Oxlade atmet Musik an den Ufern von Lagos, Nigeria
Mit Blick auf die malerische Meereskulisse von Lagos, Nigeria, nimmt der Afrobeats-Musiker Oxlade eine kraftvolle, aber etwas verletzliche Haltung gegenüber einem Element ein, für das er am repräsentativsten ist: Wasser. Eine Gegenüberstellung mit Oxlade in leuchtendem Pink, knalligem Print und Oversized-Cut-Denim, abgerundet mit den kantigen Nahaufnahmen seiner zahlreichen Tätowierungen und der großen schneebedeckten Perlenkette, ein Zeugnis für das Leben, das er derzeit für sich selbst aufbaut. Ein heller, exzentrischer Charakter mit einem ruhigen, mysteriösen Auftreten.
Geboren als Ikuforiji Abdulrahman Olaitan, ist er ein Zeugnis für jedes Projekt, in das er seine kreativen Fähigkeiten oder seine Erfahrungen aus dem wirklichen Leben einbringt, und sein Publikum bewundert es. Er hat viele Singles veröffentlicht, die sicher auf Ihrer oder der Playlist Ihres Nachbarn stehen werden, darunter 'AWAY', 'DKT' und zuletzt die beliebteste Radiosendung 'Interest' von Dolapo mit Frau Banks und ihm.
Wörter von Hiba Hassan
Kreative Leitung : Mariam Sholaja
Fotografie Mariam Sholaja
Styling Manis ( Sam Alia & Pieces )
Fotografie-Asst. Mofe
Der Name Oxlade ist einer von vielen zweiten Vornamen, die ihm seine Familie gegeben hat, da er das älteste Enkelkind ist. Damit verbunden ist eine Menge Verantwortung oder Druck, die manche vermuten würden, aber für Oxlade hat er seine überlebensgroße Präsenz von seiner Familie, aber auch in die weite Welt verlagert. Geboren und aufgewachsen in Mushin, Lagos, Nigeria, ist sein künstlerisches Flair eines, das von innen kam, im Herzen der Nollywood-Kultur und einer der Ursprünge des Afrobeat-Genres.
Er singt seit seinem zarten Alter von 10 Jahren, es ist ungefähr drei Jahre her, dass er offiziell zum ersten Mal auf die Bühne kam. Und man kann sagen, dass der Durchbruch in seiner Karriere durch seine Zusammenarbeit mit dem nigerianischen Rapper Blaqbonez im Jahr 2018 eröffnet wurde, der den Track „Mamiwota“ schuf. Genauso wichtig ist es, sowohl über die Tiefen als auch über die Höhen nachzudenken, wenn man wirklich lernen oder sich von jemandem oder etwas inspirieren lassen will, und während seines Durchbruchs hatte der immens talentierte Musiker sein Studium abgebrochen und fast aufgegeben auf seine Träume, die er als seine „dunkelsten Zeiten“ bezeichnet.
Seitdem ist Oxlade eine unaufhaltsame Kraft in der Musik, nimmt sich aber die Zeit, um einen Charakter zu enthüllen, der herzerwärmend ist, als man denkt. Seine Liebe zu der wichtigsten Beziehung in seinem Leben, seiner Großmutter und der Führung durch die Gnade Gottes, ist es, was sein Selbstbewusstsein in einer übersättigten Musikindustrie bestätigt, die manche sagen würden.
Wir haben uns mit dem aufstrebenden Star am Set in seiner Heimatstadt Lagos zusammengesetzt, um tiefer in den Musiker hinter einigen unserer Lieblingstracks einzutauchen...
Full Suit, John Lawrence Sullivan
Hat, Thomas Olubiyi
Shoes, Artistt's Own
“We're super special in Atlanta right now. That's super inspiring in itself. Just beIng familiar with a bunch of talented black people, that's just the culture.”
Trousers, Maison Mihara Yasuhiro
Jewellry, Artist's Own
Wie sind Sie im letzten Jahr mit allem umgegangen, was passiert ist?
Mir geht es großartig, ich bleibe glücklich, mache Musik, habe Spaß und danke Gott für das Leben.
Was sticht für Sie aus dem vergangenen Jahr besonders heraus, natürlich abzüglich der globalen Pandemie?
Die Veröffentlichung meines ersten Projekts und wie weit es gekommen ist! Es war aufregend zu sehen, wie sich Menschen aus nah und fern mit meiner Musik verbinden ...
Hast du irgendwelche Mantras, auf die du schwörst, die dir vielleicht auf deinem Weg weitergeholfen haben?
Ich habe keine, ich glaube nur an mich selbst und glaube an Gott und seine Fähigkeit, mir zu helfen, meine Gaben gut zu nutzen.
Wie sind Sie auf den Namen Oxlade als Künstlernamen gekommen?
