There’s always a feeling of serendipity whenever a new soul-leaning act emerges within the Nigerian music scene. For decades, we’ve had a lot of adjacent genres steal the spotlight in Nigerian music, despite soul music’s immersive cathartic impact.

However, there are still a few troubadours making a case for the genre with their evergreen, profound releases. One of such mavericks is Beekay Bassey, the young chap from Nigeria’s garden city whose music cuts across as a thrilling memoir of love and life as a young person in Africa’s largest economy.

For Beekay Bassey, music began as a kind of rescue. Growing up in Port Harcourt during a tense period marked by insecurity, the singer and songwriter found safety in choir rehearsals, church music and the quiet discipline of songwriting. What started with singing alongside his sisters soon became a full creative calling, stretching through acapella groups, early remixes, live concerts, songwriting, background vocals and his own Afro Soul direction.

Across his journey, Bassey has built a world around warmth, live performance and emotional storytelling. His latest project, Love Like Mr. Bassey, continues that path, opening a doorway into a larger personal narrative that connects love, family, faith and his forthcoming project, Tales of Mr. Bass. Catching up with The Guardian, he speaks about his beginnings, the sound that shaped him, his live music philosophy, his dream collaborations and the purpose behind his art.

Just walk us through your beginning with music. When did this journey start for you?
My name is Beekay Bassey Kenneth. I’m from Akwa Ibom State, and I was born and brought up in Port Harcourt. Music actually started as a saving grace for me, because at the time we had the downtime in Port Harcourt, where we were battling insecurity and all of that when I was growing up. One person was either part of a gang or not.

I remember my mom always telling me to go to choir. I would go out and play with friends, and she’d say, “Just go to choir rather, join your sisters.” So from there I started singing. I was hesitant because I wanted to play football. But eventually, I fell in love with it and started doing it with my friends. I belonged to an acapella group called Awesome Redefiners. I actually named the group.

When people were going through the other part of life and struggling whether or not to be part of one thing or the other, I was always at rehearsal. Music saved me. Music has always been that companion, and I started writing pretty early too. I started changing Boyz II Men songs to my original songs, just doing covers, but adding my own lyrics to them. From there, I got active in church. I started singing, started writing songs for church and my friends.

Then in 2007, I think that was the first time I did a remix of “Billionaire,” and it got good attention from my friends and family. I thought to myself, okay, maybe I should start recording. If I put that one out, it worked. I mean, for the community I had at that time, it worked. So I just started creating sounds. From there on, I started putting out songs, whether it was remixes or covers.

Then I started putting out songs and sending them to my friends for their mom’s birthdays, father’s birthdays. I’d just do songs and send, and they appreciated it. Then, in 2013, I decided to do my first live concert. The concert was important to me because it was the same year my mom passed, and I just wanted to maybe give her some form of last respect. I wanted to show her that this thing she introduced me to early on, I could do something with it.

I also kind of found a purpose and calling. In 2013, I did my first live show in Port Harcourt. At the time, I featured Timi Dakolo, had some of the good artists from Port Harcourt at the time, and had close to 1,000 people in attendance. I also released my first EP then. It had like three tracks, “Heart of a Believer” and a few other songs. I remember then it was Hulkshare I put it on, and I still have the CDs up to date.

From there on, I moved to Abuja. I had a deal with GospelOnDeBeatz and some guys wanted to sign me. So we made music and created a project, but two tracks came out of it. There was a song called “Yes,” but it didn’t work out as planned. That was like a downtime for my music and myself, because after getting all the confidence from Port Harcourt and putting out projects and building a community, I decided to go to Abuja to increase. At the time, Gospel was really hot, so teaming up with him gave me confidence that I was going to be heard.

We tried, but it didn’t work as planned. Then after a year, I moved to Lagos. I moved to Lagos to see how I could maybe connect with people and see what Lagos life is about. They say Lagos is the land of opportunity in every field that you find yourself in. So I moved to Lagos in 2016, and I just started playing at shows, opening for different artists and trying to be heard. I kept on making and creating sounds, looking for different opportunities to be heard.

