Feel like fully turning up? Lean on music crooners YOGI, NENE and SadBoi to completely set the tones right with their ‘Ride or Die’ music video.
Pure energy and signature cinematic appeal on display. Tap in.
London-born, Grammy Award-winning producer, artist and songwriter YOGI will release his new single ‘Ride or Die’ on 30 October, bringing together Toronto singer and rapper SadBoi and Tokyo’s NENE for a charged collaboration spanning three cities and three distinct musical worlds.
Arriving alongside its official video, ‘Ride or Die’ follows YOGI’s single ‘ANGREZE’, released earlier this year, which marked his return to the foreground as an artist and introduced a new body of work exploring immigrant identity, movement and cultural duality. Where ‘ANGREZE’ placed South Asian rhythm and British Asian identity at the centre of YOGI’s sound, ‘Ride or Die’ expands that vision outward, connecting the energy of London’s underground electronic scene with new-generation rap voices from Canada and Japan.
Compact, confrontational and built for immediate impact, ‘Ride or Die’ moves at a relentless pace, driven by distorted low-end, clipped percussion and a dark, hypnotic pulse. YOGI’s production draws upon the bass pressure of UK club music and the rhythmic intensity of South Asian percussion, creating a tense meeting point between electronic music and contemporary rap. Both featured artists are given space to assert their individual identities while remaining locked inside one uncompromising sonic world.
Representing Toronto is SadBoi, a singer and rapper whose emotionally direct writing and self-assured delivery move fluidly between rap, R&B, dancehall, drill and Brazilian funk. Raised in the city’s west end within a Caribbean household, she draws upon Jamaican patois, soundsystem culture and the adventurous energy of Toronto’s underground nightlife. Her 2024 project DRY CRY, released through LVRN, firmly established her distinctive, club-facing sound, with production and appearances from collaborators including Cash Cobain, Tay Keith, Smiley, DJ SAZE and Duquesa. On ‘Ride or Die’, she brings a cool melodic command that feels seductive, defiant and entirely self-possessed.
She is joined by NENE, the rule-breaking Tokyo rapper known both for her solo work and as one half of genre-defying Japanese duo Yurufuwa Gang. Across her career, NENE has created an energetic and surreal musical universe shaped by hip-hop, hyperpop, UK garage and drum & bass, resisting convention with a brash delivery and fiercely individual visual identity. Her international collaborations include an appearance on The Chemical Brothers’ ‘Eve of Destruction’, while her more recent solo releases have connected her with leading Japanese artists including Awich and Young Coco. Her performance on ‘Ride or Die’ is agile and commanding, cutting through YOGI’s production with unmistakable attitude and energy.
Passing the momentum between London, Toronto and Tokyo, ‘Ride or Die’ connects three distinct musical worlds while letting each artist’s own sound shine through. Its accompanying video brings that connection to life, featuring footage of SadBoi and NENE filmed in their respective hometowns.
The release also places YOGI within an increasingly visible generation of British Asian artists reclaiming space in underground electronic music. Rather than treating South Asian musical influence as an accent or reference point, YOGI makes it foundational: pushing the grit, repetition and physicality of its percussion into darker, bass-driven territory. His approach reflects the restless hybridity that has long defined British club culture while offering a deeply personal interpretation shaped by immigrant identity, spirituality and his own experience of moving between cultures.
Following ‘ANGREZE’, ‘Ride or Die’ takes the next step in that evolution: a fearless, borderless record rooted in the British Asian underground but designed to travel far beyond it.
