{"id":72872,"date":"2021-02-23T13:30:35","date_gmt":"2021-02-23T12:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/?p=72872"},"modified":"2021-03-11T15:58:34","modified_gmt":"2021-03-11T14:58:34","slug":"mr-eazi-the-man-musician-mogul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/mr-eazi-the-man-musician-mogul\/","title":{"rendered":"Mr Eazi the man, musician, and mogul"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cMy past two full length projects have been trips<\/em>\u201d Mr Eazi begins, speaking of his latest EP Something Else<\/em> released February 19th, \u201cso Accra to Lagos then Lagos to London\u2026but this project represents me in the airport, background music while I\u2019m deciding, \u2018Ok where am I gonna go next?<\/em>\u2019\u2019  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not that Mr Eazi hasn\u2019t been everywhere in recent years; hopping between Accra and Lagos for recording sessions, selling out stadiums in London, spreading his name across Africa with his emPawa music incubator, and launching the African Music Fund. Defying typecasts of artist and entrepreneur Mr Eazi is paving the way for an industry on the rise. As all eyes turn toward Africa as the next music Mecca, Eazi is sitting comfortably behind the controls, mixing and mastering the wheels of fortune with African ownership in mind. It can be as hard to pin down Mr Eazi as it is to pin down his latest EP which marks an artistic break with past projects. We met with Oluwatosin to speak about Something Else<\/em>, what it means, and how it relates to the growing world of African music\u2019s newly anointed Don. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019d come to this point where I\u2019d gotten bored of just making records for hits,\u201d <\/em>Mr Eazi says of his latest project, \u201cmaking records because you wanna go party with the records and want everyone to be singing it at the clubs. Coming to the point where you\u2019re like, I wanna make music for myself and I wanna make what I wanna make cause I\u2019ve earned a place to not chase after something. I decided exactly what I wanna give and what I wanna share.<\/em>\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hits are no problem for Mr Eazi. The singer has come out of a particularly astounding year of chart topping collaborations with Major Lazer and Nicki Minaj on \u201cOh My Gawd, J Balvin <\/a>on \u201cLento\u201d, and a link-up with DJ Neptune<\/a> and #emPawa100 album Joeboy<\/a> on \u201cNobody\u201d which was the No. 1 single of the year in Nigeria, generating over 100 million streams worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou get carried away by like the charts and the news and the blogs<\/em>,\u201d Mr Eazi says, reflecting on his recent successes. \u201cThis one is saying this and the comparisons and, \u2018Oh my god this has how many streams?\u2019. At some point you\u2019re just like, wait a minute this is not the reason that I stepped into the studio for the first time. When I stepped into the studio I was trying to make music for me. Then, after me, my friends. Then it just happens to spread to the whole world. So I guess that\u2019s the message from Something Else. Some people have heard it and speaking to me like, \u201cOh Eazi we didn\u2019t expect that sound!\u201d and I\u2019m like yeah, that\u2019s the point. I don\u2019t need you to expect any sound<\/em>.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Defying expectations is a calling for Mr Eazi. Much ado has been made about his entrepreneurial past, from phone sales to gold mining tech, but the businessman truly emerged when Eazi married his entrepreneurial spirit with his success in music. In comes the idea of, The Don, the lead-up single for the EP and a crucial musical derivation from Mr Eazi\u2019s famous, upbeat Banku style. The Don is menacing and epic in the best way. The falsetto of a faraway voice, the echoing choral piano, and Mr Eazi\u2019s baritone \u201cZagadat\u201d is enough to give the listener chills. With this, Mr Eazi adopts a new persona that reckons with the idea of these two worlds coming together for the first time.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the amalgamation.<\/em>\u201d He says, sharing the story of The Don\u2019s inception. \u201cFun fact is like, before I recorded The Don, I had been flying three producers, E Kelly, Killertunez, Kel P, to Accra like every other week. Every time I\u2019m in Accra I fly them out and I would go out and leave the house early in the morning to have all these meetings. I\u2019d come back late in the night, I\u2019d tell them I\u2019m coming and then just pass out. At some point they\u2019re like, \u2018Yo we keep coming to Accra to record you, we think it\u2019s a camp, and you\u2019re pursuing all these other businesses and don\u2019t have time to record.\u2019 So I remember Kel P threatening me he\u2019s like, \u2018You know what, I’m not gonna be coming to Ghana anymore.\u2019 I said, \u2018Yeah but you\u2019re working with other artists,\u2019 and he\u2019s like, \u2018I didn\u2019t come to Accra to work with other artists. I respect them, I love working with them, but I came to work with you.\u2019 That morning, I woke up and I just heard them. They knew the time I wake-up so rather than waking up later they woke up early. I just heard that sound coming from Killertunez room and I was like, \u201cJeez what is this.\u201d I felt it was perfect timing because that was in-between me en route to another meeting, to close some other business, and that instrumental and the darkness kind of like spoke to me.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this way, Something Else<\/em> is a deeper reflection the current stage of Mr Eazi\u2019s musical career than anything he\u2019s released of late. While the 4 remaining tracks on the EP bring a return to the feel good Highlife, the tone rests in the space between, in the \u201cairport between trips\u201d as Eazi would say. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn some ways sometimes it feels like there\u2019s a block between both worlds<\/em>.