Music
Oxlade of Afrobeats
From Cyber Cafe Attendant to Pop Stardom; Oxlade talks about his new EP - Oxygen
Oxlade is not coy about his ambition. Towards the tail-end of our phone conversation, one day after the release of his much-anticipated debut E.P., Oxgene, he admits as much. “I don’t really care what anybody is going to say,” he starts, his voice ringing with excitement. The scale of the target has exponentially increased for Oxlade since the last time we had a conversation. Last November, at the Red Bull Presents New Skool cool, in honour of the new crop of talents breaking through in Nigerian music, Oxlade could not believe that 2019 had been so gratifying for him, he said before his performance. Now, his ambition has exploded to metonymy.
Oxlade 1
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Oxlade 2
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Oxlade 3
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Oxlade - EP
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Whatever they’ll call him in the coming years, afrobeats’ Oxlade or Oxlade of afrobeats, the journey to being on the cusp of afropop stardom has not been as breezy as his answer suggests. Less than three years ago, he was done with music, eking out a living at a cybercafe in Lagos, and had zero interest in the song that would propel him to mainstream attention. The reason? “I couldn’t make music on an empty stomach,” he explained. For Oxlade, the reality was anything but palatable. He had lost his mom at a very young age, and was raised by his grandma who albeit loving and supportive, could only raise him as high as her economic strength could lift. He’s at different instances, even in his adult life had to dine with lack and wine with hardship -- the pressure caught up to him. “I didn’t even care if “Mamiwota” dropped or not,” he admits, “Blaq was like, ‘yo, we are going to drop the song,’ then he came back and was like they said the song was not hip-hop enough and I was at the cybercafe working and told him to do whatever he wanted because I did not care.” Luckily, “Mamiwota” dropped on rapper Blaqbonez’s eponymously titled BadBoyBlaq album and Twitter fell in love with Oxlade’s vocal proficiency -- a life changing moment that marked the beginning of his unprecedented run.
My target is to be the biggest Afrobeats export to ever come out of Africa, when you hear afrobeats, you’ll remember Oxlade
But rather than using that visibility to drown listeners and casual observers in a deluge of independent releases, Oxlade, born Ikuforiji Abdulrahman Olaitan, opted for the longer route to sustainability; collaborating extensively with a diverse set of musicians beyond the constricting boundaries of music genres and establishing his stellar reputation as a king of hooks and choruses. The grand musical odyssey of Oxlade has seen him touch base on songs with Reekado Banks, DJ Tunez, Melvitto, and Jinmi Abduls among others. The collaborations have not been limited to Nigeria alone, Oxlade’s golden voice has flitted across the Atlantic too. “Brixton Boy,” his collaboration with grime acts, Skengdo, Sneakbo and AM, has earned him a ready audience in the multicultural labyrinth that London is.
Oxlade readily admits that he does not always write out songs, instead, relying on his intuitive capacity to meld sounds and interpret emotions melodiously. “Away,” the lead single off Oxygene is proof of this ability, he flips the refrain of the song into a repetitive loop that captures the wanderlust feeling of the song accurately. Oxygene is packed with those stunning moments of extemporaneousness across its 18 minutes runtime. Oxlade reflects, laughs about, and satirizes love and his come-up in a manner that only a true star can.
I finally have something of my own,” he exhales with enlightened weariness. It’s been a journey with several stops to get here – he submitted over 30 songs for the six-song E.P. – but he is grateful to be here in this moment. When the project (Oxygene) dropped everyone wasn't expecting it because they felt I couldn’t make music on my own, but if you check the stats, my project is the number one in the country, and we give God the glory!”
The project closed out with an evoking voice message from his grandmother -- a moment that stands as one of the hardest-hitting on the EP. He explained the significance; “I needed people to know that it’s one woman that’s praying for me – instead of conceptions of a mysterious benevolent figure – and that’s all the power I need. That’s my generator, that’s my source, so it needs to be understood that it’s beyond the physical. Bro, I didn’t have a major hit song but I got the opportunity to perform at the O2. I didn’t know anybody but Davido allowed me perform at City of David (concert) in 2018. You can’t calculate these things, you can’t connect the dots together, that’s the God factor. People needed to know the connection between my grandma and I. And I think that’s why people got emotional about that track.”
For Oxlade, it is global domination from hereon and reality indicates that he’s very much en route.
Oxlade EP Cover
© TSE Photography
