{"id":81302,"date":"2021-06-01T16:29:18","date_gmt":"2021-06-01T14:29:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/?p=81302"},"modified":"2021-06-01T16:38:43","modified_gmt":"2021-06-01T14:38:43","slug":"orchestrate96-pop-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/orchestrate96-pop-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Orchestrate96, the Nigerian-American rapper connecting West Africa with the sounds of Houston"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Making music wasn\u2019t this Nigerian-American rapper\u2019s first career choice. \u201cI never planned to be an artist. I planned to go through college and get a job as a Chemical Engineer but this music thing hit the sweet spot in my brain.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before music found Orchestrate96, Utomwen David Irabor lived a simple life with… the Bini Tribe in Edo state, one of the rural tribes in Nigeria. Growing up, David didn\u2019t have an active father figure in his life as his dad was based in the United States. He and his older brother were brought up by his mother. David attended an all-boys boarding school where he studied general science. It was there he started to develop a taste for different genres of music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI listened to a lot of Afrobeats and pop music. My heavy rotations as a little kid were American Artists like Sia, Ellie Goulding, Fun, Kendrick Lamar, Michael Jackson, and Maroon 5. Nigerian artists like Frank Edward, Style Plus and P-Square just to name a few. I did not listen to a lot of rap music as a kid. Looking back, I was not exposed to it as much as I am now. My older brother would play the big dogs like Eminem and 50 Cent and the iconic group N.W.A but that was almost all I heard or knew about rap.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although he had a passion for the arts, he didn\u2019t think of it as something he could earn a living from. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would study the science subjects because I did not think I could monetize something in the art classes except if I became a Lawyer. I did not want to study law by any means. The science classes did not stop me from singing in the school\u2019s choir or dancing as a group during social gatherings. A few friends and I made a group in high school. We would dance and act. I was everywhere including the Boy Scouts. I just wanted to try everything.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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