Ghanaian singer LALI onthisone has released “Ashiokor,” a four-track EP dedicated to the memory of his late aunt, whose loss has left a gap in his life that the project doesn’t attempt to paper over. Across the EP, LALI works through grief, heartbreak, faith, and the slow business of finding your footing again, moving between English and Ga over Afro-fusion production that leans warm rather than heavy.
The title track carries the emotional weight of the project. Named for his aunt, the song sits with the disbelief that follows sudden loss. The sense that someone who shaped your life shouldn’t be gone yet somehow is. LALI doesn’t rush past that feeling,iInstead, he uses the song to say thank you, to grieve openly, and to make a quiet promise: that he’ll chase his dreams in a way that would make her proud. It plays as both a farewell and a tribute to someone whose influence outlasted her presence.
From there, the EP widens its lens. “Korkordene,” featuring Marince Omario, borrows its title from the Ga word for “frog”, an animal equally at home on land or in water, and turns that image into a statement about adaptability. The song argues that resilience isn’t about avoiding hardship but moving through whatever comes, good or bad, with the same steadiness.
“Far Away,” featuring Pheebz, shifts into heartbreak territory, tracing the distance that grows between two people after a promise to stay close goes unkept. It’s a song about betrayal, but one delivered without bitterness, more ache than accusation.
The EP closes on “Alright” featuring Eli Khay, an Afro-fusion cut that pulls the project’s themes together into something closer to affirmation. Struggle is still present in the lyrics, but so is gratitude, and the song leans on faith, work, and staying true to oneself as the things that carry a person through.
Taken as a whole, “Ashiokor” is like a short arc with grief giving way to resilience, heartbreak sitting alongside hope, and a personal loss reshaped into something that points forward. It’s a project built on specificity: a real date, a real person, a real language woven through it, which is likely what gives the EP its weight.
