#shaeir

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Can you tell me about the thought process behind picking these 10 songs?

So like, just things I listen to everyday on my ride to work. I throw on my long playlist, and these are the songs that always hit extra hard. Like “Runaway” is my favorite song ever. “They Don’t Really Care About Us” is like the first song I memorized as a kid so it’s a hard hitting song. And “Tricky Bailey,” I remember when we crafted that in the Denny’s the day after a party (laughs). It things like that that inspired this playlist.

How difficult was it to pick 10 songs? Did they come easy to you, or did you have to take some time to think and pick the 10 you wanted?

I started with like fifty (laughs).

Fifty?!

And then I had to narrow it down. Because there’s a lot of songs that I listen to daily that I like that should’ve hit this list, but you have to take out the stuff that people may not understand, or won’t make sense. You have to take out the stuff that’s not on Apple Music (laughs). And then you have to find a good set that really speaks of who you are. You should be able to know that is the shit that Ola listens to when you pull this up.

What would you say this playlist explains about you?

It shows a bit of my style and what I like. It shows my mood and the different facets of myself. It’s not just always super rap, it’s not always super trap either. You can be lyrical, but you can be experimental, you can have fun and you can be sad. And it’s all cool.

What songs on your playlist would you say fit that experimental lane?

I mean for it’s time “Runaway” was considered experimental because Kanye was crying on autotune and nobody had really done that before. The joint with SAINt JHN is experimental because you can’t really put it in a lane. It’s not a rap song, it’s not R&B, it’s one of those little pop techno type because of how the beat goes. “Xanax Damage” is Future playing with the trap banger and being more emotional, which I don’t think a lot of people are big fans of but I love that shit. Emotional Future is the best.  

I know from just knowing you as a person, Kanye and Future are two of your favorites. What about them make them your favorites?

Because the make music that makes you feel. It’s all their rawest emotions, for better or for worse. Even when Future says things that are considered disrespectful, it’s how he feels raw and he doesn’t apologize for that. I appreciate that in artists. Same thing with Kanye, storming the stage to take that mic from Taylor Swift, it’s unapologetic, it’s raw. It’s ok to feel feelings. Everybody only talks about feelings when you’re winning. It’s ok when it sucks. If you’re not happy with yourself it’s ok to talk about how you’re not happy with yourself. It’s an emotion. That’s what I like about them, they’re very raw about their feelings. 

Also just be knowing you, I’m surprised I didn’t see any Fela Kuti on the playlist. I know he’s one of your favorites. Did you have any songs from him that didn’t make it on here?

I did but the problem is, how am I gonna fit a 32 minute song…(laughs) because I don’t like the way they do his singles. Some of the songs progress very interestingly, like from the way the bass comes in, some songs have 2 basses in them, one will abruptly come in when he calls for it, so it’s hard to fit those 20 minute, 14 minute, 35 minute long songs. 

Are they really that long?

Yeah. One of my favorites is like 36 minutes long.

What’s is called?

O.D.O.O. (Overtake Don Overtake Overtake). He used to call it African Classical Music. 

I don’t know much about him and his music, but are most of his songs live performance recordings? Is that why they’re so long?

Yeah a good amount of them. There’s “Just Like That” which I think was done in Detroit. The Berlin show was live and that was recorded into an album. There’s one he played Glastonbury in the UK too that became an album as well. A lot if it is live instruments, a live band. If any song would have made it, probably “Zombie” would’ve been the easiest to fit in because it’s very common so people would catch it faster. And it’s not too long, it’s about 12, 14 minutes.

I feel like with Future and Kanye, those are artists you listened to because of the time period you grew up. How’d you pick up on Fela, who’s an older act before your time?

My dad is an older guy, so he listens to older music. So I would listen to his music when he would drop me off to school, my older too he’s a music head and listens to a lot of older acts. When you start getting older, you start to look for things you like, so I started searching on YouTube and found one of his songs. That lead to clips of his concerts where he would say things that would resonate with me outside of the music. From his view on Africa, Black nationalism, how you should love your blackness, all of that. It was from there that he became my guy. I even wrote my college applications on him. He’s the man. Rest in peace to a real one. 

Building off of that, when did you start finding the music and artists you wanted to listen to, and developing your taste. 

