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INTERVIEW: Rema Speaks On Being The Chosen One, The Rise Of Afrobeat In America, New Music + More · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: The Breakfast Club warning, everybody is DJ Envy, Jesse, Larry Charlamage,
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: the guy we are the Breakfast Club. Jess is on
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: maternity leave of course, the Lauren's holding it down. And
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: we got a special guest in the building.
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: We got the brother.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: How's it going, brother, I'm good.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: How you feeling?
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Thank you? I'm good, am.
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: I am a fan bro. I appreciate I rock with
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: your music.
• 0:24
  Speaker 4: Heavy, heavy, calm down, first afrobeat song in history to
• 0:27
  Speaker 4: earn over a billion on demand screams in America?
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: How that feel? Gay? Oh?
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Glory to good?
• 0:36
  Speaker 5: Does it? Does it like annoy you at all? Would
• 0:38
  Speaker 5: calm down? Because like here in the US, people talk
• 0:41
  Speaker 5: about Selena Gomez on the song so much and like
• 0:43
  Speaker 5: kind of throw some of the the success of it
• 0:47
  Speaker 5: her way versus you, But she gives you all of
• 0:49
  Speaker 5: the credit. Does that annoy you at all?
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Sometimes I don't really see that. I don't really see
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: this has has been just throwing on hard because like
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: the collaboration we booked to it, Yeah, we will put
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: the same like effort. You know, it felt like a
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: real collaboration.
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: You did her a favor, Yes, you did her a favor.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: They did each other face.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Like, yeah, she did me a huge favor as well.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Because she don't have to do that. I reached out
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: to her, you know. You know, she has been a
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: huge supporter of my music. Like even before the public
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: new you know, there's been a lot of great people
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: who hit me up and yo, like what you're doing.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: She was one of them. She's pulled up shows on
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: the low key just butt you're in the young glad,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: just like grow and become this person.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: Tell us about your inspiration, what got you into music,
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: what made you start doing music, and when was your
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: that that aha moment that she was like, oh this
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: is really connected.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Mmm. You know I started on the church, and the
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: church really made me believe like I was doing something good.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: You know, I used to draw like it wasn't like
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: giving me so much vision. As I say, I was
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: getting more applauds from music. And then yeah, the church
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: embraced it and just kept doing it. And then you know,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: life go hard and drifted a little bit times where
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: I paused, times when I needed to make it out
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: for the family.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: But yeah, you knew music was always the thing that
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: you wanted to do. And nothing else.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: Uh. I mean I always saw myself as someone who
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: if I put my heart into anything to walk, you know.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: I just believe in God's grace in my life.
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you're from Nigeria, you know, a lot of times
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: music isn't It was probably changed now, but there was
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: a time where it wasn't culturally acceptable.
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: They want you to be a doctor, you know, go
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: to school.
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: So how did your parents or your family were they
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: supportive of of you going to the music.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: First, it's just my brother, you know, my brother going
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: in my first headphone. We used to put like a
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: memory card inside, you know, and I just got so
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: inspired by hip hop, especially he was a huge hip
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: hop fan. And anything my brother listened to I used
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: to listen to. Also, there was just so much gospel
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: music around the house because my mom was like, you know,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: pop stool. Whenever I used to take us to school
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: at the time, it used to like jump some cities.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: So it was very inspired, you know by what they
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: were listening to. But my brother was a huge supporter.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: My brother used to throw parties and I used to
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: gain my confidence between church and his parties and performing.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: And his friends used to help me and in school
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: was doing his thing, and it's just like yeah, yeah,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: But over time, my mom got to like understand, you
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: know what I was doing. You didn't like it at first,
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: not really.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: She liked it in the church, but I like it
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: in the church.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: But when you know, I started like going to competitions,
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: and then you know, at the time I used to
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: go like try to freestyle and friend bars and at
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: the time when it sprays some money, I just got up.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: I give it to her. She started feeling it a
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: little bit.
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: What she wanted to be a doctor.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: I remember when I got smacked by her the time
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: when I wanted to take an exam that would get
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: me into college, and I really didn't know what I
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: wanted to be. I just I just wanted to glide
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: wherever the wind took me. I just do it, you know.
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: But yeah, I was.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: Back and take the exam or I took it. But
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: it's just like she asked me, what do you want
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: to be? Just like I really didn't want to tell
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: her music because I wasn't still shut because I was
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: just like struggling on the ground. Yeah, over time, though,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: she she got to understand what I was doing. She
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: trusted me. She was not really happy about like the
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: own safe places. I was like, what thirteen out at
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: two am? Like trying to get the sluts to wrap
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: out the bar.
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: To wrap slock. I mean, do that America slutch the
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: dance crazy.
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: So listen when she smacked you, right, did that did
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: ter you? Or did that make you say? I got
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: to really focus on this music. No, it was like
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: I have to make up my mind. What I really
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: want to do is start on it literally, you know.
