INTERVIEW: I just found myself- Wizkid speaks on latest album, fatherhood

Wizkid recently guested on Zane Lowe Show on Apple Music to chat about the success of his latest album, ‘Made in Lagos’, his music, parenting, and much more.

Excerpts:

The Success of ‘Made in Lagos’ album

It feels so great, man. Especially when you spend time making the music and spend a lot of time on the art. It’s just amazing to see that people appreciate the music around the world. Not just Africans because that’s why I make music. I’m just trying to connect to the world and just spread good vibes to the world. So, yeah. It’s just very, very… It’s a blessing to me to be here, play my own role and do my own thing. But I’m very thankful. I’m very thankful that people love the album. Every day I wake up it’s like… I see something nice that makes me go, “Oh yeah, we did it. We did a great job, man.”

The importance of growing as an artiste

It was very, very important for me to pass my message without losing my name or myself. As artistes, I believe we all want to grow. So, whenever I make an album or I make a project, I just try to make sure that the growth way is very evident. Not just in the music and the art and everything and like the artwork, the videos, the rollout. It was very, very important for me to like… We had to sit and structure all of that. Like I had to make sure that the music was very, very, very, very, very solid. So, I definitely, definitely… It was very intentional. I would say it was a very intentional record.

Collaborating With Projexx, Damian Marley, Ella Mai, and others

You know, first of all, like when two artistes go into the room to make music, especially two great artistes, you are definitely going to create magic. But when you have like two real people or like three real people in the room that you’re bound to make, even like exceptional music. So, me getting in the room with Projexx, Damian [Marley], Ella Mai, everyone that I made music with, it was very, very important for me to just make music regardless of where the sound was coming from or whatever anyone was bringing to the table. I just wanted to make sure I’m making music. I’m not making music for the name or just cause the name looks nice together or.

What music he listens to

I listen to everything, man. You’d be shocked. I listen to everything, everything that comes out, I’ll listen. As I said, music is life and I stay, sleep, eat music, that’s in anything I do. So. Yeah. I listen to everything, man. I will get down so like… You think about it, anything you can imagine I listen to. And I listen to a lot of old music too, cause I’m old. So like I love, I love, I love all records.

About being an old soul

Like you said, like when I was young I used to hear that word being thrown around. First of all, I thought it was ’cause I was always cool with the older people. Because I had like all older friends, I was always hanging out with people a lot older than I was. So I thought, “Oh, maybe that was the reason why,” but as you tend to grow older and you get to know yourself better as a human being and you grow spiritually as well, you tend to understand that term that is deeper than that. Like you’re here for a purpose. You’re here for a reason. I’m here to cater to family, in case anyone crosses my path they would be good. And it also is deeper. Like when you know the essence of why you care, can you understand it beyond any human understanding? Like trust me, I think that’s what that is. Do you know? And you just know yourself.

His goal as a parent

First of all, it’s a crazy generation we’re living in, and as time goes by they are exposed to everything. So it is very, very important to let my kids understand life and understand themselves. I wouldn’t want them to emulate me but be even better human beings. That is my own important role to be able to raise great, amazing human beings, man. But I mean from the soul, cause whenever I meet a great person, I’m happy. Like I feel I go out and like there’s a whole lot of us around. Do you feel me? So I would just want to always in the midst of everything, in midst of the madness, in midst of how fast the world is growing, I would just always want my kids to stay true to that. Just by me just staying true to who I am, so yeah.

Lessons learned during the quarantine

As human beings, I feel like we have our survival instincts, right. So when everything happens we all just automatically just switch into survival mode, like, “Okay, yeah, this is what we’re doing. This is what the world has come to. So we need to keep moving forwards.” That I put that in mind. And second, it’s like I love performing, I love the energy from people. So where you don’t get that, I feel like the crazy times were hard but as I see it made everyone understand what is important in life.

This is the first time where everyone’s kind of slowed down and paused in like a minute. Like, “Oh no one is really touring and jumping around.” So everyone’s home. I feel like that reflects in the music. And so now it’s like, “Oh whoa, you see things a little bit clearer.” Because sometimes you make music, you get in the club, you’re touring, but that’s like… You can be stuck in a place that is not real when you’re on the road, and you’re making music like that. But when you’re home and you’re really going through everything like a normal human being it’s like… You just realise music comes from a real place. Especially when the music comes from a real place for you as an artiste and for me, it does. So, right now it’s like, I’m making some of the purest, realist music I’ve ever made in life.

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Finding peace

Man, I just found myself. I found my peace, man. I found myself. I found my peace in ways I can’t even put words to explain. I can’t explain it. As we are growing as older people… So, when you’re young, it’s like you’re searching like, “Okay, who am I? What?” You’re inspired by a lot of people. So it’s like you’re trying to find yourself. But right now I feel like I’m in the best, I’m in my zone. I know exactly why I’m here. I just found my peace, man. I found my peace in ways I can’t explain.

About music moving forward

Yeah, I don’t even, right now I don’t even have to think too deep because the music comes from here. So, it’s how I feel. So,it just comes easy for me. I’m making some amazing music, man.