Nigerian rappers rarely go viral for their ideas. The conversation often centres on music, scandal, or money. So, when Oludemilade Alejo, popularly known as Ycee, sparked debate with Olodo Uprising, a critique of intellectual decline, it felt bigger than another trending podcast clip.
That willingness to speak his mind was clear when Ycee arrived at Guardian Life Studios in a yellow Aloha shirt, showing little sign of fatigue from a week of media rounds. “People don’t know this, but I’m a yapper. I like to express,” he says, adjusting his microphone. That candour has shaped the 33-year-old rapper’s decade-long career and his second studio album, Out of Sight, Out of Mind.