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: And and I was just trying to be realistic. Inside
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: of my heart was like, Mom, really do you have
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: money to take me to college? Let's be real. You
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: know you don't have money to do in colors.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: Let me just like no. That was what was in
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: my heart because I really did not want to be
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: a bud into her because she was already going through
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: her Look that's a single mom taking care of like
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: four kids, you know. But yeah, I just like on
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: the paper, I think I ticked business I mean business administration. Yeah,
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: I ticked that his arms. Boy, I just didn't go.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: I was just like at the time I stood on business,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: I was like, you know what, let me just go
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: thok something off of the family this school thing is
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: not going Yeah, do it for me? Do you let
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: your mom listen to your music? I never really went
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: to and say, yo, listen.
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: I wanted to hear sound.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: I mean she just heard everything.
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: She heard sound gathering everything.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: Tell her the line he's been talking this line.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: There's a line on.
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: Sound guys and says tapping on that pussy. You said,
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: you're tapping on that pussy like you killed a motherfucking insect.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: Your mom hear that line from the church, from the church.
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: Your mom had that.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: Probably why I whispered. I'm not sure she just that yet,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: but I mean she heard my song. I'm moved it.
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: She's like, what inspired that line? Was a big click?
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: You was just like to kill what.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: I mean, I said in a couple of interviews. At
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: the time I recorded that song, it was Valentine Day,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: you know. I was like in the hotel, I got
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: my producers. We we had almost the whole floor, like
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: we were just chilling, you know, and young dudes just
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: like starting to enjoy it with the fame, say having
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: as having a good time Valentine's.
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: So we're locked in.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: I work on one side and phone on one side,
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: and then I just popped out my room and I
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: just called my homie. It was in the hotel too.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: It was chilling. I was like, yo, you're still making
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: betsa you up? It was like, yeah, pull up. I
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: was pulled up ahead of Sexy Beat. I was like,
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: you know what, I'm just going to sing about what
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: happened in the other room.
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: But what was her name?
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: Why do you want to.
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: Howld you?
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: I'm twenty four.
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: You achieved so much at a young age. What drives
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: you to just keep pushing these boundaries and music?
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: Thember one thing. My driver has always been family, and
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: I feel like my family has grown bigger. But by
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: how much love I've received and how much people have
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: supported me to achieve my vision, I would say, just
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: you know, I just feel like I have so much
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: responsibilities and it's like, you know, living the hood. The
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: first thing is just you want to feed your family,
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: you know. And then you come in the game and
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: you see that there's all the responsibilities that come with
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: being an artist and being a chosen one. Not everybody
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: that's uh, they're just different people that call, you know,
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: for different purposes. And then you also look around you
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: and see like the people who supported you to achieve,
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: like your dreams. They also got dreams. So sometimes you
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: take time out and you branch out of your Boddy
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: a little bit and be like, what do you want?
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: You know, my manager could look at me and be like,
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: I want to manage the biggest artist out of Africa,
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: and in my thought process like I'm going to get
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: him done. Yeah, And it's not everything that has to
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: do with like money, exchange all that. It's just like, yeah,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: so different drives. It's not it's like every responsibility, every
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: drive out guard. It's not one hundred percent minds. It's
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: just like, what do you want? What do you want to?
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Where do you see? What's going? What's what's the prophecy?
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: Like you call yourself the children that I can't pronounce
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: it h I he is, he is, he is, I'm idiot,
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: but it translates to someone are chosen. Right, So when
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: did you become aware of like your own special, divine
• 10:06
  Speaker 4: unique qualities? When did you realize that, damn, I am
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: the chosen one in my family?
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: I would say, it's just like I'm a spiritual person.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: I don't lie to get too deep.
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: But we can tell everybody in this room loves God.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: But I just feel like there's just signs of comic
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: prophecies and you you just be chilling and the prophecy
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: just hit you and someone just walk up to you
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: and say this, and you just like I see this
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: thing or it's like, you know, you had to happen
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: to you. Sometimes it's just visions. You know, it's just
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: have visions. And it's like if the vision was never
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: for me, and then why did it come to me
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: in the beginning? You know, So I just like take
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: hold of it. And when you like put efforts and
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: faith in that one vision and it comes to life,
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: it's like, oh, probably they might do this to the
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: rest fifty visions I've got, and just keep coming to that.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: I feel like my name also like holds that bandma.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: That's a revelation for another dimension. It's like a know,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: the award for an idea. When an idea hits you
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: that euphoria that's Raalma and you feel that feelings like
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: it's just like it's just like an adrenaline pump. I
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: heard that in church and I feel like, you know,
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: that name just stuck with me and I feel like
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: I leave the name. Yeah, you know.
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: I wanted to know, you know, with the success of
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: Calm Down and how big the record is and how
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: big you are with that record over here. I always
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: talk to artists and they say one of their biggest
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: fears is making a hit so early that big, because
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: you always chase that hit. You always want to be
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: bigger than that record. I'd you have the same problem
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: of trying to beat that record in the States.
