Young up and coming artiste, Olahiman has said he wants to upgrade Afrobeats in a unique way to further promote the genre.
Revealing how he plans to achieve this in a recent interview, he said, “I have always believed in positive thoughts. In as much as I am trying to create my own style by staying original and be different, I am also a fast learner and I am going to adapt into what the music industry demands. I will always look for ways to upgrade myself and make my music better, coming up with all the factors to make it in this industry.”
Born Abiola Isaiah Olanipekun, Olahiman who coined his stage name from his given names revealed that music for him started in the church. “It was from there, I started learning the basics, playing the keyboard and other stuff.”
He added, “I started having the passion for music and started making beats on my own. I have a knack for melodies and wherever I am, I just come up with melodies and that’s what made me realise that this music thing is for me.
“What makes make fit and ready for this is the uniqueness in my sound. My sound is different from every other person. I am not any other person in the industry. My music will be worth the listen because the sound out there is too monotonous and I am coming with a breath of fresh air, just like what Odumodu did with his music as well. My style is unique and different.”
While describing his style of music as Afro-fusion for all ages, he reveals that it is because it combines a lot of things that cuts across all ages. “My music does not discriminate against anyone and it’s unique that way,” he revealed.
Speaking of the sacrifices he has made for his music, Olahiman stated that being a church boy that plays instruments, people looked up to him. However, he had to cut everyone off in order to be focused.
He however decried the discrimination against up and coming talent. “I think one of the greatest challenges is being downgraded by producers because they feel you are not up to their level. Producers have done me dirty because I was upcoming and the challenges we face as emerging acts is one of the things that the industry needs to fix.
“I think there needs to be respect across board and producers need to recognise that emerging talents can always blow up at anytime.”
He further said, “In 2019, I was making music that some of my closest people I expected to support me did not support. They just were not feeling the music and they were being sentimental and they were after the biggest artistes. I expected them to support me but that did not happen, so I stopped music for a while. But when I relocated to Lagos in 2021, the love for music came back up because I was in a new space and Lagos being the home to majority of the stars of the industry, really inspired me and brought back the love for music.”
Speaking on the artistes he currently looks up to, he said, “There are a lot of them, to be honest. There’s the likes of Burna Boy, Davido, and Rema. Rema puts some certain things into my system and he’s showcased Nigeria in a good light and I believe that if Rema can make it, I can also make it. Wizkid and Olamide also have shown tremendous story of grass to grace from the trenches and I believe their stories are worth emulating.”
The music producer cum sound engineer also revealed that in his early years, he recorded and produced his music himself. Now he makes beats for other artistes too.
“My dream as an artiste is to take the art of my music to the world. I want to share my perspective to the world through my music because I believe that my music can inspire the change that the world needs and it can really beautify the world. I want to break global records and sell out shows globally, one record at a time”
