of surrender, but from an understanding that determination and uncertainty can exist in the same person.
That moment says quite a bit about ESSENTIALS.
The project may spend plenty of time around relationships, attraction and confidence, but Khidxavage is also talking about what sits behind the lifestyle. He wants connection. He wants to enjoy what he is building. He wants more for himself. And he understands what pursuing all of that can demand from him.
The project does not end with “Pray.”
Khidxavage returns to two records from earlier in the tracklist with “Putin (Sing Along)” and “Call (Sing Along).” The alternate versions bring ESSENTIALS to eight tracks and revisit two of the songs that help define its relationship and desire-driven side.
By then, the title begins to make sense without needing much explanation.
ESSENTIALS is not Khidxavage trying to squeeze every record into one grand statement. It feels closer to a record of the things occupying his life right now.
Someone he wants.
Someone he misses.
The confidence to enjoy where he is.
The hunger to get somewhere bigger.
And the prayer that, while chasing all of it, he does not lose what he has already fought to build.
‘ESSENTIALS’ Tracklist
Lost in Your Way
Call
Like Me
Putin
Show You — KX & Mallvn
Pray
Putin (Sing Along)
Call (Sing Along)
Topics
AfropopNew MusicAfrican MusicKhidxavage
Funke Akindele has announced The Four: No One Fights Alone, a new ensemble Nollywood film scheduled to open in cinemas on December 11, 2026.
