Released on July 17, 2026, Masego’s third studio album, Fix Your Face, marks a significant departure from his signature upbeat sound. Created after he lost his Southern California home in the 2025 wildfires, the 16-track project explores grief, vulnerability, and his Jamaican heritage.
Masego has spent the past decade building a reputation on feel-good music and smooth saxophone-driven jazz. But his latest release strips away the armor of his earlier work, confronting personal loss and childhood conditioning directly.
Childhood Lessons and the Origin of a Mantra
The album title draws from a familiar parental phrase. Growing up in Newport News, Virginia, with a Jamaican father who served as a military pastor, Masego frequently heard the instruction to fix his face when emotional distress showed on his features. He recalls an incident at age eight after losing a basketball game when his father told him to tighten up and act unbothered.
“My father, he would say, ‘Tighten up,’ or ‘Lock in,’ when I would lose a basketball game at like age 8, and I would still have to dap the team up. That didn’t make sense. I was like, ‘I want to cry. Let me get this cry off,’ and he’s like, ‘Nah, you got to dap them up and act like you don’t care that you just lost.’” – Masego
That upbringing conditioned the artist to mask his feelings. While releases like his 2018 debut album Lady Lady, the Grammy-nominated EP Studying Abroad: Extended Stay, and the 2023 self-titled project showcased his talents as a romantic and multi-instrumentalist, they kept his deepest thoughts guarded. For this record, he reframed the maternal warning not as suppression, but as a resilient approach to navigating life’s unexpected obstacles, noting in a press release that the title reflects his current approach to life, no matter what comes at him.
Wildfires, Personal Loss, and Musical Evolution
The creation of the new album via Capitol Records has been three years in the making and was deeply influenced by his scholastic level of research, during which he studied artists’ vulnerability and embraced writing over freestyling. The project also follows a tumultuous period involving significant disruption.
Masego was overseas when his house burned down during the Los Angeles wildfires in January 2025. Separated by thousands of miles, he had to quickly decide what he wanted his friend to preserve on his behalf before the fires consumed his neighborhood—personal photo albums, his grandfather’s vinyl collection, instruments, and cufflinks. That’s all. Everything else, including plaques and Grammy certifications, he had to make peace with losing.
Combined with the loss of a family member and other life disruptions, the displacement forced a deep personal reflection. The album’s opener, “Sounds Like,” captures the bittersweet aftertaste of adolescent memories, reminiscing about his dream of becoming a basketball player that was shattered by an injury, which ultimately led him to a new game: music. As he sings on the track:
And then my whole room changed / From Kobe to Miles Davis
Before his mother appears at the end saying, You better fix your face / I know it’s getting tough / Keep your chin up.
Later tracks on the 16-track LP address trying to stay present amid the demands of his music career while grappling with grief, as heard on “Breathe” where he sings with desperation:
Can I breathe? / Can I live? / Can I grieve? / Get a minute?
Meanwhile, songs like “Dotted Line” and the Lekan-assisted “Gone” chronicle the demise of a relationship, leaving him with a broken heart that needs mending in the ER.
I feel like I didn’t know at the time, but that was me conditioning myself to mask my emotions,
he noted regarding his past conditioning.
Collaborations and Heritage on the 16-Track LP
While the subject matter leans heavy, Fix Your Face is not all frowns and incorporates distinct guest appearances and nods to his roots. “Hello,” a dancehall-flavored standout featuring Buju Banton, is a celebration of his Jamaican roots that radiates with the energy of a packed-out party, utilizing the horn sample of Mandrill’s Children of the Sun
by way of Shawty Lo’s “Dey Know” as a no-brainer transition for DJs. The empowering anthem “Wonderwoman” also soars across the tracklist.
Overall, Masego worked alongside co-producer Jordan Elgie for the album and enlisted Buju Banton, Keyshia Cole, Leon Thomas, and Musiq Soulchild for guest appearances, successfully bridging his roots with where he is headed on his most personal work to date.
The Road Ahead on Tour
Promoting the new project requires navigating a demanding schedule. Masego is set to tour the world in support of Fix Your Face beginning in August, bringing his new era of musical vulnerability and emotional honesty directly to live audiences globally.
