Oxlade: Afrobeat Poster Boy Is Red Edit’s July/August Cover Star

With social media followers numbering 318k and counting on Instagram, plus another 190k on Twitter, there’s no denying Oxlade has an audience. But even with his debut album, “Oxygene” setting records, the rising artist is after something more. “I have better projects than Oxygene. This is just a snack,” he tells us.

Oxlade (real name: Ikuforiji Abdulrahman Olaitan) was raised in Lagos by his grandma (a deaconess) and 4 uncles. This upbringing prepared him for being an artist. “I grew up in a musically inclined family,” he says. From singing acapella with his family at morning devotions to moving into and heading the church choir (children, teen, and adult), church-boy Oxlade was slowly albeit unknowingly sowing a seed into his future music career. “I never wanted to be an artist,” he says. “I never took it personally, I didn’t even know what I was learning was going to help me in the future.”

As with most Nigerian families and their initial reservations to the entertainment industry, there was the typical backlash about pursuing music as a fulltime career. However, his mind was made up. To Oxlade, singing is the only thing that gives him genuine joy, “If I wasn’t doing music, I’d be miserable.”

Now, all that has changed “Everybody sees the light, you can sing secular and still believe in God” the 23 year-old states.

One thing is clear; the singer is big on his spirituality. Speaking on his performance at the O2 in 2019 – a manifestation of faith (he tweeted about it with Fireboy in 2018), he says;

“I’m big on spirituality, I really believe in God and I believe in the power of the tongue, so like 2018, I was watching Wizkid‘s live, his first O2 and everything was maad[sic] and I just went to tweet it – ‘See you at the O2 by 2020’ and he(Fireboy) replied ‘next year, guy’. At that point, he didn’t have Jealous, I didn’t even have any song. We even forgot we tweeted about it, we were at the backstage and someone just came to show us the tweet! At that point, DJTunes was playing Cause Trouble and like 15,000 or 20,000 people were singing it word for word and you know, when there’s excess noise, the ground starts to shake. The ground was shaking and I told Fireboy – If they are singing Cause Trouble like this, imagine how they’ll sing Jealous and we just got nervous all of a sudden. It was mad[sic] and we didn’t know how to feel.”

That was the moment I knew singing was for me like I was born to sing because I still used to second-guess, ask if my voice was good enough, did I have enough money to promote my sh*t? did I look good enough as an artist and everything but after that, omo nobody can tell me anything.

With an influx of young artists in the industry and almost everybody on the Apple Music Top 10 list right now being in their early 20s, Ox sees it as a big flex and he wants people to understand that as long as you have it in you, age is just a number when it comes to entertaining.

“It’s a new era and everybody needs a breath of fresh air and they want to hear new voices, new sounds. The new generation always wants to pay for people that they relate with.”

The Nigerian music industry is much different from what it was 5 years ago, it is evolving with young artists breaking through the scene and more reception towards alternative sounds; “5 years ago, nobody would listen to Tems, they would stick to the mainstream guys but now Tems is able to have a song with Khalid and I am able to have a song with her, Skip Marley and Davido – the fact that the industry has evolved and people are accepting of it, gives the youngin’s more leverage” Oxlade says.

Oxlade’s songs relay a consistent message: he is inspired by his upbringing and real-life experiences; the good and the bad. “All the love songs on Oxygene E.P were inspired by my ex-girlfriend.”

His tattoos tell a story too: ABOSEDE, on his chest, is an ode to his late mum whom he lost at age 3, “I mean my grandma played the role of father and mother like the majority of my childhood; it made a lot of sense but still I still miss my mum do you understand? Most times when I feel like “motherless” I just remember that like she’s with me on my tats” he says. XXII-IV-XCVI , his date of birth, on his lower arm is basically a reminder of time, “I always want to remember that time is flying and I have short time cos [sic] I have to make it. I shouldn’t think that I am too young or too old and that I shouldn’t use my age as an excuse for not making it in life. Every single day you wake up you need to think of something because you need to be great.” 恩典, Chinese characters for GRACE, his grandmother’s name, on his wrist. “My grandmother’s name is Grace Adebisi Akinropo and I can’t get all that name on my wrist so I just had to find something unique and I used Grace in Chinese”

You can literally hear the passion in his songs and voice when he talks about music: “I’m happy and my mental strength is everything to me. I can be broke but if I am happy, there is life and there are chances that I can make more money.” I am doing what I love doing – that is so priceless and so underrated. There are a lot of people working somewhere else right now and they don’t want to be there. They’re doing it probably because of situations or their family rules. I broke the family rule and I am doing what I love doing and making money on my own terms. That’s the biggest flex in life.”

