Chicago musician Godly the Ruler makes Lollapalooza debut

Godly the Ruler grew up in Chicago but had never made it to Lollapalooza before. They hadn’t even been to Grant Park. Now, their first time at the festival is as a performer.

At 12:50 p.m. Friday, the 24-year-old Nigerian-born artist (who uses they pronouns) made their debut on the Bacardi stage for an energetic set influenced by hardcore, metal, and noise music but stayed true to Godly the Ruler’s roots in the SoundCloud rap scene of the late 2010s.

Accompanying Godly on stage were Ehmed Nauman on guitar and Taylor O’Neal on drums. Both are based in Chicago, and regularly play together in different bands across the city.

“We’re gonna blow your brains,” O’Neal said before going onstage. “You think you know what’s going on, then you hear the next song, and you’re like, nope.”

When Godly the Ruler first began to perform live, they had covered their face with “obscure masks,” out of nerves. This time, though, no masks were in sight: “I’m so happy to show my mug off,” they said.

Throughout their Friday performance, the screen onstage projected in capital letters, “I’M HAVING THE BEST TIME OF MY LIFE.” Godly the Ruler repeated that same phrase out loud multiple times during their set.

To punctuate the beats of their songs, they blew a referee’s whistle, throwing matching ones into the crowd for the audience to take home.

The Friday set was a “wild chaotic industrial noise experience,” Nauman said in an interview.

Godly the Ruler began making music in their high school cafeteria at age 15, coining their persona from a nickname for their given name, Godwill Oke. They posted dozens of songs to Soundcloud and mixed their vocals in their bedroom in Rogers Park, learning about audio production from YouTube videos.

“The music that I make is just an embodiment of my way of being a human in the world,” the musician said. “I’m somebody who’s queer, somebody who’s non-binary, somebody who’s a first-generation immigrant, somebody who’s Black, somebody who listens to a bunch of different music genres.”

Godly is currently pursuing a master’s degree in psychology in New York City, in addition to releasing a steady stream of music and touring to perform at multiple summer festivals.

“It’s cool to be back, especially when the reasons that I’m back are really awesome,” Godly the Ruler said.

Originally Published: August 3, 2024 at 8:28 a.m.