With the abundance of natural resources at Nigeria’s disposal, it’s safe to add ‘Afrobeats’ to that long list as Nigeria’s finest talents have exported the genre to the unlikeliest of places in the world, selling out concert arenas and making even the ‘Oyibo’ (White) people jump at every sound of the music.
From Accra to Addis Ababa, to London, and from the Kenya city of Mombasa to Cape Town, New York, etc, all things could sound and look so different from each other except for the sound of the latest world revelation. Afrobeats! If you begged to disagree, please ask CKay, Burna Boy, Wizkid, Davido, Tiwa Savage and the rest.
Ever heard of the country called Suriname? Well, Suriname is a small country on the northeastern coast of South America. It would also interest you that in 2019 Davido got an invite to perform there. How he got the invite is a Billion Dollar questions yet to be answered to date. That’s the power of the Afrobeats genre and the testimony of how far it really has gone.
As Nigeria continues to evolve in the music revolution, a new crop of emerging talents are taking up the baton and one person leading that line is TLO whose real name is Ogheneochuko Orugbo, a 25-year old Nigerian singer, songwriter and producer.
One thing that strikes me about TLO is his unmistakable identity and ability to do all things all by himself as an artist and a producer, writing his lyrics in his own way and on his own terms. It’s also worthy to note that TLO’s rhythmic abilities cannot be compared with any other.
Remarking on his music during a briefing in his studio recently TLO said: “My songwriting, rhythm and having a good ear for beats are the things that stand me out from the rest.”
Having dropped a debut single ‘Heartbreaker’ in 2021, TLO spoke about the uniqueness of that record.
He said: “Being different from every other artist is the goal. I don’t want to see myself being boxed into the corner of one genre. I am versatile and I don’t want people to see me as a one-way artist. I could rap on a record now and you’d forget I am even a singer. That’s how versatile I am.”
The burgeoning singer talked about his early days of rapping, taking influences from the likes of M.I Abaga and Lil Wayne before switching to singing and he’s never looked back since. Having grown up in a family of music lovers, TLO talked about how he was fully supported by his parents and siblings in the journey to stardom, “a rare thing for parents these days”, he said.
When asked about how he promotes his music in conjunction with Slesh Music Worldwide, his affiliate record label, he said, “We still dey hustle o.”
For TLO, pushing and promoting his music has been one of the major challenges for him as an artist, something he’s gradually getting a hang of.
When asked about what his dream collaboration would be in Nigeria, there was a long silence and a chuckle before the name WIZKID popped up and in his words: “Wizkid is the one I’d really love to have on my record” He also picks out Bryson Tiller as his dream international collaborator.
A New single and possibly a debut body of work (An EP) will be dropping from the artist in the coming months and he’s really pumped up for what is to come when he said, “I really cannot wait to share all the music I’ve been working on.”
TLO however implored everyone in the industry to treat emerging artists with respect and support them.