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: Hmmm.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: No, I never planned to make a big record. It's
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: just didn't me in the world, you know, went with it.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: And also it's like I'm grateful for education. It's not
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: like school education, but like life education. People experience things,
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: not just for them to experience it and lend their lesson.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: I don't always look at success stories to learn. I
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: also like to look at mistakes. A lot of people
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: have had big songs like and It's it's like the
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: biggest bird cage and just like cage to that. I
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: don't let that affect like my creative process. I go
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: to the studio with the same mentality like I made
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: my first hit song.
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: And then.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: I have a vision like if you look in my eyes,
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: like you can see that I see something that's way
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: ahead of me. It's just like, whatever needs to happen
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: now will happen now. And I know my way around there.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: I have no pressure. I feel no pressure. I'm happy, enjoyful.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: I'm making bangers still, and I like the way I
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: moved through my new project as well. It's just like
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: I don't like to move with the way the way
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: the way people expect. I don't like to move with
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: the ruse.
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: You blend a lot of different genres, you know, in
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: your music, So what do those influences say about who you.
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: Are as an artist and a person?
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: I said, you blend a lot of different genres in
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: your in your music, So what does that say about
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: you as an artist and a person.
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: And you're just not afraid to take chances, you won't
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: let people keep you in the box.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, pretty much. I'm in my own world. Yeah, I
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: don't really write, so I don't write. I just go
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: to the studio and have fun. Yeah. Sometimes I end
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: up saying things that do not even exist, no even words.
• 13:54
  Speaker 5: I just what example, what's an example of something that
• 13:59
  Speaker 5: wasn't a word?
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: First hit song, the chorus was not even a word.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: I just expressed myself. I was just and I was
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: just in my own world enjoying what I do. And
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: I stand on it. Like I said, if the vision
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: was never for me, then why did it come?
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: It's like no English word or the German world could
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: match the vibration that our chorus would send. It was
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: just meant to be gibberish. And I did it, and
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: it gave me a platform to express myself more. It
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: gave me my first hit song, you understand so, and
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: in a Joy record, a lumba lumba is just something
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: it just creates out of there's euphoria of being in
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: the studio while you're in that creative process. You just
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: like close you eyes and just like express that one.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: It's just like saying boom without saying it was an explosion.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: You know, you just say boom.
• 14:48
  Speaker 4: One of my favorite records of yours off the he
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: Is Project. You just laughing in the chorus on you
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: said when you said, when you say it, because I
• 14:58
  Speaker 4: just like the way you're applying pressure on you said,
• 15:00
  Speaker 4: I'm not gonna take it easy on my haters Monday morning.
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: You're talking about me while I'm making money. What inspired
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: that record exactly?
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: The haters It's like for real though, like day on,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: day day and day out, people just like talking about me.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: You know, I'm stacking of every second. It's like it's
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: just a sign for you to do better with your time.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: It's like you're just hitting on it, keeping me hating
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: on me since because what drove my first tape nineteen,
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: I've been criticized a lot. You know, I've not been
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: you know, I would I would say I've not been
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: baby seated at all. You know. It's just like I've
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: been I've been. I've been poked for years and if
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: no one got like my heart were they were, they
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: were little literally crashed.
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: I feel like over time, even with my faces and
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: the game kind of made me colder and colder. You know.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: I came with a loving heart. I spread so much.
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: Love, and the hate turns your heart.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: A little bit. You know. It's just like sometimes you
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: just want to give back that energy. It's just like Hendrick,
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: sometimes you don't pop up and a while.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: But you said you you know, you said you were
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: learning from experiences, right, you were talking about your head
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: and the success, but you also said mistakes as well.
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: What was one of the biggest mistakes that you made.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: That you learned from. Biggest mistakes I'll say in the
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: game or in life in general. Both, uh, I'll say,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: you know, trust, like you just literally have the biggest
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: lessons from trust. You know, being a young kid and
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: just wanting to embrace everybody and just like just seeing
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: humans become like like the stories you used to hear
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: when you were younger, greedy masters. It's like, man, you know,
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: I really trust you know when you have love, when
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: you when you put your own you know, people who
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: you hurt so much and they just stopped being not
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: being good, Like like me, I keep being good. Like
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: if I see my enemy, I still shake hands, but
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: it's like we know we're not cool, but like the
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: respect of shaking hands. And also I'm that believer that
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: you don't have to be friends to be loyal. I
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: also believe in that, like we got money to make,
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: let's make money, but we don't have to be friends.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: You mean like here we say there's no permanent friends
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: or enemies when it comes to business.
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: Is that what you mean?
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: It's like, let's make money. It's like and another thing,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: it's like it's like years ago I didn't know a
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: lot of people that the game would bring my way.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: Why would I make that like huge thing, Like I
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: didn't know you, like at first, I just wanted to
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: feed my family. Why would you be the highlights of
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: my career? Why should I focus on you? I don't
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: get down to dogte h.
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: There's a lot of the hate. You get it from
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: your own city.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: No, my city love me?
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: Okay, okay, so who so who's the hat?
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: So?
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: Who hated?
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's just like I mean, it's not really
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: restricted to a city.
