It has just been revealed that singer Akon is set to sign Nigerian rapper Olamide to his Konvict Music label. This was made known by Akon himself during a radio interview in America.
Akon just weeks ago in another interview revealed he had at some point signed singers Davido and Wizkid to his label while adding that may artistes do not like to keep to their end of the deal during a contract.
Olamide on his part is the head of YBNL a music record label which once houses rapper Lil Kesh, Victor, Adekunle Gold and Olamide himself. The label also helped project fresh talents Picazo Rhap, Lyta, Fireboy DML who is currently signed to the label, amongst others.
Akon in an interview years ago opened up on when he knew music is going to be part of his life.
In his words;
When I was locked up I decided to pursue music. Music was always in my life however, it was not something I wanted to pursue; but it would end up being the path that would change my life. I never thought that there would a moment that I would say, “okay, music is what I want to do.” My dad, Mor Dogo Thiam was a jazz musician and percussionist and so, I was constantly surrounded by Jazz. As versatile as the genre is with the different instruments that people played, I was only exposed to the freestyle Jazz, which I did not understand nor like. It was when I brushed up on my English, got accustomed and fell in love with hip-hop music as I listened to stories of struggles by the hip-hop artists, I was reminded of what I went through coming up from a third world country. It was that connection that drove me to music.
On how music saved him, he said;
I was a stand-offish kid growing up. I had a real rough childhood because I was a foreigner. People made fun of my accent, skin color and I did not have many friends. As I went through these experiences, I wrote about them as songs; or as poetry that later became songs. It became a habit and a part of me. Instead of talking to people about my experiences, I would go into the studio and create a song about them – and this led to a creation of many songs before I got locked up. It was while I was locked up, I wrote the hit song about being locked up.
I started thinking about my future because I did not want to be on the same path that got me behind bars – I did not want to live the way I was for the rest of my life. I had to decide on what I wanted to do when I got out knowing there would be limitations for someone like me trying to join the workforce. The option of taking the wrong path and hitting the streets to make the quick money was out of the question, so the only option I saw was to make music. Music became my focus; and that is when I realized that music saved me.
Nigerian artists are going up day by day and we can not help but be happy for them. Have you heard about the above gist? let us know what we missed in the comment box below. Thanks
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