In 2019, I decided to put out my first EP in Lagos called Afro Soul Therapy, a project that really represented what I was feeling at the time, the love I wanted to tell people about. I put that project out, and it gathered a few listeners. Then I started Vibe Therapy, a small parlour event that connects creatives together and brings them together. It also showcased myself and other artists too, because I believed early enough that music wasn’t about one person. It’s a language that, if spoken well, can connect people.

So I always made sure that my music brings people together and also connects other creatives, to give them a platform to thrive, because I didn’t get a lot of that. I made sure that I was going to give that the best way I can, because I believe that my mission is to give eternal smiles to humanity. That is my purpose, and also reconciling men to God. So even in my craft, whatever I do, I always put that forward.

From 2019, I did Vibe Therapy, did a lot of background vocals for artists. At one point, I was Davido’s lead background vocalist. I traveled with him to Europe, traveled with him to different parts of Africa. I still do contracts with him from time to time, but actively, I think for a while, from 2022, 2023 and 2024, I was his background vocalist.

I put out different songs up until 2021, where I decided to do something different, just to motivate people and create fun. I called it Cruise Confession. I did a thing called “I Am Beauty.” “I’m a speck, I drip glory. I’m nobody’s ex. Eight times I ate potatoes with potatoes. My blood never dry,” and it went viral. I decided to create a song out of that.

I did live shows called After Dark that featured Praiz, Timi Dakolo, Ric Hassani, Loud Urban Choir and a few others too. Since then, that gave me the attention I was looking for in the entertainment space and industry. I was able to collaborate with different artists, whether it was songwriting for Teni, whether it was BVs for Asake for his project, just different opportunities to write and create with other artists.

Since then, I’ve been working. I released Seven Crush in the Air, Seven Crush and also Seven Crush Deluxe. I did a project two years ago with TY Mix, the legendary producer, a joint project called Road Trip, and since then it’s been beautiful up until now. Now I’ve put out a project, Love Like Mr. Bassey, which is one of my finest projects yet. The journey has really been smooth, and the attention is massive, and I can’t wait for people to hear what’s next, which is Tales of Mr. Bassey. So yeah, that’s about the journey.

That’s quite an interesting journey so far. I’m very curious as to why you decided to go in this soul direction. What was it about the sound that attracted you?
I grew up listening to when my dad would play Rex Lawson, Fela, like those beautiful sounds. The one I really loved growing up was Rex Lawson and Luther Vandross. I would listen to them over and over again. I didn’t really understand, but I was just mimicking them.

So when I wanted to do the thing, I think it was in 2016 when I was coming to Lagos, I was like, okay, so now what do I call this sound? Everybody says Afrobeats, but I know my vocals are like all I’ve been singing in church and all of that soul music. I mean gospel, which is also soul, because soul is born out of gospel.

So I told myself, okay, what am I going to do now? What sound am I going to put out that people would easily recognize and attach to my craft or my sound? That was how I came up with it. I started looking on the internet. I checked which artist I could easily pin. I read Fela’s story, how he fused Nigerian highlife and jazz and all of that. I’m like, okay, great, I can do that.

I saw that the only person at the time that was recognized doing maybe a bit of African soul was Nneka, a lady from Nigeria. I’m like, okay, this is great. I do soul music and of course a bit of African chant, and I thought, great, Afro Soul. Then Afro Soul wasn’t popular. Now I hear everybody say Afro Soul. It wasn’t a popular genre then, which is why I put out my EP, Afro Soul Therapy. I don’t know if at the time when I put out that EP, a lot of people were even saying Afro Soul.

So I’m like, okay, I can put a blend to soul and Afro, and that’s how I came about Afro Soul. Soul music has always been a thing I listen to. Even up to date, when I want to relax, I still listen to James Brown, Luther Vandross and Marvin Gaye and all of that. So I’m true to myself. That’s just my personality and what I listen to.