Oxlade ist ein Name, der mir von meinem Großvater gegeben wurde. Es gibt keine tiefgründige Geschichte.
Du hast Solo-Singles veröffentlicht und in Songs wie Interest FT mitgewirkt. Frau Banks, wie würden Sie alles, was Sie bisher veröffentlicht haben, beschreiben und welchen Weg gehen Sie, wenn Sie sich bereit erklären, in bestimmten Projekten mitzuspielen?
Zusammenarbeit ist einfach das, was mich antreibt, ich liebe es, mit großartigen Künstlern Musik zu machen. Und natürlich ist der Plan, neue Fans auf dem Weg in neue Territorien zu gewinnen. Und ich muss mich zuerst auf einer mentalen Ebene mit dem Künstler verbinden, bevor ich eine Zusammenarbeit akzeptiere.
Was war deine Lieblingsveröffentlichung in Bezug auf die beste Erfahrung und Erfüllung?
Jeder Song, den ich veröffentlicht habe, war mein Favorit, weil die Fans akzeptieren, was ich singe.
Du beschreibst deine letzte EP, OXYGENE, als gechillt, aber sehr wahr der menschlichen Erfahrung. Wie wird für Sie die „menschliche Erfahrung“ definiert?
Oxygene handelt von einer Liebesgeschichte, die mir passiert ist, so real ist sie für mich. Denn es geht um mich.
Mich interessiert, welche Bedeutung das Cover-Artwork von OXYGENE hatte?
Musik ist die Luft die ich atme
Inspiriert von diesem szenischen Shooting habe ich das Gefühl, dass Ihre Persönlichkeit und das Meer / der Strand koexistierende Qualitäten haben. Was denkst du, sind die Ähnlichkeiten zwischen dir und diesem natürlichen Element?
Wasser steht für so viele Dinge, Ruhe, Kraft und Schönheit. Das vertrete ich!
Die Musikindustrie, insbesondere die noch jungen Bereiche, bewegt und verändert sich so schnell. Bist du offen für Neues und wie könnte das für dich aussehen?
Wachstum und Veränderung sind in allem im Leben konstant, wir alle bewegen uns, wenn die Zeit reif ist.
We hear what you're saying. We hate the idea of saying something's hasn’t developed, it's been there the same amount of time. It's grown into something else. You can't say that it's worse than it was before. It's just something different. We've moved on from that.
[J.I.D raps imitating Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight”] “I said a hip hop,” Exactly! They used to be rapping about hip hop. Like, literally. That's literally what he said. Like all this shit. Now it’s people telling their life stories and helping people through those stories, there’s more ways to escape. As you say, there are more storytellers now, people like Maxo, yourself, Kendrick, J Cole... there's a lot of people that can narrate a story and carry people along the way.
That's a really incredible thing.
Exactly.
DiCaprio II really hit the mark for me. Like peeling off new layers to your skills as a rapper, and an artist as a whole. Really portraying that versatility. Is that something you were conscious of?
Yeah, it felt fresh when I was doing it, I feel like the first two projects I dropped would be super unexpected later on... We didn't do it for the number one, chart-topping success. But I feel like I needed to show people that this body of work is special, that’s what I make it for – for the longevity as opposed to just a flash in the pan, number one this week, and then it’s out of your life. I let the shit grow or I nurture it. And really, that's how people care about your craft. And I'll just take the same time, I'm easy. That's why I say you can take as long as it takes for me to drop the next one just because I'm growing with it.
Jacket, Song For the Mute
Trousers, Maison Mihara Yasuhiro
Jewellry, Artist's Own
Definitely. Listening back to your discography you can see the amount of work that you put into each project. Every album feels thoughtfully put together and your style matures. But how do you feel about the power of a single versus the power of an album?
I’m an album artist for sure. Like singles are cool and stuff. Well, singles are amazing. I'm
seeing a whole other side of it right now with this feature we just did with Imagine Dragons.
The song is going fucking insane and it’s like ‘Oh, this is what they mean’. [laughs]
How did that come about, was it just something that you were into at first?
Music is like a universal language. So, I feel like just as well as me being a fan of them
because I knew them before they came back, they were a fan of me. So it was just like a
beautiful union, even meeting with them and chilling with them, it was like ‘Oh, this perfect’ because I could stand beside y’all and I can really like agree with your morals and everything. That's what I try with the people I try to work with that think you don't do the normal things in the industry, you not of the same standards that everybody's trying to fit into.
Would you say that opened your eyes to things not just personally but also as an
artist? Aside from having a new audience...
It opened my eyes to a whole other world of music how is released and how people take
care and the time we put into one record is one song. I take that same time for albums.
When you have that one, you have that one. So, I'm trying to be on both ends of that. It’s
working pretty well, God willing everything plays out and I can turn into that superstar rapper
that I proclaim to be.
