On Carpe Diem, Olamide sought the aid of some of the newest acts in the industry to craft one of the best albums of last year. Of the featured acts on the album, a particular chorus stands out for its energy and catchiness; “Loading” which features a relative newcomer – Olorunyomi Oloruntimilehin popularly known as Bad Boy Timz who has gone on to become one of the most popular songs of the project and probably one of 2020’s biggest hits.
This wasn’t Bad Boy Timz’s first hit song, having dropped “MJ” in April, a song that immediately rose to the top of the charts, getting over 10 million streams across streaming platforms just eight weeks after its release and serving as a mainstream introduction.
“MJ” became so huge that Mayorkun asked for a remix, which led to two remixes: one with Mayorkun and another with Teni, both of which became instant hits. What his feature on Olamide’s Loading Timz showed he an untouchable when it comes to crafting bops (something he’s been doing since his university days), and if there is anything his latest release “Have Fun” tells us, it is that he is a serial hitmaker taking on a new age for Afropop.
More Branches sat with Bad Boy Timz to talk about his musical journey, finding his sound and success with MJ, and what he has in store next.
How were your early beginnings?
Timz: I’m the third of four kids. I grew up in a system where my parents were hustling. At a point, I had to stay with my grandparents for a while in Ajegunle. My primary school was at SouthMed but I left for another primary school; New London. It was close to my grandma’s place. It was actually a drop in standard, we were like three boys and the money was already getting too much. I feel like at that point I started seeing things differently, growing up in a system where you get flogged every other day. So from there, we moved to inside Mushin, Tayo Onikami. From there I think when I was nine, I had an attack.
What type of attack?
Timz: Like a physical attack, a bullet entered my ear through my nose affected my left eye. I think it happened like two thousand and… I can’t even remember the year. I don’t even like to remember it.
So how was life after that? Let’s talk about surviving the attack.
Timz: Surviving the attack was crazy men, cause I was out of school for like a year. I had to do surgeries upon surgeries, it was expensive. My dad exhausted his savings at the time, and we were already building a house in Ikorodu. In the area that it happened, we always had to pass that place to get to our house. So he kept having flashbacks of what happened and was like no we cannot do this anymore, so we moved to Ikorodu. Initially, when I was younger, I used to sing, my Dad is an artiste, he performs and has his own band.
Full time?
Timz: No, not full time, he’s an accountant. So, at that time I was younger, so I used to listen to a lot of Asa when I moved to Ikorodu cause of my school’s driver at that time. The guy used to play Asa, so I knew the song word for word. I went back to the hood one period and I was asked to sing this song at someone’s birthday party, I did and they liked it. I kept on doing it subconsciously, I would just hold like a remote and be singing someone’s song. I think it was the first year or second year in secondary school I made my first record; boom!
What led to that?
Timz: I saw my neighbour doing the music thing and I’m like “I’m interested in this p nao, teach me, what does this entail?” It was that guy that taught me what a bar in a song meant. He taught me how to understand the different parts of music. I used to learn from my dad too, cause I go to shows with him and pick up the money. I used to be his pallbearer or something, what do you call it? Doing that, I was already getting the idea, like a faint idea.
I recorded my first single – the way I recorded that song eehn. – The title of the song is TGIF. That time, I wasn’t called Timz, it was Timilz at that point.
During my audition (Nigeria’s Got Talent) I figured out that that the camera that they were using to record us wasn’t even plugged. We heard people auditioning inside, they had a crowd. So they sidelined some of us, and used the rest of us to catch cruise, wasted our time.
Bad Boy Timz talks about early in his career, auditioning for TVs shows all in the bid to show his shine.
When do you feel you started getting serious with the music?
Timz: My 100 level days were crazy, I had to pay for my first performance in the school. I had this song at the time. Yeah, my first performance and it was a flop (laughs), but some people that knew me in school were like nice performance, you killed it.
Having conquered your first performance, what was your next step in chasing your music dream?
Timz: So in 200 level If dropped, I heard the beat and I decided to do a freestyle. I liked freestyling back then they called me ‘king of freestyle’ on my street. Yeah, so I told my friend to record me do the freestyle and I posted it and tagged Davido, HKN, everybody. The post did well on Instagram, people liked it, “Ah, this boy got talent”. That same night, a friend of mine re-uploaded the video and tagged Olamide. Olamide commented on the tweet and said, “Pure Talent”. After Olamide retweeted it, Jhus retweeted it, he was like “This guy is cold”. The thing on the guy’s page, people were not really following me, but people that really fucked with, they looked for me.
