00:00It's great to witness that I could just make music and boom, the world decides what it is and then it becomes a movement.
00:09Hi, I'm Omole and this is Billboard News.
00:14Hey, it's Tetris with Billboard News and I'm hanging out with Omole. How's it going, my man?
00:18I'm good. It's going well. How you doing?
00:20I'm good, man. I gotta tell you, congrats on the new single, Moving.
00:27Tell me about this song and what was the inspiration behind it?
00:30Moving is the second single off of my next project.
00:34It was all inspired by moving to a new place. I actually have not been spending a lot of time in Lagos recently.
00:41I've been spending a lot of time in London, especially making the album.
00:44It's just a new environment, being able to move from one place to another, to be a police detective.
00:50Tell me about the music video for the song. How involved are you in the visuals and what kind of story did you want to tell?
00:54I mean, recently I've been emphasizing on telling the story of my music through the music videos.
01:00For Moving, I am telling the story of how illegal immigrants travel to Europe through the desert, through the Sahara.
01:08There's a thing about Nigerians from Edo traveling, trying to get to Europe illegally and going through the desert.
01:14A lot of them don't make it through and stuff. So yeah, that was just the story.
01:19That was what inspired the video for Moving.
01:21That's incredible. I like that you're able to take your life experience and apply it with something else that's from your region.
01:28I mean, I think it is something. It is the story of the whole world.
01:33Like me, also having a Nigerian passport is very difficult traveling.
01:38I'm just looking for peace. I'm looking for a place to call home.
01:42Of course I have my home, but I'm just looking for that place to feel accepted.
01:48Because home is really bad, where we can't stay at home and enjoy the common things that have been provided by even God, by nature.
01:58Which is like what? Being able to live freely is difficult in Lagos.
02:03I feel like I'm telling the story of the whole world, where everybody's looking for some place to find peace of mind.
02:10Some place to just call home and feel relaxed.
02:11I love that you say story of the world, because I feel like even myself as an ignorant American sometimes,
02:16it feels like something that we're dealing with here, but then you see what's happening in the UK,
02:21you see what's happening across the world, that migrating is a problem everywhere or an issue.
02:26Really, we're just trying to find peace.
02:28Actually, the main inspiration behind the video was my friend, A.K.Z. Goodwill.
02:33He actually went through that route to get to Russia.
02:37The story is just too much and I just thought I should tell the story one way or the other.
02:42So when I made the movie, it just felt like the right song to talk about how people all over the world suffer to find a home.
02:55I'm glad that you were able to take that inspiration and use it in your visuals.
02:59And now this is, as you said, the second single from Clarity of Mind.
03:01So what do you feel like this is leading you into or leading fans into with the entire body of work?
03:07The entire body of work is just about freedom.
03:10I feel like that has been the essence of my music all along.
03:13I mean, freedom in every sense, but mostly in the sense of just finding that space where I just feel free enough to express,
03:22free enough to create without caring about what you think or what he thinks about my art.
03:27That's been mostly about it with my music.
03:31Just freedom, freedom to be a person, freedom to just live life and enjoy what it is.
03:38And now that you kind of have that freedom and you've made the project,
03:41do you feel like this is a new omelette that you're introducing to your fans, different from your debut project?
03:45It is still the same omelette that everybody knows. It's the same me.
03:50Of course, there's always something new.
03:52I'm finding myself and I know that is the same thing for everybody out there listening.
03:57Everybody's discovering who they are every day.
04:00So it's almost new for everybody. Everybody's new every day.
04:04But this is the same me just telling, documenting my story, my life through my music.
04:12And going back in your story a little bit, Boy Alone obviously was an incredibly huge project for you.
04:16Is there anything that you feel like you learned in the Boy Alone era that you're applying to your life now?
04:21Of course, there's a lot I learned through making that project.
04:24I actually grew up making that project.
04:26I feel like I found my purpose making Boy Alone.
04:30I feel like I also just learned to throw away shame and embrace who exactly I am.
04:41I feel like I learned how to be free making Boy Alone.
04:46With that album being such a huge moment, obviously you had such a glow in your career during that time period.
