Singapore-Based Producer Teams with Nujabes’ Most Frequent Collaborator for Conscious Hip-Hop & Neo-Soul Masterpiece Out 27th February 2026
Multi-cultural producer and storyteller Kiyan Foroughi releases his debut concept album ‘inner light. OUTER SPACE.’ and focus track “The Destination” featuring legendary conscious rapper Substantial and Singaporean vocalist Rachelle Ruby, out 27th February 2026. A cinematic journey through cosmic neo-soul, hip-hop, and jazz, the album follows a female protagonist navigating alien worlds and mythic trials—inspired by Rumi’s philosophy and Carl Jung’s shadow work—on a journey inward to remember who she truly is.
The Album: A Cosmic Mythology
Set in a dreamlike future, ‘inner light. OUTER SPACE.’ is a non-linear odyssey through self-discovery, desire, transformation, and integration. Play it forward for ascension, in reverse for descent. Either way, the destination is always the same: remembering who you are.
“The album is about remembering who you were before you forgot,” Foroughi explains.
The journey spans ten tracks built from a lifetime of cultural translation. Born in France to Iranian parents and raised across Paris, Dubai, Boston, New York, London, and now Singapore, Foroughi channels this cosmopolitan existence into cosmic R&B that bridges East and West. Inspired by J Dilla, Kendrick Lamar, Nujabes, Massive Attack, Vangelis, and the Soulquarians, his sound weaves neo-soul, trip-hop, jazz, and boom-bap into cinematic storytelling unlike anything emerging from Singapore’s music scene.
The album features an extraordinary cast of collaborators: actor Darius Homayoun (Succession, Tehran), veteran rapper Substantial (Nujabes’ most frequent collaborator), rapper Masia One (#FarEastEmpress), Singaporean MC Jude, and Montreal-based singer-songwriter George Azzi—with vocalist Rachelle Ruby anchoring the album’s emotional core as the protagonist throughout.
Focus Track: “The Destination” feat. Substantial & Rachelle Ruby
The album’s thesis statement arrives in the form of its ninth track. Three masterful verses. One central truth: the journey we’re all on was always internal.
“‘The Destination’ is where everything comes together,” Foroughi explains. “Substantial’s three verses chart the entire evolution: searching externally, transformation, integration. By the end, the protagonist realises: ‘I was always the destination.’ The voice guiding her wasn’t external. It was her all along.”
Substantial (Stanley Robinson)—a Maryland-born conscious rapper best known as Nujabes’ most frequent collaborator—delivers a masterclass in conscious rap across three verses, each representing a stage of the journey: external searching, transformation and self-discovery, and finally integration and homecoming. His bars move from doubt to clarity, from seeking external validation to recognising that the destination was always within.
“When I started building this album, I knew I needed someone to deliver this message with a grounded clarity formed by true scars. And that was Substantial,” Foroughi shares. “He worked with Nujabes for years. He understands the intersection of jazz, soul, and conscious rap better than anyone. This track needed bars that could carry the weight of the entire mythology. Substantial delivered that and more.”
Rachelle Ruby, the album’s protagonist, appears here as the higher self—the inner voice that has been guiding the journey all along. Her ethereal vocals create a dialogue with Substantial’s grounded bars, a conversation between seeking and knowing, external and internal.
“Rachelle plays the protagonist throughout the album,” Foroughi explains. “But on ‘The Destination,’ she’s also the voice saying: ‘The journey was never about reaching the stars. It was about remembering you were always one in the first place.'”
The Singles: A Journey in Chapters
‘inner light. OUTER SPACE.’ has unfolded across a series of singles, each representing a chapter in the protagonist’s odyssey. Debut single “Seas of Space” (November 2025) marked her first step into the unknown. “Beautiful Distraction” (feat. Rachelle Ruby & Masia One, January 2026) captured the moment she gives into desire—a seductive collision of hip-hop, R&B, and late 80s synth wave with Masia One as the Enchantress and Rachelle Ruby as the voice inside saying yes.
“‘Beautiful Distraction’ is the seduction before the reckoning,” Foroughi explains. “The moment she forgets on purpose.”
“The Destination” completes the arc—following the hope of “Seas of Space,” the guidance of “Footsteps,” the seduction of “Beautiful Distraction,” the collapse of “never even here,” and the internal battle of “Shadow of the Enchantress”—this is the moment of integration, when all the pieces finally make sense.