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: It's just like social media Twitter, Twitter.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: People just don't People don't like a kid who just
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: like has its own ideology or breaking the rules or
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: breaking the rules of sound and changing the soundscape, or
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: like being confident and like you know, stepping on next us.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: You would say that like not being scared, Like they
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: don't they really like that? Beg us for your flower
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: type energies. Like, you know, I made a tweet years
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: ago where I was like, I'm not happy to be here.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: I was chosen to be here. You know, I don't
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: make it feel like I'm on some happy to be
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: here type shit. You know, Yeah, I feel chosen to
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: be here. I feel chosen to do something for the game,
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: for the next generation, Let me do it, and whatever
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: level of success I achieved, I'm humble with it. You
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: feel like shad it.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: You feel like you get the respect you deserve when
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: they talk about the genre of afrobeats, do you feel
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: like you're in that conversation like you should be or
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: do you feel like sometimes you're left out?
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: I feel like this success came too quick that people
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: wish I didn't get it too quick. And you know,
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: when they want to give you a respect when you
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: have to be ten years in the game, I feel
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: like I didn't mind my career. I didn't play according
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: to those rules. And I was already breaking like seven
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: year old seven years career walk records at three years
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: in the game. You understand. I already went international from
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: my first EP, you understand. So it's like people have
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: this mind frame that we have to see you striving
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: for ten years, like you have to grind. We have
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: to see videos of you in this You like you
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: didn't walk? You know, why do I need to? I
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: don't post me in the studio. You always you see
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: his music. I don't give people what. I don't really
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: tell people nothing about my personal ill like they don't
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: know nothing. I think people just saw my mom for
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: the first time two weeks ago. But it's like people
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: just want you to strive so hard so that they
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: can't be able to get a flower. It's like, no,
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: it's just it's something called grace. Though it's like I
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: put in so much work that you don't I don't
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: want to show it. People know I put in so
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: much work day at night. But yeah, the woman to
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: be ten years in the game to be like, oh okay,
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: now we can say you are this or you are
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: top this, or like it's like, come on, man, let's
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: be real.
• 20:46
  Speaker 5: Do you feel like when people have the top three
• 20:47
  Speaker 5: AfroB male aprob artists conversation, you should be included. I
• 20:51
  Speaker 5: know they right now they include burn a Boy with
• 20:53
  Speaker 5: Kid and Doby Do Do you think you should be
• 20:54
  Speaker 5: included in.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: That respect to the ojis? But yeah, one of them.
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: Once you do no more Big three, there's not a
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: big four.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah yeah. And if you look at it, my impact
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: in aphrobets has been huge. You understand, it's not just
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: about hit songs. A lot people have hit songs, but
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: the impact in the journey of aprobit to the world.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: You know. I mean, I don't even want to say
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: a lot, but just just something as little as major
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: award shows creating an aprobit category because of this success
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: of my song, it's already has already shifted or opened gates.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: You understand. It's like India as a country, like being
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: able to do huge arenas in three cities and having
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: Indians and multitude come out to sing aprobit songs. For
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: what it's like, it's on another level. And that's just
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: like a little peak of the iceberg of what I've
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: done in the games. But I don't like to talk
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: about it. I don't put my plaques in my house
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: to like fuel myself with that ego. I don't. I
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: don't want to talk about it. But it's quite side
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: oncet I be thirty years ago to give me that
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: Flower Times has changed. You don't need to be telling
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: as in the game, to be a legend, to be
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: an icon, to be someone who inspired in this generation.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: It's just what it is. Whatever Fifi is in all
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: of that, it's like that's on them. It's like everybody
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: in their hearts they know and I know everybody language
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: from everyone on the game, the artists, everything, love to everybody.
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: Though you said, you said a lot of labels are
• 22:41
  Speaker 4: trying to clone you. You said, tell your stylists to
• 22:43
  Speaker 4: stop sending males to me.
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: To get closed.
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: Artists really sending stylist mail with your name to get closed.
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: You said, I'm gonna pull up to your show and
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: script you on stage because that's my ship.
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: Hold fakes celebrities, fake industry.
• 22:59
  Speaker 4: Are they put it up able to get creative? Stop
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: trying to clone me? Then you said, Rema made afro
• 23:04
  Speaker 4: BTP a big statement every new artist in twenty nineteen
• 23:06
  Speaker 4: eight from the same template.
• 23:10
  Speaker 5: That was pretty worthy for someone.
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: What motivated all of that?
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: I mean it's like sometimes the most times I'm knowing
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: the intendant, yeah, my management, I don't know my social media. Well,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: I'm very true person into the couples, fool like might
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: as well. I just say a few things, just get
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: a few things out of my chest. I don't really
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: want to embarrass anyone. And sometimes the times where he
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: needs to make a statement, Uh, it's the saying that
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: when the lizard uh shakes his head like he his
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: like adjusting his own ego. His prison is his own
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: self because nobody want to get hims. No one wanted
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: to get in. But I'm not here in this entire
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: be too big for flowers or anything. Sometimes I just
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: like to clear the air, you know, like reaching out
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: and seeing your Randma stylist and stealing my clothes month
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: water close and like brands that I've created a relationship.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: I think they're sending close to me, and they're setting
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: close to you and seeing some funny shoe sizes. It's
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: like whoa got his tiny legs some funny I was
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: like about the EPs is just like I mean when
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: I came to the game, I came with the template.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: I just like the way like new artists come and
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: have a have a dominance. Mine was just different from
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: they want. I started, you know, the whole EP trail.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: I mean every artist is twenty nineteen, like walked on
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: that path. Like if you new artists just had to
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: like when you come out, you pop out with that
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: EPI But a lot of people will argue it. You
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: know a lot of people just don't want you know,
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: sometimes this is it.
