Kulthum Asha’s Heart Analytics arrived in March and stole our hearts. The swoonworthy novel follows data-obsessed Renike, who enters a tutoring agreement with the effervescent campus heartthrob, Rotimi “RJ” jacobs. It was meant to be a simple agreement: she helps him pass his Yoruba classes and he helps her ace her analytics course so she can secure a recommendation letter for her Phd. 

But as we all know, life rarely goes according to plan and in between stolen glances and late-night conversations, feelings begin to complicate their relationship, forcing Renike to decide if she wants her predictable life void of RJ or embrace new territories that include him.

The push and pull of Heart Analytics reminded us of 90s R&B, the standing under the rain music videos and the utter yearning. Thus, it felt right that for our first Sonic Pages feature – our latest column that dives into the sonic worlds of some of our favourite books – we sit with Kulthum Asha as she walks us through the Heart Analytics playlist. She gives us all the deets from the song that locked in the emotional world to the song that captures RJ and Renike. 

Brittle Paper

What was your mood like while writing Heart Analytics and what kind of music were you most drawn to during that period? Was there a genre—Afropop, R&B, soul, or something else—that defined the emotional landscape of the writing process?

Kulthum Asha

Classic R&B with that early 2000s Black romcom energy. Alicia Keys, Tamia, Ne-Yo, and Miguel. Afrobeat love songs rooted in the man’s desperate desire for a woman to give love a chance anchored the push and pull at the start of RJ and Renike’s romance—that tension we all grew up loving. R&B music helped me understand the weight of this unexplainable love neither of them could control, the moment they both fall and finally acknowledge that what they have is exactly what they’ve been needing. That feeling of utter completeness with your second half. I felt fulfilled and giddy while writing their love story. 

Brittle Paper

Every book has a “repeat song”, the track that stays on in the background of the work. What was that song for Heart Analytics and what did it give you creatively while you were writing?

Kulthum Asha

Adorn by Miguel moved me perfectly. The entire concept of letting love adorn you in the most unexpected ways. The feel and depth of Miguel’s vocals capture the desperation of one person longing for the other to see the deep adoration they carry. Whenever I got stuck, that song was the perfect thing to pull me back into writing a love that adorns, that wraps itself around you without asking permission. 

Brittle Paper

What was the first song that helped you find the emotional tone of Heart Analytics? Was there a moment where the book’s emotional direction clicked into place with a particular sound?

Kulthum Asha

Be My Man by Asa. It captures everything, almost like Asa wrote that song specifically for their love story. That moment at the suya spot, just the two of them, the only two people who truly get each other. The laughter, the banter,  the slight touches, the idea of giving themselves to each other fully. To be her man and to be his girl, defying her mother’s wishes and going after this love stubbornly and without holding back. Asa’s lyrical depth and authenticity woven with the beauty of the Yoruba language is Rotimi and Renike to me. A love match done right, a song written just for them. 

Brittle Paper

What song best represents Renike as a character? If she had a personal theme song, the kind of track that follows her emotional world, what would it be and why?

Kulthum Asha

Try Me by Tems. Renike’s entire persona is seeing everyone who tries to know and love her as a threat. She doesn’t trust easily and doesn’t let people in. She is constantly comparing herself to everyone around her and seeing herself as someone unworthy of love, someone she cannot fathom why another person would choose to pursue. The deep question running through her is why anyone would think she is worth the effort. Her drive to shut the world out, to achieve her dreams and make her mother proud, means she avoids joy almost deliberately, as if softness would undo her. Tems’ vocal desperation captures all of that: the pain, the charged resentment, and the resistance Renike carries when she is forced into proximity with Rotimi. 

 

Brittle Paper

What song best represents RJ as a character? What is his emotional sound and what about that track captures who he is beneath the surface?

Kulthum Asha

Power Trip by J. Cole ft Miguel. Rotimi is presented on the surface as this fine boy with no stress, but J. Cole speaks to the pain he carries, the sleeplessness, the weight of it. The title of the song alone says everything about how much power he hands over to the people he loves, Renike and his father, people who hold him at their mercy without fully knowing it. It almost feels like a power trip, this love that controls him. Miguel’s verse is the heart of Rotimi’s arc: his relentless effort to prove himself and his deep desire for her to want him back. If you compiled Rotimi’s dialogue throughout the book, it would read almost like a love song addressed directly to Renike. 

Brittle Paper

What song captures the world of the novel itself, the university setting where their relationship unfolds? If the campus had a sound, what would it be, and why that song?

Kulthum Asha

Party No Dey Stop by Adekunle Gold. The campus is an umbrella for a true African diaspora community, the space where their love bloomed and drove them closer and sometimes crazy. It is a deeply diverse community of people who want to have fun, to be fully African and unapologetically themselves, away from a predominantly white institution. Living life like tomorrow doesn’t matter. Vibes, community and premium enjoyment. 

Brittle Paper

Finally, if you had to build a short playlist for Heart Analytics, what three songs are essential to its emotional world? What part of the story or feeling does each one represent?

Kulthum Asha

Beggie Beggie by Ayra Starr ft. Ckay: Ayra’s lyrics  speak directly to Rotimi’s cycle of chasing this stubborn, beautiful babe who keeps refusing to give him a chance. And Renike’s desire to be heartless, to deny herself a love she does not believe she deserves. The dynamic of two people who secretly hold each other out of their league when they are quietly destined for something that was always going to start with what looked like begging.

Knock You Down by Keri Hilson ft Ne-Yo: Renike’s entire arc is in this song. She keeps getting knocked down by the force of Rotimi’s love and fighting it with everything she has. Ne-Yo’s verse is Rotimi, acknowledging his feelings plainly, not entirely sure how it happened but wishing he had moved faster, seeing her as his Miss independent clearly and adoring her for it.

Differences by Ginuwine: This song is acceptance. What Renike’s life feels like once she finally lets Rotimi love her. The gratitude of recognising a love that is not fictional, not borrowed from someone else’s story, but real and entirely hers. A newfound support system. Not knowing who she was before it arrived and vowing to hold on to something that sweet for as long as she lives.

Brittle Paper

It was lovely talking to you. 

Kulthum Asha

Likewise. 

 

 

Listen to The Heart Analytics Mix here.