04:52What was it like to live through that time?
04:54Was it like, oh, I knew this was coming or this project felt special to you that you kind of felt that energy?
05:00What it was living through that time was just finding a way to actually believe who I am.
05:07Just like look at people in the face and see the doubt and still believe that, oh, he doubts me.
05:11But I am still the greatest, you know what I mean?
05:14My personality was shaking.
05:16I didn't know what to believe.
05:18Living through that time was a bit of what for me?
05:21It was very complicated because I was just looking for evidences to believe that I am great.
05:29You know what I mean?
05:31I mean, I feel like everybody goes through that a bit of like imposter syndrome as well.
05:34That's what it's called, right?
05:36Am I really this person?
05:38Yeah.
05:39Do I deserve these things?
05:41But I finally made it out of Boy Alone, out of the Boy Alone era.
05:45And then there's something I just needed to add, I need to address.
05:48I have always just left the fans, my fans and the listeners, because I know there are listeners and there are fans.
05:58I have my fans and I have the listeners who just listen.
06:01I can't lie about that.
06:03But I've always left my fans and the listeners to decide who I am.
06:09Through what they listen from the lyrics.
06:12And so every time I look at them in the eyes, I see them thinking that I am just a sad boy who is depressed.
06:20And looking for what?
06:22Happiness and stuff.
06:24Yes, I am.
06:26But just because I have given you music for this long.
06:31Music that have made you feel like this.
06:34Don't expect that from me every day.
06:36It's a new day.
06:37Every day is a new person.
06:39The same person, but a new day.
06:41I need you guys to be open-minded and just enjoy whatever comes, knowing that it is Omale and it's a new day.
06:50Well, I mean, some people have literally referred to your music as Afro-depression.
06:53I love it.
06:55And I do think, I'm like, that is a cool way to describe, you know, your sound.
06:59I definitely love it.
07:01But do you feel like there's a pressure from that?
07:03There's definitely no pressure.
07:04I love that I started a new movement.
07:07Like, my music started something new that I didn't even have to come out to tell people that my music is Afro-depression.
07:14They made it up. My fans made it up.
07:16They listened to the music and it told them the whole thing.
07:19Like, I didn't have to come and explain as much as everybody do when they come out and begin to explain this, that, that, that, that.
07:25The fans decided, my fans decided what it was just by listening to the music.
07:30It was self-explanatory.
07:31It's great to witness that I could just make music and boom, and the world decides what it is.
07:38And then it becomes a movement.
07:40The artists coming from Nigeria right now, not just Nigeria, Afrobeats in general,
07:45it's everybody taking a bit of my stuff, the stuff that I started.
07:50It's everybody trying to copy something.
07:53That's, that's, what do you call that?
07:55I mean, I feel like that's inspirational.
07:57It's inspirational.
07:58Like, they're inspired by you and that's a good thing.
07:59It's a new movement.
08:01It's something, something I'm very grateful to be the leader of.
08:09How is it to perform that kind of music live?
08:11Like, when you're going through like more personal issues, Afro-depression if you will,
08:15and then you have to get on stage and then convey that to an audience.
08:18They love it. My fans love it.
08:20Is it difficult for you?
08:22No, it's not. It's beautiful to see that my story,
08:25hundreds of thousands of millions of people are dancing to my stories.
08:30They understand it.
08:32Like, I don't come out to say this is what it is.
08:34I just make music and they all understand and dance to it.
08:38It's not difficult. It's very beautiful to see.
08:41I mean, it's got to be beautiful for them to probably come up to you.
08:44Yeah, of course, standing on the stage and just seeing the whole world
08:47dance to this thing that I made, it's amazing.
08:51And then do you have fans that come up to you and tell you their stories
08:54and say, this song means this to me because of that?
08:56That's my favourite part of making music.
08:58That's my favourite part of being an artist.
09:00Just hearing people tell me how much my lyrics mean to them
09:02and how my music changed their life
09:04and how they were going through this and that
09:06and then my music held them through.
09:08That's better than any plaque that I can ever receive.
09:11Yeah, that's really dope, man.
09:13You've been working with some really cool people.