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: This is the word.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: I don't like to feel like some afrobeat messiah or
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: someone just sometimes they don't really like you being quite
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: young and saying something sometimes it's not for you to say.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: Sometimes it's the truth, but it's not for you to say.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: Sometimes I just want to leave it, and sometimes I'm
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: quite I just can't wait for it to be in
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: the air because I just can't wait for maybe like
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: the old used to say it, and I'm like, Okay,
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: no one's saying it, so I might as as well.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: But slowly it's just like I really don't want that
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: picture of afrobeat Messiah. Oh, let's do it for afrobats ave.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: It's like, you know, I really don't want things to
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: be that serious, and I just want to express myself,
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: that's all. And when things are not looking good and
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: I want to clay something, I just want to clear
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: and leave it at that. But starting to make an
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: agenda on Twitts that I felt at the moment, I mean,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: the tweeters has cleared whatever I need to. I don't
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: really need to like embody it in interviews. It's not
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: so much of a big deal.
• 26:21
  Speaker 4: You get me, what's your relationship like with the with
• 26:23
  Speaker 4: the old gis, with that, with the Burner Boys and
• 26:25
  Speaker 4: the Beatles and with kids do you have relationships.
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, big respect. One thing I'm happy about is that
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: we all respect each other's respect. You know, there's a
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: difference between being a boy, a friend, a friend. It's
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: like I got friendship, I got respect. Yeah, a lot
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: of people got friendship from big dogs. I ain't got respect.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: I got respect, and if if I ain't, don't even
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: got friendship. But I got my respect. That's okay.
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: You feel like the US watered down a lot of afrobeats,
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: Like it just seems like they just took a couple
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: of records and made him big and almost like that
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: was it to see.
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: But when you go to.
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: Africa, South Africa, Nigeria, all these different places, it's so
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: much more. You feel like it's watered down at all.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: Give me an example of the US feel all.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: Right, a couple of years ago, all you heard was
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: Da Vito, like he was the only artist. Then two
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: years later all you heard was burna Boy, like he
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: was the only artist. Do you feel like that that
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: affected at all?
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: No. I think they through it thing. The one aultmost
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: mission I forget to the world right, Everyone had their
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: own mission to play right. I just feel like I
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: like to enjoy the ruinness. I like to see the
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: ruiness slowly, you know. When we know, when we start
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: like doing a lot of having a lot of international dominos,
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: we sometimes the little influence from the outside coming and
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: sometimes you just want to like make it more understandable
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: for the people to digest the music better. Maybe slow
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: down on a little local dialect and like put in
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: a little more English so that they can't understand you,
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: or like maybe the beats, maybe maybe it's too intense,
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: like maybe this is want something like you know, but
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: at the time, like you know, we never really used
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: to care for anybody think like they like it, they
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: like it, they don't, right, It's like we just go
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: to the studio and be free. You know. I didn't
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: know if America was going to like come down, you know,
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: if Europe was going to like it. I just do stuff.
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: They're some of my songs that are more successful in
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: France than they are in a country to hours away
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: from France. It's just like different crowds pick whatever they
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: want to pick. India they got what they like, you know,
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: all the African countries to go what they like. You know.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: I would say, like my first album did so well
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: internationally than they did locally. Understand, I was just making music,
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: but the international crowd grasped it more than.
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: The locals.
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: My new album, the locals grasped it more than the international.
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: It's just like it comes with the face, right. But
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: I really don't have a place in people's decisions when
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: they create. Some people create what they want to create.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: Some people actually plan to create because they plan to
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: be in a territory, you know, and sometimes could prompt
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: several features, or I need to feature this artist too. Oh,
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: these people just what they like to listen, So let
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: me do this, but in the aprobate version that will
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: be more digestible to them. It's different concepts, but generally
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: I hope over time it don't be the norm. It's like,
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: come on, it's not us now. We're very raw, get
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: like we're wicked with the beats, with the flow. It's like,
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: let's stand on that because that was the main foundation
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: of aprobeats.
• 30:18
  Speaker 4: I like what you said about that, because when I
• 30:20
  Speaker 4: tell people that I listen to you, that's one thing
• 30:21
  Speaker 4: they say about especially with the new project, they say
• 30:23
  Speaker 4: that you highlight the local roots of Afro beats with
• 30:28
  Speaker 4: your drums and your sound.
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: Patterns. So that's that's intentional to do that.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that was intentionally. See it's just has it's just
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: through it someone that has an outter buddy experience of
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: that look at the game from like oh what go
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: going on? You know what go going on right now?