You have all the attributes to the the biggest; the skillset, the melodies, you have that potential to make big songs, that’s why this move is perfect because there’s probably people out there just now discovering you, what’s that like?
It’s fine because it’s just about patience over anything. You know what I’m saying? Just be
patient with it. I got signed in 2016. It’s about to be 2022! How many artists do you know that
pass through? That you don't even hear. I literally, today, at this moment have the biggest
song I've ever been a part of, like it’s steady growing. So, it's like, okay, that patience is a
virtue. It's like, it's no cap.
Meine Oma ist meine wichtigste Beziehung, aber alles, worüber ich singe, ist das Ergebnis dessen, was ich gegenwärtig fühle.
Shirt Tokyo James
Trousers, John Lawrence Sullivan
Shoes, Maison Mihara Yasuhiro
Knit Sweater ZILVER
Trousers, ZILVER
Shoes, Maison Mihara Yasuhiro
What does having a legacy actually mean to you? In a few words.
Just family.
Great answer. You were on your way to a varsity career when you were younger, so, from football to studying other rappers, you seem to find a way to widen your skill-set no matter the circumstances you’re under. Was this curiosity something you had from a young age?
I was always like, be inquisitive. When I was a child, to my parents I’d be like, “But why? Why? Why is that?” My mom always said I used to do that. So even with that, I used to get in trouble. But at the same time, it turned into something that kept my imagination. It kept me always wanting to dig deeper into things. I'm a rabbit hole guy. Like if I see something I like or I see something that is interesting. I will rabbit hole the fuck out of that shit.
Do you feel like growing up with older siblings made you grow up faster?
Yeah, I'm definitely an old man. Even when I was a kid, I have siblings who are like six years older than me, so we weren't necessarily close. I wasn't super close, because I'm the youngest.
It's almost like having extra parents.
Exactly. It's just like watching them, making mistakes and stuff like that and just being around.
It's like juking in American Football, when you're on the field you see the mistake they make and you kind of like evade it
Exactly.
You talked about being an old man having those interests that are beyond your years. You had Baby Driver star Ansel Elgort in the visual for “Off Da Zoinkys” which was a really cool tribute to Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye. Have you got a particular interest in films?
100%. Films are important to me. That's why DiCaprio was that. I just love art and creativity in any medium. To be painting or dancing, but film is like something that I always had. My family always liked to watch movies and stuff. And I always took that with me along the walks of life and I just, I love movies.
So what are your top three?
It's hard to say.
Top three DiCaprio movies?
Ooo, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, is one of them. Imma say Apocalypto, he wasn't in it, but if you ever seen that movie, it's one of my favourites, Apocalypto. And I'll give you another... I mess the name up, it may be called The Beach. When they went to those island. It's amazing. He was young too, it's crazy.
What actually make made you become fascinated with DiCaprio?
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. Because he was this kid playing someone who’s special and this is when I first came to the realisation he was acting. They really got this kid. That's even crazier. Like it's a key role. It just blew my mind and ever since then I've just been following his career.
If you were to become a director? What kind of director would you be?
I never even thought about that... I've been writing a script and it's kind of like sports comedy. But I wouldn't be a sports comedy director [laughs], I don't know. It'd definitely be some dark shit or something like super out of this world.
At university you started Spillage Village with EARTHGANG?
Yeah we were at school together in Virginia, it was cool. So We stayed in two different dorm rooms. And my dorm, we had a studio right across my room, so I wasn't really rapping. At that time I was on a full football scholarship. I used to go after practice and record with the studio with the guys and that’s how I met them. Especially like the first time, I didn't even hear about them before this, but when I met him, I had a song that I had recorded and I came in the room and they was recording. But it was tight. And ever since then, we just tapped in and we made Spillage Village together.
On the same frequency.
Yeah, I wouldn't be rapping if it wasn't for them, that's probably why people think they brought me in but we did it together like let's make this.
Isn't that crazy, that three guys go from that. That come up at college to now being signed to the same label. Like one of the biggest artists.
Yeah, we playing, we juked the label that we juked them like we were supposed to do something like that. We're from Atlanta, so we finesse. We knew it was going to work out. We just had to get the opportunity, to get to the platform.
So was that the moment that you first decided to properly pick up a notepad or were you already doing bits like that?
I got kicked out of college. And when I got kicked out I was like oh shit, I lost the full scholarship. I was playing football I was going into like my senior year. I was good, I was about to graduate. My GPA was amazing. Everything's good. It just wasn't supposed to happen. I was gonna be a lawyer in some shape or form. And then I thought about and I thought why would I want to be a lawyer to a fucked up system and put more people like me in jail. Or I could just go inside and just like fuck shit up.
Meine Oma ist meine wichtigste Beziehung, aber alles, worüber ich singe, ist das Ergebnis dessen, was ich gegenwärtig fühle.