What happened after the video?
Timz: After that video, I got messages, calls from people. The people in my school were going crazy, the love was massive. Mayorkun and Dremo came to perform at my school some months after the video dropped. The organisers of the show made sure they delayed my performance of the song till they were in the building. After the event, I went to see Mayor and later got invited to his crib.
From there, I knew that men, this shit is getting serious. If you can do this, you can blow. Let’s work on killing everything and then I got an offer. I had a management offer that I did that time. I signed, but it was not really a serious deal cause they didn’t do anything. I was just like fuck it men, these guys are not doing anything, I was just waiting and waiting. I still had a set of guys who wanted to sign me, they introduced me to Ozedikus and I made this record. Through that connection, I linked up with Ozedikus and we made Alcohol. Jesus, see turn up! At my school, I was the number one artist from 300 level. So I was just doing my shit, I was going to shows, shows that they would not even appreciate. After ‘Alcohol’, I now dropped Number One and I shot a video for it, by that time I was already meeting guys in the industry. I’m talking like that Soco period, I now did a Soco cover? People liked it, Terri took a screenshot.
I was even doing songwriting for some people lowkey, people that have not blown, that’s what I mean.
Let’s talk about your project, and releasing your hit track ‘MJ’.
Timz: Making my project was crazy for me because, I just got signed, I was happy. No worries, I was trying to fuck shit up as always. I made those records, arranged them. It was a short notice EP, I was told to finish all the songs like seven days before the album dropped. So it was a rushed project, needed to see what the stuff was about and a lot of people caught the vibe, even internationally. Like people caught the vibe massive. Even if it was not as much as I expected, it was still mad love.
So from the EP, I got some major recognition, I started moving with them Mayorkun, people in the industry, Raman Jago, and a few others. Then I dropped Complete Me that did well. From Complete Me, I made a video and people liked it and it was a vibe. December was my happiest moment, I was just chilling, I just dey catch cruise for the whole of Lagos mehn like I can’t kill myself. I was making music, having fun, having a good time. Worrying about nothing, cause I was doing IT. I had time to work on my music since I wasn’t working, I was just focusing on the music that “you can always get better, you can always get better” every other day.
I think in January, I linked with Barry. We were just chilling, everybody was having fun and we were like this ginger, make we use am enter studio. It was a service apartment with Rexxie. He just started playing mad mad beats from his laptop and then that Mo40 beat just came in and I was like “Guy don’t change this beat, we gats crack am. Then that “mo fo ti” came in my head, I just wrote it down and recorded it. As I recorded it and they played it, it banged. Rexxie that was already sleeping woke up. Barry started singing and we mixed everything up, dropped it. It was lit! It was another mad wave in a different pattern. Streets started showing love even till now, all these songs till now people still love it. And the growth has been constant.
After Mo40, you created the magical track ‘MJ’ ?
Timz: After Mo40. It was the period I recorded Mo40 I recorded MJ. That was like in January or December, after Naira Marley’s show. It was mad! As in, as soon as I recorded that part, I knew that this song, file! File fun! I already told them that guys, this is a hit song, I was telling all my guys, “this song na hit, na hit be this song”. I sent it to my Dad with three other songs, Dad referred to it and was like “H.I.T! Greenlight, let’s go”. That’s how I dropped my first massive hit. I was supposed to feature some people on it but, they were not available for me, they had other stuff. I dropped it on my own! Wildfire, nobody saw it coming. Climbed charts to number two, the original MJ, I was nodding like “wow! This song is a hit bro”. MJ charted immediately after release, like two hours after release, MJ was on the chart, five hours after release MJ was in the top 10. It was crazy! Mind-blowing, I was so happy that period, just chilling.
What led to the remix?
Timz: Mayorkun reached out like “Send the beat, we fuck with this record“, they wanted to do the remix and I sent it out. Teni, I wanted to feature Teni before the song dropped but I already sent the beat to her, she didn’t do it till after the song dropped. Her guys called me like “Yo, Teni just murdered your song”. When I heard it, it was sick. I was just surprised that the two people can kill it like this. So, we dropped Mayor’s own first then Teni’s but the Mayorkun remix slapped really hard
You scored another massive hit with ‘Have Fun’
Timz: Have Fun was recorded in like 30 minutes. I remember going on live with it and people were already screen recording it. It’s another song I could tell would be a massive hit
So what are you working on now?
Timz: I’m working on myself right now. I feel like there are a lot of things I’m supposed to have been doing for myself that I am not doing. So, I’m working on myself right now and the new project about to drop!
