When it comes time to craft an album bro, how much of it is a clear-cut idea when you begin? Do you go in with a concept that you want to work around, an audio palette that you want to play in? Or it is very much a process of experimentation where you just get in the booth and see what happens.
I guess for different albums it changes, but most of the time I have a rough idea of what the sound I want to create is or perhaps a certain theme I want to base things around. Then it becomes a process of getting in the studio and building or picking beats that move the project in that direction. That’s when the work starts. 

“Theme” is an interesting word, do you like to view albums as sort of an expanded single with one storyline running through it?
Yes, definitely. I see myself as a storyteller and as an album artist. Some artists thrive as single artists and others who appreciate the craft of compiling an album. I like to think I am the latter, for that reason when you listen to my projects you can feel yourself slip into a theme or see yourself going on the journey I’m taking you on. 

When you are in the studio, who is sitting in that producer chair next to you? Do you like to work with the same producers consistently to build that chemistry or do you like bouncing off new input?
I mix it up for variety for sure. When you work with new people you realise how many different staples of working, thinking and creating there – particularly how many different sounds are out there to work with that different people can bring to the table. I love experimentation, whether it’s with new genres of ways or working. So it tends to be one producer one day and another the next. 

What was the hardest track on BAHD to make? Is it now your favourite because of that?
That’s a tough one. Thinking back on it now I don’t think any of the tracks were especially hard to make. Shout out to the producer, featured artist and co-writers for making this project as seamless as possible. The only thing that I found unusually challenging was that I’m primarily a rapper but on this project, I sing a lot more than I have done in the past so I had to push my vocals to a place they hadn’t been before. 

You have such a lengthy catalogue of tracks, what does your writing process look like now? Is writing therapeutic for you still or does it feel like work?
It’s definitely still therapeutic. It’s everything to me man, it’s life, it’s my avenue to be able to express how I’m feeling or what I want. It’s my opportunity to speak and if you listen to my work you hear my personal thoughts. Music is life so it hardly feels like work. Writing and recording music is still to me the most fun thing in the world.

How hard is it to build a setlist for a live show now? You have so many projects and fans will have a single they wanna hear but it might be off 27 or if it was me I would wanna hear tracks off Stories That Touch. How do you change your set depending on where you playing?
You have a point, it gets so difficult sometimes because everyone wants to hear something a little different to the person they’re standing next to. A lot of times people want to hear tracks off my first album and other times it’s a track I’ve made in passing that has affected someone in a way I could never have seen that means the most to other fans. I try to gauge the tone of the event as well as possible. I do a lot of advocacy work and activism a lot of times I’m performing at events for specific causes. For example, I was in Lagos a few weeks ago trying to get as many people as possible registered to vote as we have our elections coming up. We did a free concert so everyone could gather around and sign up so with that significance in mind I thought it would be important to go through my catalogue to find my most conscious work that could help awaken these people.   

With that in mind, have you got a guilty pleasure track you like to play live just for you?
My favourite track to perform is ‘Bahd Baddo Baddest’ because there is just so much energy running through the song. Every time I perform that track it’s like the crowd is possessed. The henry on that record is too much, I don’t think I or the producer knew what we were making when we were in the studio crafting that track. It’s become so so crazy.

One of the standout collabs on BAHD, that I have to thank you for introducing me was The Cavemen on ‘Woman’. Those guys are awesome bro. How did that track come about bro? How did you guys get connected?
Everyone that I worked with on this project is genuinely someone I have always wanted to work with. The Cavemen were no exception and they set the tone for every feature of the project as they all went so seamlessly and straightforward with everyone coming through when they need to. I’ve always loved The Cavemen and what they can do with music is amazing – they can time-travel you to a different era. Being able to do that in today’s era is so hard. I needed to have those guys on this album because I wanted to collect a vast range of genres that slotted into the overarching theme and they fit into that vision so well.