\u201d Mr Eazi says of this reconciliation. \u201cYes, of course, everything I\u2019ve done musically has gotten me to this point where I can do certain things within the music business, and then I do a lot of other stuff outside of the music business. I just suddenly realised that everything I can do now is as a result of the music. So in a way I was thinking in my head that they were two different, separate things. Then I just suddenly realised sometime last year that these two are intertwined because the reason why I\u2019m able to do some things is because of who I am as Mr. Eazi, some things I’ve been able to achieve as Mr Eazi is because of my mind as an entrepreneur trying to build something<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hit singles and groundbreaking EPs aside, Mr Eazi has been investing deeply into the future of the African music scene. Most notable is his emPawa program, currently in its third iteration. The music incubator program has given funding and opportunity to hundreds of artists among tens of thousands of music entries including the young popstar Joeboy who recently released his debut LP Somewhere Between Beauty and Magic<\/em> to critical acclaim.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one thing to have some individual stories scattered around, a few pointers of what I represent as the young African kid<\/em>,\u201d Mr Eazi says about the scope of his ambition. \u201cBut it\u2019s a bigger conversation and it\u2019s more valuable for us and to the world and Africans, Nigerians, Ghanians, when we as a community have multiple success stories that don\u2019t sound alike. When you have a lot of things happening, that\u2019s when you have an ecosystem, and when there\u2019s an ecosystem, that\u2019s true life. That\u2019s when everybody eats and it\u2019s bigger than one person. The probability of a full life circle, it\u2019s no more a phase. You know it can be a phase when it\u2019s like a couple artists here and there like 5-10 artists out of Africa, but it\u2019s not a phase when it\u2019s multiple. 20 African artists having global success stories. 200 artists having continental success stories at the same time. Then everything is bigger. And for me as an entrepreneur, it\u2019s more interesting.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a recent injection of $20 million from the African Music Fund to finance up-and-coming creatives, this ambition is not so farfetched. In any case, there is no shortage of young talent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEveryday I hear a talented artist, boy girl, everyday I hear something that blows my mind.<\/em>\u201d Mr Eazi says. \u201cIn fact, I was joking with Kel P yesterday. Kel P is a videographer and he was asking me what I listen to and I was like, \u2018Boy I\u2019m not listening on Apple Music or Spotify or anything I\u2019m just listening to demos that artists from all across Africa are sending to me\u2019. I\u2019ve not exhausted that. I don\u2019t even know who the next artist or the next rapper in the US is or what they\u2019re making or what\u2019s #1 in the world right now.\u00a0 That\u2019s how busy I\u2019ve been just enjoying music from all these artists. For me, it\u2019s just like, there\u2019s still so many artists that have to be introduced to the world that will make their way and find their audiences and find their tribes.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between recording sessions and continental business dealings it\u2019s hard to imagine that, \u201cLife is Eazi\u201d, as claimed in Mr Eazi\u2019s past LPs. I pressed to see how someone maintains the nonchalance and smooth demeanour amidst so much activity.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo be honest it\u2019s like my mindset<\/em>.\u201d Eazi explains. \u201cThat\u2019s just how I choose to see whatever is happening. I just say, \u2018What\u2019s the worse that can come out of this?\u2019 whatever the situation.  Worst case scenario if there is an alien invasion or if like there\u2019s World War Z, the worst thing that will happen is that we will all leave, we will all die. Whether a bomb hits you, or you are 150 years old in your bed, at some point it\u2019s just energy cannot be created nor destroyed, it has to keep passing for this whole engine to keep running. As life is beautiful so is death because it gives room for new life in different ways. That\u2019s how I try to see things. So no matter how difficult or challenging things come, which they do come everyday, I choose to see this as part of the journey and just take it in. It\u2019s a mindset.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With that, Mr Eazi bid his farewell, surely off to another meeting, another studio session, another idea to turn into reality. Something Else<\/em> is just that, a fresh expression of a multihyphenate with great ambition and talent to match. While Mr Eazi has called the project a \u201ccalm before the storm\u201d, we\u2019ll see how irresistible the persona of The Don remains in his future music. For fans, however, the fun doesn\u2019t end there, as there remains a cryptic message hidden between the lines of the EP\u2019s cover for a dedicated young Don to decipher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To enter the mindset of The Don, you can listen to Mr Eazi\u2019s EP Something Else<\/em> here<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mr Eazi is back with a new persona, building a bridge between the music and entrepreneurship on his new EP, while laying the groundwork for African creatives for generations to come. Meet the man, musician, and mogul.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":72875,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11036,7833,7835],"tags":[19691,5735],"location":[8172],"yst_prominent_words":[8403,33616,33619,19634,33621,33617,8414,8447,8933,12786,33613,33615,8402,8435,33620,31958,19659,8438,33614,33618],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72872"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72872"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=72872"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=72872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}