Ebenezer Iyke Chijioke lives two lives as he wakes up before sunrise, slips on noise-cancelling headphones, and opens two laptop screens. One screen glows with a queue of software tickets fixing codes for enterprises; the other screen, his alter ego, Van Iyke, pulses with a half-mixed chorus that still needs a hi-hat nudged 0.3 seconds to the left, trimming vocal tails for the kick drum to knock with rhythms that will make the dancefloor a home to every foot..
Born in Abuja’s Federal Capital Territory, Van Iyke grew up on a diet of Sunday playlists heavy with Wande Coal hooks, Styl-Plus harmonies, and Choc Boys Hip Hop attitude. As a teenager, he could recite every Wande Coal’s ad-lib and still ace his studies. So instead of choosing between the logic his parents praised about education and the music his heart kept whispering, he simply refused the choice and embraced both.
In 2017, he was preparing for his exams as a chemical-engineering undergraduate student when he uploaded his first release, “Oh No,” over a shaky campus Wi-Fi; the track found its way across Abuja airwaves, peaking at #1 on three national radio stations and slipping into Hip TV’s “Next Rated” montage. With such success, he dusted it off, calling it a lucky experiment, and then went on to prepare for his exams and graduate from school. Hence, we never heard from him till 6 years later.
Those years were not silent. He earned his degree, moved to Toronto, signed with Fortune 500 clients as a Software Support Engineer, and learned that a tight deadline sharpens an ear just like a metronome. Every bug he fixed paid for better plug-ins; every late-night patch taught him that emotion can be isolated, measured, then re-inserted at the perfect time or bar. In March 2024, he dropped “Undercover” at midnight Toronto time. Thirty days later, it clocked one million streams on Boomplay. This time, he refused to call it luck.
With years of creative experimentation in music both on and off stage, Van Iyke offers his audience an instant switch. Whether opening for Naeto C or headlining the Sheraton Hotel ballroom beside MC Edo Pikin, stepping out in his branded white-on-gold, he says these corporate colours mirror his ambition: elegance with a crown on top. As he makes his appearance unavoidable, the same goes for his music because every crowd that came to dance left humming lines about growth, confidence, and the quiet power of showing up again tomorrow.
Behind the scenes sits Van Iyke Music Empire and its mentoring arm, Dberries Entertainment, which has since seen over 12 teenagers in his neighbourhood trade their school uniforms for studio time, logging over 200 free hours of studio time and counting.
Late 2025 will bring Empire Ascension, a project he is still deciding, in real-time, whether it would be a seven-track EP or a twelve-song album. If it misses, he believes rent money from tech contracts will keep the lights on. If it is successful, the Tech-Music Academy in Abuja is set to open its doors in January 2026. Until then, Van Iyke keeps both laptops open: one for tech patches, the other for patching sounds. Both compile perfectly.
