In the ever-growing Afrobeats space, Blaqbonez stands at the forefront of Nigeria’s vibrant music scene as a beacon of creativity and authenticity. The rapper, director and all-around creative powerhouse has taken us on a journey through his experimental blending of styles and a body of work exploring themes of love, money, and celebrating the beauty in life.

Known for adopting personas like Bad Boy Blaq, Mr. Bombastic, Emeka the Stallion, and the Young Preacher, Blaqbonez shares that each project seeks a unique angle, a different version of himself. With Emeka Must Shine, he masterfully combines these personas into a cohesive blend across all 21 tracks. The album’s title, “Emeka Must Shine,” was inspired by the line from his hit “Like Ice Spice,” becoming an anthem and a powerful affirmation for fans. Blaqbonez explains that the title encapsulates the excitement and anticipation generated among his audience.

We got to chop it up with Blaq to delve into the influences, dreams, and moments that helped shape the artist we know and love. Blaqbonez continues to evolve as an artist, and Emeka Must Shine showcases his commitment to artistic innovation and growth.

In the ever-growing Afrobeats space, Blaqbonez stands at the forefront of Nigeria’s vibrant music scene, a beacon of creativity and authenticity. The rapper, director and all-around creative powerhouse has taken us on a journey through his experimental blending of styles, and a body of work exploring themes of love, money, and celebrating the wonderful things in life.

Known for adopting personas like Bad Boy Blaq, Mr. Bombastic, Emeka the Stallion, and the Young Preacher, Blaqbonez shares that each project seeks a unique angle, a different version of himself. With Emeka Must Shine, he masterfully combines these personas into a cohesive blend across all 21 tracks. The album’s title, “Emeka Must Shine,” was inspired by the line from his hit “Like Ice Spice,” becoming an anthem and a powerful affirmation for fans. Blaqbonez explains that the title encapsulates the excitement and anticipation generated among his audience.

We got the chance to chop it up with Blaq to delve into the influences, dreams, and moments that helped craft the artist we know and love. Blaqbonez continues to evolve as an artist, and Emeka Must Shine showcases his commitment to artistic innovation and growth.

We’re definitely no stranger to you Blaq, but where did the journey begin for you?  How was “Blaqbonez” born?
I think it was the moment I won this competition. It was a rap competition, and that was the first time in my head that I was going up against a bunch of people. The judges were seasoned veterans within the Nigerian industry. So that kind of made me feel like, okay, I actually have some talent. It wasn’t something that was just me and my cousins and family know – you know how it is. Your people can think you’re really dope when you’re not really dope. You feel me? 

But that moment was a moment for me where it was like, okay, yeah, you definitely have something. You were in the competition with thousands of people, and you came first and it was judged by people who definitely know what they’re doing within the music industry. That was important for me, an important step!

For sure, so it was more or less the first time that your talent was recognized by people outside of your community?
Yes, exactly. Exactly.

That’s dope! It’s also really creative how with your past album, you’ve been able to tap into different personas. Where did the idea of your personas like Bad Boy Blaq, Mr. Bombastic, Emeka the Stallion and the Young Preacher come from?
For me, every time I want to work on a project, I’m looking for an angle. I’m looking for—what’s different about this one? What am I trying to achieve here? I don’t want to make the same album twice, so I’m always looking for something else. So usually, in the search for something else, I become someone else. Music needs to have a train of thought. For me, sha, as soon as you hear it, you need to be able to feel like, oh, this was this version of Blaqbonez, this was this version of Blaqbonez, you feel me?

So that’s how I just kept creating these personas and naming them something that has to do with the project. 

For Emeka Must Shine I found a way to combine those personas from past and present, brought all three of them – there’s even more, but I brought the three major ones into one. Each song is a perfect blend of all three together as one. So that’s kind of what this album is.

The title Emeka Must Shine, it is very forceful. It’s like – whether you like it or not, Emeka MUST shine; what was the thought process behind the album name?
Man, it was when I dropped ‘Like Ice Spice’, right? And then the Line “Emeka Must Shine” was on it –  it just became such a big line so it was a no-brainer to me. This needs to be the name of the album going forward because it is just a proper affirmation. It’s like a moment for my fans to feel excited. I’ve not seen people this excited about the title of an album in a while! People even call me “Emeka must Shine” now.

Your tracks showcase a good mix of lyrical hip hop, there are the witty bars and punchlines, but then you also allow the influence of Afrobeats and your Nigerian context to add a layer to that. It’s a very different sound from what you would normally hear in the Nigerian scene, but it’s something you’ve helped pioneer. What would you say was one of your biggest hurdles in getting to this point?
My biggest hurdles, I think, were finding funding and finding people who believed in it enough to fund it. When I first signed with Chocolate City we had not yet gotten our partnership with Warner, so the first few years were kind of difficult trying to get that sound right and get the type of funding that it deserves. So that was a real period of struggles, but the moment we got the funding everything just started aligning the way we thought it was going to align. So everything just started piling up and it just was year after year progress from then.

It kind of reminds me of the legendary Davido line – “When money enters love is sweeter”, but when money enters, everything is sweeter.
[Laughs] Yeah – you feel me?

