In the new world of interviews you wait for artists in the comfort of your own home, staring into an empty Zoom room. One can\u2019t help but wonder what the artist is up to, potentially thousands of miles away. Lucky for me, there\u2019s Instagram Stories, and I had the drop that just yesterday, Olamide was having the time of his life in Miami, riding a boat down the coast, popping champagne and dancing to his latest single \u201cEru\u201d with friends and family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Would he be up in time after a long night of celebration? Did I calculate the time zone correctly? Does he have this link?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All these questions run through an interviewer\u2019s mind in the time of COVID, coupled by an awe at the unlikely and incredible world where I, an American in my small Parisian flat, can interview Olamide, a Nigerian, cruising the coast of Florida, all on a little glowing device. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Olamide showed up right on time, with a big smile, a cool posture and dark sunglasses. We were here to talk about Carpe Diem<\/em>, his new album that I had bumping in the background, and a project which, after several listens, I\u2019d already become a fan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Salutations and well wishes granted, the interview began: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christian: Let\u2019s get this started. I know you\u2019re a busy man\u2026 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Olamide: Let’s go! <\/p>\n\n\n\n “Carpe Diem” is an expression a lot of people will be familiar with. Why did you choose this title and how are you looking to seize the day?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The mood is like, YOLO, you know. I wanna live and limits are nothing, I just wanna do all the things that I wanna do and live my dream to the fullest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, you\u2019ve definitely done a lot so far. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n *laughs*<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are a lot of messages on the album and it definitely feels limitless, but are there any key ideas you wanted to get across with this project?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Majorly I just wanted to try and pass down this sound with a spirit of happiness\u2026 plus it\u2019s been a hell of a year<\/p>\n\n\n\n Crazy<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n *both laugh*<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeah it\u2019s been a hell of a year. It\u2019s been a hell of a ride for me for the past 3, 4, 5 years now since I lost both my parents, my mom and my dad. It was like one day after the other. I lost my Dad in 2016 and I lost my Mom in 2017 and that really weighed me down so much and it affected my creativity. I\u2019m just trying to refocus on my music career now and take it all the way, you know, give it my best. <\/p>\n\n\n\n My condolences to you\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Thanks man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You know, I can tell there is this lighthearted energy on there that speaks to that, and maybe bringing some closure through creativity because it does sound like you switched up the style a bit.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeah I did, I did, I definitely did. And that\u2019s one of the reasons I really started singing because I always wanted to do both. I don\u2019t know, for some odd reason I\u2019ve always restricted myself to a specific kind of sound. But now I\u2019m just like, you know what, to hell with all this, you know, I just wanna explore, be adventurous with sound and try new things, experiment, do all the things I\u2019ve always dreamt of doing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You know I never used to sing so much, I always used to do like, \u201crap rap\u201d and all that but right now I do wanna sing so I\u2019ve been trying my best to do it. I\u2019ve been doing voice training, I got myself a coach and all that. I\u2019m also learning production and how to make beats. So many things. You know, music is the only thing that I know that I\u2019m good at so I give my 100% and always learning more about this to know every part possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Did you want to break out of the box of being a \u201crapper\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I mean, initially when I started music I started singing first, but everyone used to tell me my voice was rubbish\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n *long laugh*<\/p>\n\n\n\n So I switched to rap. Then someway or another after the hype I ended up singing on a couple of songs, but I didn\u2019t intentionally mean to sing on them \u2026 but one way or the other it came out like that. Right now I truly want to be better at singing. I wanna do it because I really love singing *laughs* I really do love it, I don\u2019t care if it looks too soft for some people because it\u2019s always different for a rap artist to start singing, but I don\u2019t care, I\u2019m just gunna live my life man, do what makes me happy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, I\u2019m glad you did. And like I said, I think we can hear your desire to sing on previous projects, and you do let it go on some of the older cuts, but, of course, there\u2019s a contrast with some of the more aggressive raps you\u2019ve done in the past. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I also saw that you described this album in particular as Galala and Celestial music\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeah! It\u2019s a little bit of a marriage between the Jamaican Dancehall sound and the Nigerian Galala sound. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Can you tell us a little more about Nigerian Galala? Is it something you listened to a lot in your past?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n So Nigerian Galala was from the late 80s early 90s with people from Ajegunle in Lagos\u2026 we had some people like Daddy Showkey and Baba Fryo and other people that pioneered that sound and made it very big back then. A couple of new artists have been tapping into it but each time around I\u2019m trying to focus on it and make it bigger than what it used to be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeah, bring it the now, I feel that. You know, another thing that stands out for you is this hypnotic ability to flow in and out of multiple languages, English, Yoruba, Pidgin, and I was wondering what that brings to you as an artist and especially as a \u201crapper\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n So for me personally it\u2019s basically just me doing me. It\u2019s very simple like, if you know about A, B, C, and D in different aspects of your life you always want to add a bit of that. So if I understand all these different languages and this and that, then I must use them. It\u2019s the typical me, that\u2019s the way I roll that\u2019s the way I talk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Almost everybody in Lagos, before they say two lines in English, you\u2019re gunna hear one Yoruba word or Pidgin. So that\u2019s the way we talk, that\u2019s the way we live, that\u2019s the way we relate to people. For me I use Yoruba sometimes but it\u2019s mostly about Pidgin and English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It sounds natural that\u2019s for sure, you can almost lose track of the barriers between the languages when the flow is going off.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Thank you boss! <\/p>\n\n\n\n