LKT became famous in 2007 when he featured on Olu Maintain’s monster hit, Yahoozee. Since then, much has been expected of him. In this interview by OSEYIZA OOGBODO, he reveals that one of the expectations, his debut album, is finally dropping this month. He also spoke about his testy relationship with Olu Maintain.
How did you get the inspiration for your smash hit, Alaye?
Alaye came about when I and my brother, Puffy Tee, were in the studio working with Young D. And after recording about four songs with Young D, I asked him to give me a standard beat and he did and I had to do something good with it and what I did was Alaye and everybody loved it.
What is Alaye all about?
Alaye is like your personal person, someone you look up to, like your boss, you know. And I’m very happy with it because it’s a big song just like my Follow Follow featuring P-Square so it means I’m moving forward in my career.
What has it done for you?
It has done a lot for me. It’s the reason I’m being hosted here at Industry Nite (last Wednesday). They’ve wanted to host me since last year but I told them that I expect Industry Nite to bring together people like Kennis Muisc, those that own record labels, marketers and industry people in general so we can sit down and interact on how we can move our industry forward, since it’s Industry Nite.
I told them it’s not about performances, we’ll do the performances, but let us talk to the marketers, the producers like Don Jazzy and Puffy Tee, Kennis Music, everybody should sit down at a round table and discuss on how we can make money.
Apart from we doing shows, how do we make money? So they told me I shouldn’t worry, that they are working on it, that everything will be fine, that definitely they want to do that, but that when they want to do a big event, that’s when they will call everybody.
Since you blew with Yahoozee some years ago, everyone has been expecting your album. When is it coming?
I have a lot of songs I’ve recorded so I have more than even an album with me right now. The point is that I’m not listening to just an album, I’m listening to like 35 songs when I’m dropping just a 15-track album featuring the likes of 9ice, Jaywon, Vector, Olamide, PSquare and so many others.
When does it drop?
It comes out this month, July, because I’m going on an European tour, so I have to drop it for my fans before I travel out. It’s called The Journey and it’s all about my journey so far from the past to the present and then the future.
Having been in the industry for several years, who can you say has been of the most help to you?
Everybody. Everybody that’s been close to me and that I’ve been close to. Because there’s something about me, the way I work, I move close to a lot of people to ask them how did you do this or that? It’s not easy for the likes of P-Square, Timaya, 2face, 9ice to still be there after so many years, and they are still there and doing good, so I work with and I move close to everybody that has been in that top, I speak with them, relax with them, ask them what do you think I should do, what is the next move, what is the way forward, what do you think of my music, what do you think of my style?
And the style is so good. You can see everybody’s doing it. The likes of BrymO, Wi z k i d , they are t apping one or t w o t h i n g s f r o m fuji music. So eve r y – body’s d o – ing it and it makes m e happy.
Is it true you had to change to fuji style to sell yourself ?
No. I started with fuji music, but 15, 20 years ago, people used to look at fuji as very crass, so I had to blend hip-hop and R&B into it. And when I was to be on a gospel song that was supposed to have Dekunle Fuji and he wasn’t around, I did my fuji hip-hop thing in it. The second time I did it was in Yahoozee and it brought me to limelight with Puffy Tee and Olu Maintain.
Many years after Yahoozee and the widely known problems you had with Olu Maintain, what is your relationship with him now?
Yeah, we are still cool. The last time we were together was at Encomium Black and White Ball. He hugged me, h e ’ s doing g o o d , he and P u f f y Tee too are still have a good relationship. A lot of people are challenging why I don’t have him on my album, and I tell them that when the time comes, we’ll certainly work together again.
What are your plans?
I see myself having my own record label and doing talent hunts all over Nigeria and Africa because upcoming artists call me every day in need of help and I really want to help them.
How would you advice an upcoming artist so he can become successful like you?
You can’t be LKT oh, you have to be yourself. The most important thing is you have to be yourself and be original in whatever you are doing and be good in what you’re doing and be very prayerful.
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