Let’s go into your recent project, Love Like Mr. Bassey. What was the inspiration behind that record?
Love Like Mr. Bassey is a road map to my next project called Tales of Mr. Bass. Tales of Mr. Bass is about me and my dad, the relationship, life and all. So I wanted to give people a glimpse of that, and also tell people my perspective of love.

I wanted to show people that this is how I would love. This is how Mr. Bassey would love. The songs are a reflection of how my love life is. So Love Like Mr. Bassey is basically telling people that this is how I listen to the songs that are really soothing, easy and gentleman kind of songs. That’s how I operate. That’s how I love to love.

Creating this sound was really important to me because it’s leading somewhere. It’s a journey to another project. Creating the songs was easy because it’s my perspective, it’s my experience, right? I don’t need to think too much to write. I don’t need to scratch too much to understand the lyrics or the words I want to put together. So it was easy, and I like storylines a lot. Because I was writing from my story, I mean a bit of my story, it was easy for me to use pictures of my experiences. I could almost copy and control the pictures and put them in the lyrics.

The producers I had on this project were amazing. Daron Clinton, Magical Andy, Spirit Vibes, TexJam, Vtek, great people that worked on this project. My friends Dotty, The Deity, J’Dess, people I featured, they were perfect for the project. They made it easy for me to record and write. So yeah, the project overall is perspective, my perspective.

Stagecraft and your live performances seem to be very central to your overall artistry. Can you tell us why this is very important to you, and is there anything you have planned coming up?
I believe that performing on stage gives life to the music. It gives another perspective to what the record is. Sometimes recordings, I won’t say they can be limiting, but it just expresses one part of the artist. But when you’re live, when you have to share ideas behind the song, relate with the audience, sing back with them and use a different attitude expression to give life to that song, it’s beautiful.

I’ve always loved the stage. I’ve always been a live performer long before I started writing or recording music. I’ve been a live performer, whether I was in church or whether I was performing at weddings with bands. So I’ve always loved it. It’s something I think I’ll do for a long time, even when I’m 80 and old and grey.

I believe in the power of live performance, and thankfully, it’s something we Africans are falling back to, because we were one of the leaders of it long before now. Fela, Rex Lawson and all the greats, with our highlife and the rest of them, were all championing it. At some point we focused on recording, but now we’re back at it. We’re doing it now very well.

So it’s something that I encourage. I encourage artists, even like myself, to continue doing, because live music, live performance gives life to the music. I’m also planning a tour, Love Like Mr. Bassey tour, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja, Ghana, other parts of Africa and possibly Europe too. Dates will be out soon. So yes, that’s what I’m working on now. Just pushing this project and making sure everyone hears this project, because it’s such a solid project that I think people around the world should hear.

Are there any artists within the industry that you look forward to collaborating with, and why?
Yes, there are artists I want to collaborate with. I want to sing my song “Another Man,” a song on my project. I really want to sing that song with Asa, and I think that hopefully one day that will happen. Who knows, before the year runs out?
Then also I would really love to make songs with greats like Burna, Davido, Wizkid, especially because of their drive and their versatility. I really look forward to working with them. Other than them, yeah, I look forward to working with them, basically.

Who is Beekay when he’s not making music or on stage?
Beekay, when he’s not making music, is also a member of Loud Urban Choir, setting things and putting things in place for the group, because I’m one of the pioneers in the group too. Apart from that, I also own a company called Sound Map that gives platforms to creatives too. So I’m either working with my team, making sure that we seal deals, put things in place for the company, and also maybe just hanging out with friends and talking.

Finally, what would you say is the vision for Beekay? In the long run, what do you want people to experience from your artistry?
Like I said in the beginning, I’m here to give eternal smiles to humanity. So anything that brings smiles and meaning to people’s lives, it’s what I’m about. My music, my personality, my craft, I want to touch people and make meaning out of their life.

I think that it’s important for a man to find his purpose before he dies. It’s not good to be scratching the surface of the earth when there’s a reason why you’re here. So my dream, my purpose, my thing, is to make meaning out of people’s lives.

For the music part, expect to see Beekay at the top of the world, the great. But yeah, what I’ll be remembered for is just making meaning out of people’s lives