ONE MISTAKE BROUGHT MY OLD WORK TO LIFE

Okay, so this happened the other day. I was minding my business, you know that zone where you’re “just checking” your phone but really you’re deep in a scroll hole? Yeah. I stumbled on this Russ video on Tiktok. And he drops this line that at first I was like, “Yeah, okay, nice,” but then I kept hearing it in my head all day.

He goes:

“Emotional recency defeats chronological recency.”

Now, I don’t know if it was the way he said it or the fact that my brain was tired, but it just kept ringing. Like… that’s actually true.
It is basically saying that it doesn’t matter when you make something. If someone is feeling it now, it is new for them. That’s the win.

And then I realised… I’ve literally experienced this. Multiple times.

Back in 2022, I released my debut EP AGBU(The Arrival) which had amongst a few songs, Song of Unity. I love that song. It means a lot to me. I was excited. But it kind of… didn’t perform much. It didn’t “flop” exactly, but you know when you can tell something just didn’t move the needle? The views came, they went, we moved on. I mentally put it in the “old projects” folder in my brain and that was that.

Fast forward to like two weeks ago. I’m up late. I’d told myself I’d be asleep by 11pm but it’s 1:30am and I’m scrolling through my camera roll looking for something I can post without too much effort (because yes, sometimes you just want to post and sleep). I see the old Song of Unity video. And I’m like, “Hmm… let’s see what happens.” No edits, no new caption, no filters. I just posted it.

And… wow.

• TikTok: 13k+ views, 200+ comments, 2k+ likes, 118 saves
• Facebook: 21k+ views, 170+ comments

And here’s the part that made me sit up. Facebook followers went from about 11k-something to 12k in 14 days. TikTok from around 2k+ to 3k+. Off the same exact content. I didn’t run ads. I didn’t “strategise.” I just hit post.

And it’s not just that song. É Hlu Acoustic (with Sinmidele and Outgun Onkar) every single time I post it, someone asks, “What song is this??” with like four question marks. Meanwhile, I’m over here like, “Friend, this song has been out.”

But the one that really made me laugh and kind of shake my head  was É Fû Abmû from my 2023 EP Uncaged. That song was my baby. When it came out, I pitched it everywhere. Spotify playlist pitches, emails, tags the whole thing. And… silence. Then, out of nowhere, two years later, it’s on a Spotify editorial playlist. TWO years later! I didn’t do anything new. I wasn’t even thinking about it anymore (not like I stopped believing in the song). It just happened.

That Russ quote really hit me. Because here’s the thing. If you hear a song today for the first time, you don’t care if it’s from 2013 or 2023. It’s your first time hearing it. That’s emotional recency.

And I think as artists (or creators, or whatever we are), we forget that people aren’t living on our social media pages, waiting for our every post. They’re busy. They’re living their lives. They haven’t seen half the stuff we’ve put out. And some people… they don’t even know we exist yet. Which is kind of humbling when you think about it.

So yeah… don’t archive your “old” stuff just because you’re tired of seeing it. Post it again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. Because that one person discovering you today, is still a win.

Honestly… you might be surprised at what comes back to life when you stop assuming the moment has passed.

As we speak, I have planned to shoot new content for these songs and share them like we just re-released the songs. Emotional Recency truly beats chronological recency and I will take advantage of that with all of my heart.