November 06, (THEWILL) – Afrobeats singer, Ayodeji Balogun, aka Wizkid, says music was his escape from street life and crime.
The music star, in a recent interview, spoke about his early days and coming of age in the music industry.
He revealed that he might have veered off into a life of crime if not for music.
“Music was more than a hobby for me, more than a talent. It was my escape. I was in the hood. It was either music or turn to crime. That’s why I don’t joke with music,” Wizkid said.
“My parents wanted me to be a lawyer or a doctor. That was a very hard conversation to have when I said I wanted to make music.
“I had to just prove myself to them. They still look at me and think, ‘Ah ah, this boy!’ It took me how many years!”
“I’m a very spiritual human being. I know I make a lot of club records but I feel like a pastor, really,” he said.
Unsurprisingly it was at the church he discovered his love of music — hymns taught him “how to feel”, he says.
He was the youngest of 11 children, raised by a Christian mother and polygamous Muslim father, who had three wives. As his mother’s only son, he grew up in a chaotic, but fun house, dominated by women in Surulere, Lagos.
He and his cousins were choir boys at his grandad’s pentecostal church. He recorded his first ever song more than 20 years ago as part of a group with his church friends, Glorious Five.
Even back then, he was trying to make his name as a rapper and was soon taken under the wing of the producer, late OJB Jezreel.
He had Wizkid observe sessions with Afrobeats artists who were dominating the emerging scene. When he skipped school to attend the studio, his older sisters covered for him.
Wizkid, speaking on the theme of his next album, touched on dealing with fame and keeping the ego at bay.
“I treat the brand Wizkid as a million-dollar company, man. It’s a business, not me. As I grow older, I would love for people to get 100 percent Wiz Ayo Balogun. To give people one person, the true me in my real form.
“Most of the time, I don’t want cameras in my face. But I understand why I have to. That’s one of the things I still battle with. I just want to live a normal life.”
On fatherhood, he added: “Now, I’m more careful with what I put in my songs. Because my kids listen to my songs.”
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