When my brother first visited after we moved here, When I was a kid he would always play music and I would always remember songs and have it stuck in my head. There’s this one Micheal Jackson song actually, and not a lot of people know this but Michael Jackson is one of my favorites. He has this one song “Whatever Happens” and the only reason I remember it to this day is because I used to steal that CD out of his room and play it every night before I went to sleep. It’s little things like that that helped me pick what I like. And then from there you get YouTube, Limewire, all that good stuff, word of mouth with your friends too. Shout out to my boys who got me hip to Gucci when I was younger in High School. That’s how you start developing what you like. And then the sound evolves. I like Gucci, that’s why I like Future, because Gucci was the first trap god. And it goes from there, from Future you have a little bit of Travis Scott, Playboi Carti, you have different sounds. You branch off from one mumble to multiple mumbles. 

Would you say your brother and dad are two big influences as far as where you get your music from?

Hell yeah. I still remember I stole a CD from my dad in 2011 when I went back home for the summer. I still have it to this day even though I don’t have anything to play it on. 

What CD?

It’s Fuji Music in Nigeria. It’s this old CD from like 1987. It’s almost religious music but not really, in the sense that it started from religion. He’s talking about some foul shit because he can talk about foul shit, but another musician died so he’s talking about how we was a great guy and how everyone should remember him. He also talked about the politics at the time, and how the military was in charge of everything. And it’s all in Yoruba, so it’s how I remember my language as well.

Who’s the artist?

Alhaji Sikiru Ayinde Barrister.

Wow that’s a mouthful. Is Fuji Music a genre of music?

Correct. That’s why what they call “Afrobeats” today I personally don’t like calling it Afrobeats, because it’s not pure Afrobeats. The original Afrobeats is Fela’s music, and from Fela’s music there’s Juju music, there’s Fuji music, there’s music from the North, and also Highlife music, which are all subgenres of everything. So this new Afrobeats they’re playing is like taking bits and pieces for everything from above. When you call it Afrobeats it takes away from the original Afrobeats which is Fela’s lane, and it also kills everybody else’s music because when you Google Afrobeats once you get past the new guys, the first thing that comes up is Fela. You never really hear about the other ones.

So you’re saying Fuji Music is a branch of the original Afrobeat stuff? A subgenre?

It’s not even a subgenre. It developed around the same time almost. It just never blew up.

Oh so it ran parallel to Afrobeat?

Correct. It just never blew like it should.

Are you saying what people call Afrobeats now is more similar to Fuji Music?

It’s like a combination of all three. I don’t necessarily want to say it’s closer because it’s the same effect. The call, the rhythm. Sometimes there’s a lot of instruments in the background. Fuji has a certain style. You’re just talking shit sometimes. They all have it in them too. It’s not necessarily devoted to one lane like they call it. Afrobeat was the one to blow up first, so that’s why the name was sticking and that’s why it’s easier to call everything that’s come after Afrobeat. Fuji never really escaped the borders, because it’s also tied to the language. If you don’t understand the language you’ll never be able to understand the songs. 

Are there any current Afrobeats artists that match the original sound of Afrobeat?

Yeah Fela’s sons still play. Like 2 of his sons play. Even his grandons play.There’s also a few bands that sound like his stuff. There’s a band in America, Antibalas, that sounds like the original Afrobeat with the big band feel. You have different horns, the basses, everything coming into it. There’s a few of them out there. But everything’s gone pop. Everything that they call Afrobeats I’d rather call it Afro-pop music. Because it’s popular music. It’s taking from everybody. Not just even Nigrean Afrobeats, but they’re taking things from other countries in West Africa. The French speakers for example, Southern African music is coming into it now. It’s only a matter of time till we take from East Africa. 

Yeah I feel that. I feel like the same thing could be said for some Reggaeton now. A lot of it is heavily pop influenced, and has some electronic sounds in it. You got like DJ Snake making songs with J. Balvin and calling it Reggaeton now. 

And that doesn’t make it bad because some of the music is fire. 

Yeah definitely.

Let’s just not kid ourselves on what we’re calling it. There’s nothing wrong with Pop music, Pop music is fine. It’s not a derogatory term.   

What would you want people to take away from this playlist?

Future is the best rapper of all time. 

Ok (Laughs).

But nah seriously, music is cool. Music has different feels to it. There’s happy songs here that have you going. There’s sad songs. That song “Descent” at the end, when I get married I’m gonna play that joint when my wife is walking up to me and I will cry real tears. That is one of the most beautiful songs of my life. Music is feels and it's cool.

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