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: But sometimes it's like another thing is like think about it.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: Some people will be like, Okay, you feel like you're
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: gonna make this move because you already have your international song.
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: Why don't we we want to have our own international
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: song too. While you think it's like I never like, yeah,
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: come down is a softer beat. It's like I have
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: a lot of songs just soft beats, like I make
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: love songs that make all types of chances. But it's
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: just like that runness. It's just something that was just
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: like being lost. It was like what they call it
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: lost art. It's just like yo, got mind. Like because
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: also if you think about it, I'm not trying to
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: be selfish because I have a huge song. Also think
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: about the guys in the underground if we lose this art,
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: like you know, the streets is this is the bump
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: that's like you gotta also make them know like this
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: person who's so huge is still willing to tap in
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: so low to the roots.
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: It's like I see, It's like it's also possible for
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: you guys, like don't make it like because now the
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: guys on the ground, we think like, oh, after water
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: done mine.
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: Stuff, I want to hear traditional air beats.
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: You get it. You get it, And it just takes
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: someone who's very confident with it, who's who's not gonna
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: shake with any judgment. I got so much judgment, Like
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: when my pressure job, like people were just like going
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: at it. Like my manager was telling me because I
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: really don't be caring what people say. It's just like
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: it's like, I know he's trying to be positive. It's
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: like people are not happy. People are like, oh, like
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: there's not the remodey.
• 32:23
  Speaker 4: You know.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: It's like I don't care about the room. I come
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: with phases. I've not been the same person since twenty nineteen,
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: you know, and I'm becoming a man. So he's like
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: the kid they used to know and when I was
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: nineteen is not the kid right now.
• 32:37
  Speaker 4: You know, fame can be very overwhelming, especially at your age.
• 32:41
  Speaker 4: Right to have the fame, to have the fortune, how
• 32:44
  Speaker 4: do you stay grounded?
• 32:45
  Speaker 3: And missed all this do found success?
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: M hmm. First of all, is hustling in the in
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: the streets just to make a couple of birds already
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: kind of I felt what money?
• 33:04
  Speaker 5: It was like you was getting money before the song.
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, like I was not like when I made my
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: first fifty million from fifty million narrow for music.
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: Let me google this.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah not that much. Yeah you mador person. Fifty million
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: fifty or fifteen million, fifty million?
• 33:27
  Speaker 5: There, Okay, you had already felt that, but that's not
• 33:29
  Speaker 5: us dollars.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: He's checking out converser rates.
• 33:32
  Speaker 3: What's the conversar rate? Thirty thousand, Yeah, thirty got Wait, but.
• 33:39
  Speaker 5: This was a street and I still open because.
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: I got to this out. That's thirty thousand this year
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: because inflation. Yeah, but it was better. It was much
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: like like forty fifty thousand. Yeah, it was like it
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: was good money.
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: But first of all, like when I got that was
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: like I was not freaked, Like I know a lot
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: of young people that for the first what do we buy?
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: I would we want to do whatever? My first my
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: first bag, I got my moment car because I just
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: couldn't stand her trekking my car. Yeah, you know, h
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: it's to buy a lot of instruments for the church.
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: And it's just like just the upper game, you know,
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: because I had a grap group, but yeah, and I
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: had enough wanted to go to the studio. It's like
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: because I stopped music because I just needed to grind right.
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: So being in the game right now, like since twenty nineteen,
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: it's just like, first of all, I was not freaked
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: about nothing was it's surprise to me. You know, even
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: when I was like making bread at the time before music,
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: Like I wasn't even with the shorties. I didn't really
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: care about the shorties. This is I just wanted to
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: make the bread, see my family happen. So when I
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: was here and seeing the shortes, just like it's it's
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: not surprising to me.
• 34:57
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: I don't really have like dirty rags in the streets.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: I don't have no story made up boddies like we
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: don't know nobody in my life. I don't even got
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: a time. That's just it. It's like it's like the
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: game is so since then, I just been grounded because
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: I know what it's like and how hard it is
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: to make money. And then I have good people around me.
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: You know, I have really good people around me.
• 35:24
  Speaker 4: I saw you say once that you you felt like
• 35:26
  Speaker 4: you were forced to sell your childhood just to provide
• 35:30
  Speaker 4: for your family after you lost your brother and father.
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: Condolences on that.
• 35:37
  Speaker 4: So you feel like you grew up too fast? Yeah
• 35:40
  Speaker 4: you didn't have a childhood. Yeah I didn't. I didn't
• 35:44
  Speaker 4: really have each other. I didn't do a lot of
• 35:47
  Speaker 4: things like a little young people do. Didn't really grow
• 35:50
  Speaker 4: up at a point where I was being conscious of
• 35:53
  Speaker 4: friends and didn't really have a lot of people my age.
