Tems Reveals Her New Single ‘Love Me Jeje’ Originated as a Freestyle with Friends

Tems shared the process behind crafting her latest track, ‘Love Me Jeje’.

During an interview with Apple Music, Tems disclosed that the inspiration for the single originated from a late evening spent socializing with her friends, followed by a studio session where her producers, Guilty and Spax, presented her with the beat as a sort of challenge.

Tems mentioned that during the creative process, one of her friends spontaneously freestyled the “Love Me Jeje, Love Me Tender” segment, which is a nod to Seyi Sodimu’s 1997 classic. Inspired by this, Tems herself contributed her own freestyle, and gradually, the song ‘Love Me Jeje’ took shape.

“So basically, I went out to dinner with my girls, with my friends, two of my friends. We’re just like, “Oh, let’s just do a cute dinner. It’s going to be cute.” And afterward, my friends are always telling me, you never show us your Tems side. Everybody else, yeah, you’re Tems, but my friends don’t feel like I am when I’m there. It’s just like, I’m this girl. So they’re like, “Oh, you never take us to the studio. We don’t even know if you are like… Are you a doppelganger? Are you like, what is that?” So I said, “Okay, tonight we’re going to the studio and you people, you are going to sing?” So they were like, “Oh my god, crazy. What?” So we went to the studio and two of my producers, they made this beat, Spax and Guilty and they sent it to me as a challenge like, “Oh. Yeah, I’m sure you can’t do Nigerian. I am sure you can’t do this jam.

“So I was like, I just had it in the back. So I played it and I told my friends, “Yeah, let’s all freestyle, take turns. Oh yeah, you do freestyle, you…” So one of my friends did “Love Me Jeje, Love Me Tender.” And then my other friend was just screaming as well. And I was like, “Actually this is a mad vibe. I love this vibe. I’m going to keep this in the song.” And I did my own freestyle and it just was such a cute vibe and I wanted to pay tribute to the actual song ’cause I love that song. My mom loves that song. “Love Me Jeje.” The original song is from Seyi Sodimu. The original song is called “Love Me Jeje” as well and it’s a Nigerian classic and it just felt right,” Tems tells Apple music.

‘Love Me Jeje’ was released on April 26.