Kareen Lomax Releases Debut Album NAJI

Kareen Lomax's debut album, NAJI, is out now via Music is Fun. The 13-track project marks a major new chapter for the songwriter and collaborator, exploring grief, adoption, identity and self-love after years of lending her voice and songwriting to artists including Diplo, Zayn, Leon Bridges, Maroon 5 and Syd.

Kareen Lomax, the Atlanta-raised and LA-based alternative R&B artist, announced her debut album, NAJI, due September 18 via Music is Fun (a division of Seeker Music). Lomax also shared the project's first single, 'OFFLINE.'

For years, Lomax has quietly built an impressive musical resume behind the scenes. Her voice has appeared on five Diplo singles, including the Paul Woolford collaboration 'Looking For Me,' which became a Top 5 hit in the UK, while her songwriting credits include records by Zayn Malik, Leon Bridges, Maroon 5, Syd, and more. She has also released music with artists including Rudimental, Kavinsky, and AlunaGeorge, earning support from tastemakers like Ebro Darden, Timbaland, and KEXP.

The LP is Lomax's first opportunity to tell her own story after years of lending her voice and songwriting to some of music's biggest artists. Named after her first name, which she spent much of her life not publicly leading with, NAJI was born from a period of profound personal loss and reflection. Following the deaths of her adopted sister in 2020 and her father in 2021, Lomax found herself confronting questions of identity, belonging, grief, and self-worth that she had long kept at arm's length.

Created over several years between Los Angeles and New York alongside producer Daoud, the album gradually evolved into a body of work about the collision of two sides of herself: Kareen and Naji. The project came together following Lomax's move from Georgia to Los Angeles, another period of transition that prompted her to reflect on the values and experiences that shaped her upbringing, including growing up in a strict Southern Baptist household.

'Naji is my first name, which a lot of people don't know,' says Lomax. 'Growing up, I went by my middle name, Kareen, but Naji always felt beside me. Being adopted, I've lived with that duality, like two versions of myself existed at once. This album is about those two sides: Kareen, who feels deeply, the one who grieves, loves, and tries to make sense of everything, and Naji, who is more direct, more confrontational, and less afraid to say what it is without folding.'

Across thirteen songs, those perspectives guide explorations of grief, love, healing, nostalgia, self-preservation, and identity. Sonically, NAJI lives somewhere between alternative R&B, ambient soul, indie-pop, and electronic textures, with reflective arrangements that feel at once warm and nostalgic, yet fragmented and searching. The atmospheric production gives the songs a remarkable sense of scale, surrounding Lomax's intimate songwriting with immersive walls of sound.

The single 'OFFLINE' represents the more direct and unapologetic 'Naji' side of the project. The song is a boundary-setting anthem about stepping away from the noise and choosing yourself in a world constantly competing for your attention.

Much like the themes explored throughout the album, the creative process itself was intentionally personal. Lomax recorded the entire project herself, working primarily from home studios rather than traditional recording spaces. The result is a project that feels handmade, human, and deeply lived-in.

At its core, NAJI is Lomax's reflection on life after loss and the journey toward becoming whole. It is about choosing yourself, reclaiming the parts of you that have always been there, and telling the world who you are instead of letting the world tell you.

Tracklist

adulting

remedy

self care / flowers

somewhere in the world

idontwannawait

idea of you

apartment

W!LD

OFFLINE

PLAY THIS

WARFARE

AOTW

if pain was a color

Photo Credit: Mancy Gant