While Nikita Kering was born and raised in Kenya, her earliest musical influences come from a bit further afield. “My music is not very ‘Kenyan’,” she tells Apple Music. “We are still figuring out what our identity is with regards to music, because within Kenya, there's so many tribes, and the music from every tribe sounds so different. Hair salons, the supermarkets—they were always just playing R&B. Listening to Nelly, Destiny’s Child—I was already experiencing heartbreak at four years old. All those things just came together and, I think, made me who I am.” Who she is now is an R&B singer-songwriter whose string of singles have turned her into a multi-award-winning artist, all before she turned 19. And with her debut EP, A Side of Me, she sets forth her intentions for greater heights. “I knew in my heart that I just wanted it to be a part of my learning process, and to learn from every single thing that comes out of it,” she explains. “The goal isn't just to be the best in Kenya—it’s to be the best everywhere else.” A Side of Me arrives a year after Kering earned a BTEC diploma in music, an asset that both empowers her and helps her play the long game. “I now see things from a much wider perspective—that makes me a lot more intentional in my choices, and it helps me not to rush,” she says. “Everyone is just seeing the little things that are ahead of them—the money, the deals. No one knows what the plan is for 20 years from now. I am just trying to absorb as much information as I possibly can.” Here, she walks us through the EP, track by track. “Forget (Intro)” “I didn't want to have an intro on the EP because it was a tiny project and I feel like an intro would have just been a bit too extra. But I was sitting at a piano with my best friend, and my sound engineer; we [came up with] this dope progression and we couldn't stop singing it over and over. I tried writing it so much, but nothing was coming and it was so frustrating. But when I put it down, just the progression in the sounds of my voice, I thought, 'This sounds gorgeous. It sounds so good.'” “Where You Been” “I wrote this when I was 17. It's a song about someone who's cheating and me being frustrated with that. I think as much as I couldn't relate to specifically the cheating part, it's about being able to be aggressive, but in a healthy way. I guess in the industry people see me as ‘I'm so nice’, but I just needed to show people that no, I am strict when I need to be strict, then you need to see parts of me that you probably have never seen.” “Ex” “I wrote the chorus to this song a very long time ago. And then I stashed it away because I think I wasn't very developed as a writer. My sound engineer started singing the song and said I should finish it. It was a struggle writing it because it was the first time I was doing pop, but with a bit of Afro kick to it. I was always doing ballads, so the fast-paced thing, I couldn't understand it—I wasn't able to relate to it as a writer. I feel like everyone who does Afrobeats and Afropop is never deep with the lyrics. Everyone is just talking about just normal everyday things—going out, clubbing or women and men; there’s no substance to it. I thought, why not then bring my ballad vibes into the Afropop? I always want to have things that just remind me of where I've come from.” “Never Let You Go” “I wrote it at a time when I was so confused. I didn't know what I was doing with myself; we didn't even know that it was going to be on the EP. But now, after that experience of writing the song and then listening to it, [and recording] the acoustic version and having an intimate moment with it, then I got to understand this feeling of wanting that kind of love—and it makes you so excited and it makes you so happy. As much as I didn't identify with it that time, I identify with it now. And I see what I was trying to feel at the time and I feel it now for real.” “Crossing Lines” “‘Crossing Lines’ was me crossing lines, literally. It’s a sensual piece; it has a very dominant persona. I told my producer that I needed to do some R&B, and it was a mash-up of different styles. It was completely not what everyone [else is doing] right now. And it ended up becoming a very sexy, very confident theme that I love.” “Better Than Ever” “‘Better Than Ever’ is my favourite track. It's about letting go of just things that are not good for you. In that specific story, it's about a person, but I want everyone to relate to it in their own way, about peacefully letting something go that isn't healthy. It's a mellow ending, but it's a happy ending. It’s healing. Now let's move on to the next chapter of my life.”