Damilola Aminu, well known as Minz is a young multi-talented artist and producer from Nigeria, with over one million streaming minutes across music platforms. He’s the mind behind the songs ‘Story’ and ‘Odoyewu’, just to name a few and his hit feature ‘Freaky‘ with fellow artist Fasina. We caught up with him briefly to talk about his music, process, expereinces and what’s next for the rising star in the coming months.
Who is MinzNSE and what inspired the name?
Minz: It’s actually just Minz. NSE is an abbreviation.
What does NSE mean?
Minz: “Never Stop Elevating”
Minz never stops elevating, just like your music. what inspires you to keep making even better songs?
Minz: I would say it’s God, to be honest, he’s my biggest inspiration.
Who inspires you musically?
Minz: There’s no one in particular. It’s more like life and my environment, the things that happen to me.
Is there any experience you’d like to share?
Minz: Well I’ve had different experiences in my life that are really memorable but one that I’m particularly fond of is when I was making music one day and my mom came into my little studio and she was just dancing to my music. That’s the one I cherish.
Do you have a process when you make your music or you just hit the notes as it comes?
Minz: I don’t have any particular process. I work spontaneously actually. There are times when I hear a beat and freestyle and also times when the words come to me and then I build the instrumental around them.
Your production is an integral part of your art, how well does your production encourage your music?
Minz: When I produce a song, the beat is like the foundation, the first piece of the puzzle, which I then build the song on.
What motivated you to do the song “story”?
Minz: It was the beat. I started making the beat for the song like two weeks before, then I stopped, then one day I was trynna work on some features and I just opened the file again and I realized it was such a dope beat. I finished making it and I started freestyling over it. After I did the first verse I looked at my manager and I was like “this one is our song o”.
You did a song with Fasina “freaky” that was being played while Swiss beats made his graduation video on his private jet. How does that make you feel moving forward?
Minz: Really good to be honest. It’s amazing that our music is breaking barriers and literally crossing borders. Encourages me to work harder.
Do you have any project say like an EP or an album coming for your fans?
Minz: I’m starting the year with an EP.
What’s it’s called and can you name drop a couple of tracks that are going to be on there?
Minz: Yes I have but I can’t say just yet. nothing you’ve heard though.
What are your goals musically?
Minz: I have a couple collaborations I’d like especially with producers. Apart from that I just wanna make good music and be heard. I want my music to be heard everywhere.
Do you think you’d be recognized as top five a couple of years from now?
Minz: In less time hopefully.
What do you feel about the recent festival culture being orchestrated by establishments like More Branches’s Feel The Music, NativeMag’s NativeLand and Lucid Lemon’s LemonCurd?
Minz: It’s a dope movement that I think is changing the face of the music industry.
Finally, can you tell us something we don’t know about you?
Minz: Something you don’t know, I’m from a royal family in Oyo state.
Are you a prince?
Minz: Yeah.
Minz – Odoyewu (Official Video) :