• 35:56
  Speaker 4: I always was drawn to people mean, and I'm losing
• 36:02
  Speaker 4: my brother and my daughter's two people. I looked up
• 36:04
  Speaker 4: to anything you listen to, Listen anything you say. I say,
• 36:08
  Speaker 4: if you have a new slang, I'll go to school
• 36:09
  Speaker 4: in my class. I'm like, yo, you know anything my
• 36:13
  Speaker 4: brother does, I do. I wear his clothes. You know
• 36:16
  Speaker 4: all of that, Like even when the shoe was bigger
• 36:18
  Speaker 4: than me, I put my foot in there, the stack
• 36:20
  Speaker 4: it up, he stack it up.
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: And you know, you know I looked up to It's
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: just like I ate, I lost my dad and my
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: brother was holding me down and we just keeping insane,
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: and then I lost my brother. I was just like
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: I was confused and I held I held really tied
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: to the church. The church was like my last like
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: like chilled boy. Music was doing this thing, but it
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: wasn't paying. I ran away from home. I was just running,
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: you know. I just needed to grind the so much
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: pressure my mom could not pay me. It was like
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: we're just softening. So like from fifteen especially just like
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: worse imagine from eight it was really bad. Everything went
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: downhill from having a provider, no provider, and everyone is
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: just like my mom was just like hustling so hard.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: So first of all, like and also I had all
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: rights to be wayward, and I feel like I give
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: myself that little pro I had all rights to be
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: a stupid boy. You know, the doors were open. There's
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: nobody to beat me to say, don't go out and
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: do whatever I want, right, boy, I just stayed grounded
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: because and I just needed to, you know. I just
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: felt like, especially when my brother Dade, I was the
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: only one. I really didn't want my sisters to be
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: fooling around to make some bread. I was like, y'all
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: sit down, I'm out.
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: Became the man at the house.
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I go to them and nobody hid from me
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: for like a year or two's gone. I was just stacking, stacking, saving,
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: you know, just came back home and just put things
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: in place. Your hustle comes from their absence.
• 38:01
  Speaker 3: In a way.
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: Oh really, it's just like the drive seeing your mom
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: being assaulted and my mom's being assaulted. Laughter. You know,
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: it's just like it's not your fault, you know, it's
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: just life, you know, and me soffering right now, it's
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: not my fault either. It's just like just but it's
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: what we decisions we make to make things better, right,
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: And I just feel like I lost all of that,
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: no friends, spend a little months alone in my head,
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: and you know, and the only thing I can hold
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: onto this card. I'm grateful to be.
• 38:37
  Speaker 5: What are the conversations like now with your mom because
• 38:40
  Speaker 5: you know, knowing all of that now when you guys
• 38:43
  Speaker 5: are like looking back at that, like what does she
• 38:45
  Speaker 5: say to you in those moments where y'all are like
• 38:47
  Speaker 5: reflecting on that stuff.
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, me and my mom have a relationship. Like when
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: she cried cry, I don't know if I'm like that
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: when she cry, just like I don't know, I just
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: can't hold it and I feel like you say a
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: lot of things with our tears. It's like she just
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: kind of like say a lot of words. She's just
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: looking at me, just like, and I don't understand, you know, yeah.
• 39:11
  Speaker 4: Do you dang me? I lost my I was like,
• 39:14
  Speaker 4: oh you see I could. I can tell you A
• 39:16
  Speaker 4: very spiritual person, right like.
• 39:17
  Speaker 3: And you say you have visions? Do you see your
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: father and brother like in dreams now like guiding you?
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: I love? I love the visions are personal. I would say, yeah,
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: I feel like I feel like I've number one. I've
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: relieved a lot of the moment they've lived, and it's
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: like I've been here. It feels like I have that
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: little dash of that I've been here before, and it's
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: like a second chance to make the decision. I was
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: just recently with the King of Yah, you know. And
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: I remember years ago after I lost my dad, looking
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: at his photo book and seen when he was buying
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: down to the king at the time, and I've seen
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: how I walked my way up to that same moment
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: of my dad kneeling to the king at the time.
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: I was shaking just like he did it, like everything
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: like he wanted to. Like I remember when he was
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: working on a visa for us to go to the UK,
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: and the first country I went to when I blow up,
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: what was the UK? It's just like you did it.
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: And to my family to the UK, it's like it's
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: like every moment like it's just like they're living through me.
• 40:31
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: You talk about bad health care in Nigeria and you
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: always talk about giving back to the church, giving back
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: to the kids. What do you think could be done
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: to change some of the stuff that you and your
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: family went through to make sure the next generation doesn't
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: have that problem or you're working towards that as well.
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: I mean, I've done a lot that, you know. I
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: really don't even want the media to take everybody even
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: didn't even like seeing me giving to the church in
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: the media. I don't like. Really, I really feel like
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: the media like to twist a lot of things, you know,
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: But a lot of things have been held down by
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: the government, you know, and I think the government is
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: starting to understand that they're not as influential. I would say, Hm,
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: we are the ones having a real influence on the youth,
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: you know, and a lot of times they have to
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: bring us close to know what the youth wants, and
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: maybe some might have to have us close for their
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: own agendas, but it's just your decision to stand with
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: the agenda. There's no amount of money the government want
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: to give me. I be like, oh, like, no government
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: money can freak me. I've said in a lot of
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: songs that I think I was starting to make more
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: money than politicians. It's like it's like, you know, I
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: feel like with the influence that I have, I feel
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: like we are now at the point where we can
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: tell them, like, yo, you're not doing your job. If
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: I'm stay there with the governor, I would whisper to
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: his ear. I'm like, I don't think you're doing this right.