So were you into criminal law more than corporate law and stuff?
It's all trash. I just didn't want to be a part of any of it. But I learned a lot about it all. I took certain classes and it was letting me know like, this is all bullshit.
You've got an understanding of two sides of the coin, you were a student of law and you've actually been on the other side where you're like fuck this.
I can help more over on this side.
100%.
I don't have to... I can't lose my bar, you know when they say pass the bar. – well they can't take it away from me.
What would you say is one thing about the system, let's say in law or society...
Black shit. Anything to the opposition of Black people. I just don't fuck with it. It has been oppression. I'm from the South, from Georgia... Who was I talking to about Lake Lanier [looks around the room], just little shit like that, like if you know the history of the place, Lake Lanier, in Georgia it's a Black town, killed all the people, flooded. Made it Lake Lanier, what the fuck. That's the type of shit.
We realised what was that, like, certain things change over time, but it derives from these like, dark sinister things and it's just like commonplace now.
Yeah, these memories, these people: can't be erased. You can feel it, you can feel it. Being in these places, in these towns, my parents are from small towns in South Georgia. Everybody knows about Atlanta. It's a Black clusterfuck, it's a great city, you can see the richest black woman down to poorest black man there on the same black, we drive outside of Atlanta, it might be difficult for you. You might get pulled over, you might get... I don't even know, it's 2021. But it still is a possibility. Which is even more ridiculous.
And it's quite interesting that you say about carrying the the past of that town you're carrying the past. And it's important as an artist, to bring people's awareness to it.
Yeah, learn the history.
It can be it can be quite a lot of pressure as well in some situations. Do you feel that it's pressure to be that voice? Or is that something that comes naturally?
I say yes and no. Because more so the responsibility, I guess, as a human, as a black man, to say certain things regardless of what happens. I feel like in certain aspects, if it came down to me standing behind what I say in songs, I really believe in it. It's like Martin and Malcolm. You know, they stood up for what they said they believed in it. And it's a different level of activism these days. We have some names like Tamika Mallory. She's an activist that I super stand behind. Like right now, but for the most part, most activists are the artists, the rappers, the singers.
Artists can lend themselves to people like Tamika and be a vessel giving them exposure, and this exposure or just even taking advice from them. Yeah. Being an ally to them. So do you feel like that's something that needs to happen more? Or it just has to happen organically?
It should all be natural. There's a need for because it's kind of the same issues going on. I mean, those issues were super defined in the last year, during the pandemic. You know, stuff that was going on in America with riots and protests and shit like, everything was well exposed.
A lot of people felt this lack of certainty or lack of structure that they may have felt before and the pandemic sort of stripped that away. And to have some people that say, 'You know what, I can see that this is happening as well'...
You wanna know what's crazy? Not really crazy. But during the pandemic last year. I got super close with James Blake. Super close to the point where he was furious about some issues we were talking about, and before we started doing music. He was just having conversations about Breonna Taylor, George Floyd. And I was telling him about how I had bought a crib it was still in the hood and is right down the street where the guy got killed it at
Wendy's and it was when there was protests going on outside of the house. There were people parking close to where we stayed and were walking to the Capitol. And James was just one of the people that I was like, Well, I consider you an ally like, you really want to understand my pain, he wanted to make sure like he contributed. He was just super supportive of the whole cause. And he make music, he was like 6"5, he's like a beautiful
fucking dolphin unicorn.
You came into the spotlight almost a decade ago. You've never appeared to make commercial compromises to music, with your second tape Route of Evil having turned ten in June, What would what would present day Destin say to 2011 Destin?
I was not killing it [laughs].I was working on myself. I was tryna figure it out. I would say: Snapped. You snapped. 2011 is when I got kicked out of school.
Oh for real? And you were living in your Pontiac G6 at the time?
Yeah!
Is that car still going?
Ugh. I gave it to my brother. And my brother was in some type of situation with some girls and just did a fucking Jazmine Sullivan and bust the windows out of my car.
No way!
Like, what type of hurt ass dude busting windows out of a car? That's some weird shit.
There’s more to that story for sure.
Yeah some weird love triangle shit. Yeah, I love when I put my brother on blast. I'm fuming, I don't even know where that fucking car is. I don't know where it is right now! You got the windows bust out, he slashed the tires...
I feel like it will find it's way back to you one day.
Somehow. I know I'm gonna find my way back to him.
There's gotta be a film about this car someday.
You've also been enlisted to go on tour with some incredible artists, including the late Mac Miller. Have you got any favourite stories going on tour over the years?
So he passed just before the tour started. But prior to that, we were getting like super close, working on music to teaching, he was teaching a lot of stuff. Venting to me about Ariana Grande at a time... It’s so unfortunate what happened.
