YBNL poster boy, Fireboy has shared light on what his fans should understand about the genre of music he does.
Speaking with Audiomack, Fireboy explained that although his type of music falls under Afrobeats, he sings Afro-life.
“Afrobeats is still the umbrella. I still and will always identify as an Afrobeats artist, but we all bring something different to the table as musicians, and that’s what this is all about. My version of Afrobeats is more soulful and lyrical, and that’s Afro-Life to me. It’s an identity, not a genre,” he told the streaming service.
In the course of the interview, he also discussed how he finds balance with his desire for commercially successful records, and his songwriting prowess.
Fireboy revealed that he took him no less than five years to identity his sound.
“This took a long time for me to hone. It actually took me five years. Between 2012, when I started music professionally, up until 2017, when I finally found my sound, I was lost in generic Afrobeats, dabbling between sounds and styles.
“All it took for me was a whole year of locking myself up in the studio, making music, and also utilizing my ability with words. I like to find balance. Amidst the play on words and lyrical blah blah blah, I like to infuse familiar words and exclamations. We call them “Lamba,” and that is how I maintain that commercial feel,” he stated.
Also hinting on why he decided to feature some artistes in his sophomore album unlike Laughter, Tears and Goosebumps (LTG), his debut project, he said: “I had no features because it was a debut, and I needed to introduce everyone to my sound and mine only. Could also partly be because I’m just cocky, who knows?
“Olamide has been my mentor since he took me up in 2018, Wande Coal is my idol, and D Smoke is my label-mate, signed alongside myself under EMPIRE. The close-knit relationship I have with these people helped make the project still kind of personal to me, almost feels like it was just me telling my story throughout the album. I like that feeling.”