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry it's coming from a twenty four year old,
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: but was like, I think I tapping with what their perspective.
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: You can't see that. I'm sorry. You know, policies just
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: help like convince them about policies and the little we
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: can do, like we're investing with the money we make,
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: bringing back home, giving kids life a meaning. You know,
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: a lot of times I've been telling my manager, because
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: we have a lot of deep talks, it's like it's
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: not about giving rice. Everybody just want to give rice rice.
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: It's like, you just want to go make some food.
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: Do you know if some kid got some allergy to
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: rice and then yes, you gave rise, but then you
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: leave and then the kid got to go to the
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: hospital to sort at that auritude, do you understand? It's like,
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: are you like this is a whole different perspective to
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: me giving back. I don't like to do the basic
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: giveback that, oh, I give you food, that's it. It's like, no,
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: it's like what about tomorrow? What are they going to
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: eat tomorrow? It's like i'd ratter create a platform that
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: will consistently provide. Yeah, you know, create a platform I
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: will consistently educate. Create a platform now consistently clothes created platform,
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: BECAUSETI shelter. It could be one hundred people, could be
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: five hundred people. But if it's one thousand people or
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: five hundred people, but at least it's quite consistent, then
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: I'm giving one million people food today. Tomorrow they'll be hungry.
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: That's my perspective of giving back platforms policies, and.
• 43:42
  Speaker 4: They should listen to you. I mean, you just had
• 43:44
  Speaker 4: to show on your city. You had twenty thousand people
• 43:46
  Speaker 4: come out.
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: I think it was steady, even though a lot of
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: people outside.
• 43:50
  Speaker 3: Wow, it's like, what do I feel like?
• 43:52
  Speaker 4: We're doing it in your hometown, even not your hometwn
• 43:54
  Speaker 4: but ben in city.
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: There's a country called Ben and the same spelling been
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: in here. It was really beautiful, iconic. Then there I
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: just I felt I love joy, love anger.
• 44:12
  Speaker 3: Sorry to say it's just oh.
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: Okay, it's just like this place has struggled so hard,
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: this place has stomped on me.
• 44:22
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: It's not really like you're blaming the people. It's just
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: like you're just blaming the environments for your struggle, you know.
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: And it was just like I have to give back
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: in some way. I didn't want that money. First of all,
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: it was not about Ay, I'm the star, come on
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: watch me. I paid to watch me. It's like no,
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: It's like I made sure the tickets were affordable because
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: life is harder thandia tickets affordable. And also I don't
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: make myself the center of the event. No, the people won,
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: and then everything that has to do with the show,
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: giving them an iconic show, the great stage, great sound, great,
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: Like you know, if I had bad sound in that stadium,
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: they'll be like, yeah, it was a great show regardless.
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: Why because I didn't put my all into the stage
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: or the sound, because I was so focused on me
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: being the talk of the town, like it's all about me.
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: It's not even about the sound. People will take it.
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: Those still say it's a good show. But I always like,
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: I made sure you know the security of the people,
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: even the security or the people outside that cannot get in,
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: because I know that would be a possibility. Just making
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: sure that they have a good show and making sure
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: that can impact, give back and inspire as much use
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: as I can. I think I did that.
• 45:51
  Speaker 4: Is it true that you got paid three million dollars
• 45:53
  Speaker 4: the performer at the world's most expensive wedding of twenty
• 45:57
  Speaker 4: twenty four and Mumbai?
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, I said to move by. If you even asked
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: me about sure at festival, I would not even tell
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: you smart. Yeah, I wouldn't even tell you. It's not
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: just move by all your money, Just like I feel
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: like people guess my wealth is like you can never
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: find out.
• 46:19
  Speaker 3: I can smell them with money. Man, leave me a
• 46:21
  Speaker 3: couple of hours, leave uncle a couple of irons. Man,
• 46:24
  Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying. But ns and Iyrius, you.
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: Ask me, let's let's get into a joint. That what
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: you want to hear? What joint you want to want
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: us to play this morning?
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: He I know he wants to play the Monday morning.
• 46:40
  Speaker 3: Look you want to do?
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: I want to do? Here is the actually, here is
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: the song here?
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: All right, Well, we appreciate you for joining us. Next
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: time you can come back.
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, don't be letting them take your outre say fly,
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: don't know.
• 46:58
  Speaker 4: Let nobody them your life like I like. I like
• 47:00
  Speaker 4: your confidence. Man, you know what I'm saying. And your
• 47:02
  Speaker 4: belief in God. I can see I can see God
• 47:04
  Speaker 4: in you. Brother, Thank you, thank you.
• 47:05
  Speaker 2: Appreciate Bredma, ladies and gentlemen. It's the breakfast Club.
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: Good morning.
• 47:09
  Speaker 3: You wake that ass up in the morning. Breakfast Club.