A Bite-Sized Banquet: Mannywellz on the Flavor of 'Small Chops'
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0 Share Newsweek is a Trust Project member See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. Mannywellz remembers the first time music made him cry, and the memory still arrives with the soft force of a confession. He was a teenager listening to Așa’s “Eyé àdabá,” and the song reached him in a way sound had never reached him before.
“I remember just lying down, listening to it as like a teenager, and just getting emotional,” he told Newsweek . “That was like the first time I remember, or recall music making me feel something.”
For the Nigerian-American singer-songwriter and producer born Emmanuel Ajomale, feeling is the assignment and the architecture. Born in Nigeria and raised in Maryland, Mannywellz carries Yoruba roots, DMV plurality and a producer’s ear into songs built from Afrobeats, R&B, soul and prayer. He speaks in clauses stacked like chords, and his music follows the same logic: one idea supports another, one culture opens into another, one intimate line becomes a larger statement about belonging.
Mannywellz was born into a Yoruba family in Nigeria, then grew up in Maryland, and the distance between those places became less a split than a vocabulary.
“I spent a good portion of my life in Nigeria,” he said, “and then I also spent a good portion of my life in the DMV, Maryland, to be specific.”
The region gave him Nigerian community, Caribbean friends, other African cultures and American R&B instincts, and he absorbed each influence without flattening any of them.
“That just kind of bled into my music,” he said, describing a blend of “soulful records,” “soulful sounds” and a tone “clearly African or Nigerian.” His catalog has often been described as sitting at the intersection of Afrobeats, R&B and soul, while projects including Mirage , SoulFro and Small Chops show an artist more interested in emotional coherence than genre borders.
His influences arrive with range and specificity. He names King Sunny Ade and the records his father played, and he mentions 50 Cent , Kanye West , Ryan Leslie, Timbaland, Aaliyah, Sade, Lauryn Hill, Frank Ocean and Mali Music.
“Those are like my Mount Rushmore,” he said, and he traced his creative confidence to artists who stood apart from the expected center of their scenes.
Small Chops , his recently released seven-track EP, takes its title from the Nigerian appetizer assortment, and Mannywellz treats the concept with near culinary precision. The project runs less than 15 minutes and features from Lekan and fellow Nigerian-American and D.C. native Wale. Mannywellz handled the writing and production on his own like a chef-crafting a multicourse meal.
“I wanted to just give people like an appetizer,” he said, “a very filling appetizer.” The point was to make something short enough to honor the title and substantial enough to stand on its own.
“Every time I make a record, it’s all about making a good record, a great record, something that makes people feel,” he said. “If you feel something, I feel like I did my job.”
That brevity was intentional, and the boundaries were firm. Mannywellz said he warned collaborators the project had to stay on theme, and no feature, no matter how gifted, could push the songs beyond the vision.
“I don’t care if you’re Michael Jackson, we’re going to stay on brand,” he said. “Once I stand on something, nobody moves me.”
The music often sounds effortless, yet Mannywellz describes the process as both spiritual and technical. Some ideas come after prayer, and others come through daily repetition.
“Sometimes, like I’m creating out of divine inspiration,” he said. “And then sometimes you’re just exercising your creative muscles, so you’re being a scientist.”
That balance explains why his songs can move from sensuality to devotion without sounding like a costume change. “ God is my everything,” he said, and he described faith as the source and the subject. He wants to say “Holy Father” in a record and keep the song intimate, stylish and rooted in lived belief.
“I don’t shy away from it,” he said, “because God is my everything.”
His faith also governs his sense of progress. Mannywellz says he creates every day, thinks through melodies and concepts, writes lines, plays piano and plans to get better at guitar and keys.
“I’m already better than Small Chops today,” he said. “I’ll be better than today in three days, and I’m just gonna keep getting better.”
His dedication extends beyond the music; as a Nigerian native, Mannywellz holds immigration with deep reverence. Mannywellz speaks carefully about immigration because the subject is personal, and he links advocacy to his own life as someone who migrated to the United States and has known undocumented friends and family members.
“Immigration is a very important topic and issue to me,” he said. “It usually seems like they’re living in the shadow.”
Using his voice as performance in support of migrants is a concerted effort for the singer, and he does not describe advocacy as a branding choice.
“I personally hate hiding and feeling like I have to live in the shadow,” he said. “If I’m the only one that has to speak up or can speak up, I don’t mind doing that.”
The work, for him, includes words and action, and he mentioned contributing to causes as part of the responsibility.
When asked whether he feels trepidation, Mannywellz paused around the idea, then landed on a principle. “If no one says or does anything about it, nothing changes,” he said.
The devout singer credited Jesus as “a big advocate for people that the community looked down on,” and he said he wants to mirror that posture.
For all its compression, Small Chops is also a promise. Mannywellz said the next project’s title is already done, the story is in motion, and the most personal material remains ahead.
“I haven’t even touched 10% of what I could talk about in my records,” he said. “I haven’t even told a bunch of…
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