On one mistake upcoming artists make, Oxlade reiterates patience – or the lack of it thereof “They think their greatness is in someone’s hands. God decides who is going to be great – no matter how humble or how fake you seem to be to the so called plugs. If God doesn’t want you to pop at this particular time, you are not going to pop.” he says. “I’ve been in the game for 4 years and I’ve turned down almost all the deals and it wasn’t cos [sic] I didn’t want to get signed. It’s a thing to be famous, another to be successful. Do I want to be known or do I want to be respected? Two different things.”

According to him, “Nobody can say I made Oxlade. I chose the slower part and its working for me. I mean I’m thankful to God that Away is doing wonderfully well but some people might not want to be that patient.” His advice? “Sign deals but if it won’t make you happy, run. Be careful of bondage deals.”

Beyond music, Oxlade wants to use his platform to speak up about police brutality and abuse – a fast spreading cancer in the country. “They say police is our friend but they brutalize us, the youths. It’s unfair how Nigerian youths can’t even walk again. We walk in fear and we don’t even know if these are police or armed robbers because they don’t talk to us with any form of respect.” he says. Recently a victim of police brutality where he was forcefully detained and harassed, “They didn’t tell me to move or anything, they forcefully carried me into their Danfo, seized my phone and started searching for words like maye, client and transaction on my Whatsapp and I mean that’s abduction! And that is something of shame to the armed forces if that is how they treat all Nigerian youths.”

He has a valid question for the Police though, “Is dreadlocks and dressing the way you want to dress a sin in our fathers land?”

Bringing us to another question, should his question be directed towards the police only? With Gender-Based Violence – rape and sexual abuse on the rise, Oxlade is making his point clear, NOBODY deserves to be abused, based on what they are or are not wearing. As a victim of rape at the age of 10, he says “Rape is deeper than your outfit, nothing should be an excuse to warrant RAPE or harassment.  I mean it’s their choice to dress however they want and it’s your duty to control your f***ing self do you understand? So like because someone dresses “indecently” shouldn’t be an excuse.”

Below, Oxlade further discusses inspiring others through his music, artists that inspire him, and his vision of Afrobeats in the coming years.

What has been your biggest motivation so far?

I am happy that I can inspire other people. Every day I get DMs and sometimes I tend to rub them off like “this person is just whining [sic] me” but when it becomes constant, you know you are doing something, creating a bond. I have a crazy fan base on twitter and don’t know how I did that [cos] I’m shy and I really don’t like DMing people. How they decided to start stanning me was a miracle but you know you’re doing something right, you’re affecting the right people.

My first ever gig last year, I budgeted 150 people, and 2000 people came. Those results are the reason I sing – positivity, Oxlade did it this way, he turned down deals, he blew by himself, he’s not kissing anybody’s ass; I want to be like Oxlade.

If you were to pick one artist that inspires you who would it be?

Wande Coal – He inspires me on every level musically.

Artistes you would like to collaborate with?

When it comes to music business, I’d go for Mr. Eazi, I’d go for Rema also because their strategy is pro. Rema blew across Nigeria in like 3 weeks beause of the right roll-out. Big shout out to Mavin. So yeah, Wande, Eazi, Burna, Rema and Kizz Daniel.

Where do you see Nigeria and the African music industry in the next 5 years?

According to what I see, I might be wrong but Nigeria has the highest exports of creatives every year, we bring out new creatives, we break barriers every year. Wiz, David selling out the O2, Burna doing the Wembley, Fireboy and I performing at the O2, Rema’s song with Drake, and there’s so much more.

It’s not like the other Africans can’t do it but we are doing it right and I don’t know how we are doing it but God is on our side. Nigerian music is growing at a very fast rate and I am very happy about it but I think we need to gather more. The purpose of getting big with Nigerian music is to promote Afro beats and not just for individual glory.

Afrobeats is a racial weapon, we use it to paint Africa gold because we have bad records, from the fraudsters to Xenophobia to militants and Boko-Haram spoiling the image of Africa. The music is a tool to make you guys[sic] understands that there is goodness in Africa too, there are good people, we are good people.