09:15You know, Justin Bieber, Tyla.
09:17How has it been to see like her glow up?
09:19Obviously, Tyla's killing it.
09:21Yeah, I mean, she's amazing. She's amazing.
09:22I mean, I can't stop from, I mean, where she started from.
09:26Yeah, I'm very happy for her.
09:28The tension with Justin Bieber, how did that come about?
09:30That was also a moment of my life that I just can never forget.
09:33Justin has been my guide since when up to today.
09:36We still like to talk.
09:38Is there anybody you can tease with us that's going to be on Clarity of Mind?
09:40Nobody.
09:42Nobody.
09:44I just want to check. I have to ask. I have to do my job.
09:46And then let's talk a little bit about your moving around, man.
09:48So you went from Nigeria to London.
09:50So has that had an effect on your music at all?
09:52Being in London.
09:54I have just been spending a lot of time in London recently.
09:56But yeah, the energy in general is amazing.
10:00The London energy.
10:02I went to London because I wanted to create.
10:06Just staying in Lagos is like doing the same thing over and over again.
10:11You definitely need to like just wake up and see a bunch of new people
10:16to be able to do a bunch of new stuff.
10:18You know what I mean?
10:20So yeah, I've just been spending more time in London
10:22because I made this whole album on the road.
10:25And mostly in London, the Bay of Lagos.
10:29Well, you talk about discovering new things,
10:32but I know you also need your Nigerian culture.
10:34So what have you found in London?
10:36Have you found a good spot?
10:38Like, do you got to go to Nigerian food place?
10:40Kviva. Uber Eats.
10:42He's like Uber Eats again.
10:44Kviva in London.
10:46Those are my favorite.
10:48Everything I eat is from them.
10:53Well, lastly, as Clarity of Mind is coming out,
10:56you know, obviously Afrobeats has become this huge, huge movement.
11:00How is it to be a part of the movement?
11:02And what do you think of where it is right now?
11:04I don't think that I'm very happy with what the pioneers of Afrobeats are doing right now.
11:09What we, the pioneers of Afrobeats, are doing right now.
11:12I'm very happy with the global success of Afrobeats.
11:15But we, the front guys of Afrobeats,
11:19we're just washing the whole thing down by just chasing the bag
11:23and just looking for the next quick fix.
11:25And which is like, what?
11:27Yeah, it's now I'm a piano.
11:29I'm a piano in Afrobeats clubs and Afrobeats shows and stuff.
11:35More than Afrobeats itself.
11:37I can't remember the last time I heard a very proper Afrobeats song
11:42by an Afrobeats artist.
11:44It's been like, what, one year now?
11:45You say that and that even just made me want to ask you,
11:48how do you feel when other cultures are also participating in Afrobeats?
11:51I've seen K-pop groups even now doing Afrobeats.
11:54No, I definitely love, that's Afrobeats to the world, isn't it?
11:56That's what Afrobeats to the world is.
11:58Just export the sound so much where everybody can jump on it and enjoy it.
12:03But we that are from Nigeria, specifically from the Afrobeats hub,
12:11we that are from the Fela Kuti, the high life, Sadebe,
12:16the cool people that started this whole Afrobeats thing,
12:20we are being lost by the people that are dancing to it.
12:28I think what is mostly stuck in our heads when we're making this music
12:33is the festival and the white people jumping around
12:37and enjoying the Afrobeats.
12:40I think that's what is stuck in our head, which is basically the bag.
12:43I'm included.
12:46And then we care so little about the art,
12:49we care so little about Afrobeats,
12:52where it's like, what, you can see that there has been,
12:57it's been a minute since there has been an Afrobeats record that did it.
13:02You know what I mean?
13:04But I do think that someone genuine like you really is doing a great thing for the genre,
13:09so I'm glad that you're able to tell your story.
13:13I definitely care about art.
13:15I definitely care about it.
13:17It's what has brought me this far.
13:19It's what has brought Afrobeats this far.
13:21Well, congrats on moving, man, and we're excited for Clarity of Mind.
13:23Thank you. Thank you for having me today, man.
13:25Absolutely.
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