Hip hop is making a Nigerian comeback; last week two rappers occupied the number one and two positions on Apple Music’s Top 100 Nigeria chart. While Lagos seems to be at the centre of this resurgence, Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, has steadily fostered the burgeoning hip hop scene across the country.
Rappers in the capital city have made great strides to frequently keep their audiences engaged with barrages of new releases bettering the other. Zilla Oaks, Psycho YP, Eeskay, Odomodublvck, Marv OTM, Reeplay, Fatboy E, are to name a few of the rap talents flourishing in the city.
A few years ago, Zilla Oaks broke out onto Abuja’s music scene, releasing a number of singles that made him unable to ignore. Around the same period, he met some like-minded creatives with who he co-founded Apex Village. After multiple releases with the group and solo, Zilla put forth his debut album “No ZZZZ” which cemented his place as an integral fixture in Nigerian Hip-Hop.
Zilla Oaks has grown his sound, a fanbase, and respect in a culture where it’s hard-earned, he’s put himself in a unique place and set the pace for his sophomore album; “NO ZZZZ 2,” the sequel to NO ZZZZ. Following the release of No ZZZZ 2, we spoke with Zilla about how the project came together, its central themes, hip-hop in Nigeria, and the dynamics of working individually and with a group.
When did you start making NO ZZZZ 2, and how did it come together?
I started making the whole project in 2019. As soon as I dropped No ZZZZ I knew I wanted to drop a sequel. The first feature I got towards the end of 2019 was Tay Iwar, one of Nigeria’s best artists. I rate him so highly. I got him on Pain Away, a song about the everyday struggles of an artist.
Then two records with PrettyBoy DO; Ogini and No Conversate, which I dropped early 2019. Ogini was with PrettyBoy DO and Dremo, that was a very tactical feature that put me more out there. No Conversate was with PrettyBoy DO, Mojo and Apex Village’s Marv OTM, we made that in like 20 minutes when DO came to Abuja for the Capital Block Party last year. All the features I’ve done are majorly organic, it wasn’t like a long-distance thing.
What goes into the process of choosing who to feature and where to be featured yourself?
Most of the features, I worked them out in the studio with the artists, it was vibes. The last feature I got was SGawd, I was trying to put a woman on the tape to make the tape complete cause the first tape didn’t have any female artist. So like this year I kinda stumbled on SGawd and I loved her sound as an artist, so I hit her up on Twitter and she gave me a dope verse on …. There are a couple of other features and they’re all crazy.
What influenced the central themes on the album?
The central theme around the project is basically the stuff I went through when I was in dark times, like when I had insomnia, when I couldn’t sleep, the hustle, the grind. You know when they say you can’t sleep till you make it, that’s the story. It’s like dark trap/storytelling hip hop all in one, with some Afropop here and there like Follow Me Reason and Vibes on Vibes. I just made it so that everyone could have something to vibe to on the album.
Do you think Nigerian Hip-Hop is where it should be?
Hip hop isn’t really taken as seriously as it should be in Nigeria. That’s why we have South African Hip-Hop ahead of us cause they have a whole underground hip hop scene where people are popping off. But I feel like in Nigeria we’d be amongst the people to change that to make people feel excited about hip hop. We need people to make hip hop look exciting and feel mad! That’s what Apex is doing right now, we’re just trying to push hip hop in Nigeria.
How does building and being a part of Apex Village play into your solo career?
It has helped me a lot cause everything you want as an artist is in Apex. You want to mix there are engineers, we’ve got the best artists in ABJ; Psycho Yp, Zilla Oaks, Marv OTM and we love each other like bros. It’s a whole clique, there’s never been misunderstanding between us, we’re always keeping it a hundred between ourselves. We have other creatives: directors; Kuddi Is Dead, photographers; Joey Oputa, Iyare. So it’s the whole big collective like we’re a whole company we just do everything ourselves. It’s easier for me than when I started because then I’d have to run to someone to mix and master my songs, run to someone to get my cover art, run to someone if I had to do a photoshoot but now we’re just like an in-house collective, we do everything ourselves, we get everything done. Apex has been a blessing since our inauguration. We’ve been going hard for each other.
How’s the reception in Lagos? And how do you experience the city whenever you’re there?
Every time I’ve been to Lagos it’s always a warm welcome especially from the fans, the listeners, the supporters and radio stations, they’re always excited to have me in Lagos. I find it blessed because I’m not in that scene and I’m able to penetrate in the scene all the way from ABJ. That’s why each time I get to Lagos, I try to do the features right. Like the time I did the feature with PrettyBoy and Dremo, PrettyBoy was basically always in the studio when I met him, he’s such a hard worker. It was Telz and Damayo that were in the studio with us, I played this beat that I had and PrettyBoy was like what! Telz and Damayo didn’t allow PrettyBoy to leave the studio and then he recorded his verse for me. With Dremo, he sent me back the verse in a week. It’s always love when I go to Lagos. I like Lagos, the only thing I don’t like about Lagos is the traffic. I wish I had a chopper when I’m in Lagos for easy movement but Lagos is love, Lagos is fam, I have so many friends there from secondary school and Uni so the fanbase is really spread out.
How did the lockdown affect the way you made music?
Last year, I dropped a lot of singles and I was on a lot of features. During the lockdown I could say the material I put out was at least 20-25 songs, features and all. We went hard and I used that opportunity to finish No ZZZZ 2. Asides from my project, I also have an EP dropping towards the end of the year. I’m already working on that cause I’m basically always in the studio trying to push my sound. There’s probably the Apex project sequel: Welcome To The Ville Part 2. Asides those projects, Eeskay and I have like six songs that we’ve put aside for an EP. So yeah there’s a lot of music coming your way soon.
How would you like people to know you as an artist?
I’m multi talented, I could do anything, when I’m in the studio I basically push my own limits. I could listen to an Amapiano beat now and say yo lemme go on it, so I could see how dope I’m in other fields and I have the quality and skill set to be diverse and make a track blend. It’s all in the diversity, when people listen to this album they’re going to know how diverse I am cause like there’s no song that has the same sound, most songs are different in every single way.
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