In a podcast interview on "My Africa"
with Andre Blaze Henshaw, YBNL boss, Olamide, has revealed more details
about the man behind the name – his background, his driving forces,
previously untold stories and his plans for the future. Below are
excerpts from the 50-minutes interview;
On having a kid:
I’m very happy with the fact that I have a kid right now. I just can’t live that young and reckless ‘Mr. Man’ kind of life anymore (Laughs).
On fatherhood:
It’s nice, it’s good. I wasn’t scared at all. I’ve been longing to have a baby since I was in SS3 but I wouldn’t want to have a baby that’s going to come to this world and suffer.
On having a kid:
I’m very happy with the fact that I have a kid right now. I just can’t live that young and reckless ‘Mr. Man’ kind of life anymore (Laughs).
On fatherhood:
It’s nice, it’s good. I wasn’t scared at all. I’ve been longing to have a baby since I was in SS3 but I wouldn’t want to have a baby that’s going to come to this world and suffer.
On choosing to have a child now:
I think I’m good financially. I’m more mature and all that.
On his relationship with his baby’s mother:
We’re very cool. We’ve been cool from way back and we’ve been together for almost 5 years now. It’s not just some random chic that came around from nowhere. That’s just it.
On marrying his baby’s mother:
That’s a question that is very hard to answer because Olamide is not God. Only God knows tomorrow.
On his biggest fears:
My major fear is not making Heaven; the second one is failure.
On his fame:
Nobody thought it was going to be this big for me…or for someone coming from Bariga, and you’re not even doing like Pop, RnB or something. You’re rapping, like rap doesn’t even really sell like that in Nigeria. And now you’re coming from the ghetto, and you’re not doing English rap. But glory be to God, I did a lot of hard work and it has paid off for me. The grace of God has really helped me as well.
On growing up:
I grew up knowing the ups and downs. My pops he didn’t really pay attention to the things he should have paid attention to. That’s why he had too many ups and downs back then; and because he was too bothered about so many people, and satisfying outsiders more than family. My pops used to spend for outsiders more than us back then so I think that really affected us in a way, like big time. Like when we were supposed to move out of the ghetto…even till now my pops built his house in the ghetto. I’ve been begging him like ‘Yo pops, let’s move out of Bariga’ but he just wants his people around.
On his love for music:
My love for music came from influences from my neighbours and my parents. My parents listened to music a lot. You know all these Yoruba people nao, jaiye-jaiye people. They like faaji. So they play music a lot like Wasiu Ayinde back to back, Sunny Ade and all that. My parents never allowed me to listen Fela’s music. It’s crazy; they said Fela is too crazy. But they do listen to Fela’s music. They think Fela smokes, this and that, so they don’t want us to get influenced by that. Majority of my neighbours back then used to attend Catholic churches and they used to be in the choir so sometimes their choir members come to their place for rehearsals. While they are doing all that I’ll just be somewhere in the corner watching them so I actually fell in love during all that process.
Nobody thought it was going to be this big for me…or for someone coming from Bariga, and you’re not even doing like Pop, RnB or something. You’re rapping, like rap doesn’t even really sell like that in Nigeria. And now you’re coming from the ghetto, and you’re not doing English rap. But glory be to God, I did a lot of hard work and it has paid off for me. The grace of God has really helped me as well.
On growing up:
I grew up knowing the ups and downs. My pops he didn’t really pay attention to the things he should have paid attention to. That’s why he had too many ups and downs back then; and because he was too bothered about so many people, and satisfying outsiders more than family. My pops used to spend for outsiders more than us back then so I think that really affected us in a way, like big time. Like when we were supposed to move out of the ghetto…even till now my pops built his house in the ghetto. I’ve been begging him like ‘Yo pops, let’s move out of Bariga’ but he just wants his people around.
On his love for music:
My love for music came from influences from my neighbours and my parents. My parents listened to music a lot. You know all these Yoruba people nao, jaiye-jaiye people. They like faaji. So they play music a lot like Wasiu Ayinde back to back, Sunny Ade and all that. My parents never allowed me to listen Fela’s music. It’s crazy; they said Fela is too crazy. But they do listen to Fela’s music. They think Fela smokes, this and that, so they don’t want us to get influenced by that. Majority of my neighbours back then used to attend Catholic churches and they used to be in the choir so sometimes their choir members come to their place for rehearsals. While they are doing all that I’ll just be somewhere in the corner watching them so I actually fell in love during all that process.
On who Olamide really is:
Olamide is a young black boy from faraway that believes there is more to music than staying in a box and saying ‘Yo, I do RnB, I do Hip-Hop, I do this, I do that’. I don’t believe in that. I believe music is music. Me making music is a result of influences from here and there; listening to Pasuma, listening to Orits Wiliki, Majek Fashek, Blakky, Eedris Abdulkareem and all these people.
On never having beef with M.I:
Never! Let me shock you. The first time I met M.I, I met him through my former manager Tony Nwakalor. I think someone was having a birthday party – maybe Ice Prince or something – then M.I was the one who took us into the club. Back then there were some places I couldn’t easily enter, like the bouncers they were going to like just mess with me big time. But M.I took me in like freely and all. I can never forget that. I don’t know if he remembers though. So I’ve never had any issues with him. We’ve never met one on one and had any disagreements or something like that.
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