Lately is a single from Maleek Berry featuring Ruger, released August 30, 2024 under Berry's Room, running 2 minutes 51 seconds. It later appeared on Maleek Berry's debut studio album If Only Love Was Enough, released June 2025. Maleek Berry — the British-Nigerian producer and vocalist whose 2016 single Kontrol has been viewed over 90 million times and who helped pioneer Afrotrap with On Fire that same year — brings Ruger into a record that Apple Music's own editorial team described as a "heartwarming intergenerational collab." The connection between them goes deeper than a simple guest feature: Ruger directly references Berry's own melody from 2017's Bend It in his verse, turning the song into a deliberate nod to the older artist's catalogue rather than simply riding a new beat.
That kind of self-aware intertextuality — a younger artist explicitly honouring an older one within the text of the song itself — is rare enough to be genuinely notable. The production gives both artists room to operate in their own registers: Berry's more soulful, atmospheric approach setting the foundation, Ruger's melodic Afro-dancehall patois bringing the edge. The result sits naturally alongside Wizkid's Situation and Tiwa Savage's 4 My Body on the If Only Love Was Enough album as one of the project's more emotionally resonant collaborations.
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