I guess that’s the unfortunate reality for a lot of artists at the moment. What kept you going in those times when funding was limited?
My fans, because I feel like I’m one of the people that built a fan base long before I started getting funding. So when you have those types of fans consistently showing love and showing support, you have a reason to keep going. For example, when I drop a song – seeing that my fans carry it and seeing it do numbers regardless of promo, really keeps me going. So I kept on just doing, just servicing my fans and dropping music.  I still used to trend on Twitter. I still used to do really great numbers. I was in the top 10 album charts like two times. So it wasn’t like, oh, no funding, so nothing is happening. My fans were always just carrying me. So that kind of kept me going.

Your features always feel so genuine, too. Like the feature that you did on ‘Tesla Boys’ for ODUMODUBLVCK. How do you normally approach your feature verses – what type of mindset do you get into?
Man, I only try to do features of songs that I like. So that’s why I don’t have too many features. And I also try to curate the experience. I don’t feel like I want people to hear ME all the time. So those are a few things that I point out. Then as regards to recording the music, right? So when it’s already something I like, the process is much easier. I’m flowing, I’m vibing, I’m excited to do it. And so it’s never really hard for me. It’s never really stressful; it’s just being in the studio with my guys, playing the music, vibing out, and the verse just comes out.

That honestly sounds like such a vibe. Can I ask what your favourite feature is so far?
I think that’s a song with Fireboy that’s coming out soon (‘Outside’). I really like how that feature came about, so I can’t wait for you guys to hear it. But yeah, it’s one of those ones that has me excited.

Oh, I’m excited! Do we get a little background as to how it came about?
Yeah, so me and Fire, we went to the same school together. We’ve known each other for years. So to be at the top and stuff and be able to have this full circle moment collaborating was actually really nice for me, and Fire is someone I really respect. So it was just nice for that to happen, to see that connection happen and we shot a really good video for it. So yeah, it’s exciting.

Speaking of your videos, I have to move backwards just a little bit quickly, but ‘Back in Uni’ a video that you directed by yourself. The concept was so sick!
Man. For me, I feel like for music videos, every moment, not necessarily every moment, but every 10 seconds, every 20 seconds – there should be something happening to keep you glued to your seat. So every time I’m directing, I’m thinking, how do I expand on this idea? It’s easy to just say, okay, we’re making the “moment of the year” and just make them and just move on, but I had to keep building a storyline.

So when I snatched the flowers, the painting parts, everything, I had to sit down and just make sure that I expanded on every single idea and see how far I could take the ideas – Because that’s how I see, obviously different songs have different objectives, but for me, if I’m going to direct, I always want some sort a storyline or if it’s an idea that’s just constantly being built upon. I don’t just want random performances and random stuff. I really try to take my time to create those types of things.

I’m still stuck on the “Made in Lagos” outfit! How did you get the outfit? Where did the wig come from? It was too hilarious.
[Laughs] That’s the credit to the producer because I just give the ideas and the treatments and then the producer has to go and look for those things that I asked for. So the producer, that’s Femi Dapson, he came through, he came through. When I got on the set, I was impressed by how detailed everything was!

Bringing it back to the new music, your catalogue boasts of some of the most diverse and hard-hitting features. With all the features that you choose for your music, you tend to show a different side to that artist. For example, Ludacris sounded so comfortable on a Pidgin/English track with ‘Cinderella Girl’— what is your thought process when selecting features and also putting it out into the world – what would be a dream collab for you?
My dream collaboration is definitely Drake! He’s my favourite rapper. So that would be exciting.

How I come up with features is I like to try to create a world within my world where I think the person will be comfortable. So I create my own version of a space that the person can ride so I can bring out the best version of them –  that part that the people already love.  Sometimes, you can do features to challenge them, but my assumption is what if the person doesn’t deliver well with the challenge that you set and it just doesn’t work out as good. So for me, I feel like if I create a world where I know the person can easily kill this particular thing for me, it makes the music better. That’s how I come up with it.

It comes across as very, very organic, and it’s something that your fans appreciate. And as we mentioned, even in times when funding wasn’t exactly there, the fans were still there, and the business was still moving. But how do you juggle keeping your fans happy, but also continuing to challenge yourself artistically and continue to try different things?
For me, the fact that I do not want to repeat music is the biggest reason why I challenge myself. I don’t know how other artists do it, but if I hear my song and it sounds exactly like another one, or the melody sounds similar, I can’t enjoy it. It just keeps ringing at me that you’ve made this before, you’ve done this before. So I’m always looking for something new, and that’s why I have to challenge myself. 

Many times it’s in the production; for each project I do – I go with different production. So that kind of helps me stay fresh and stay brand new. I’ve been in the game for a while; my first hit song was in 2019 – that was ‘Shut Up’ –  and coming this far and still being at the best point of my career, It’s because I’ve always found a way to make things different. So a lot of people, they come into the game and the beginning where they have their best music but I’ve just found a way to keep switching things and keep improving on the sound.

So you’ve mentioned you have a track coming with Fireboy soon, but what else is next for Emeka, and when can we expect to see you in Australia?
We’re working on something, we’re currently negotiating something for, I think February. Yeah, either February or March. So yeah, it’s definitely happening!

That’s crazy. Very excited about that. Very, very excited for that.
Me too. Me too.

If you were to give advice to any artist or if you were to give advice to yourself, let’s say it was your first-ever performance before you won. What type of advice do you feel like you could have gotten at that point that would’ve really helped you?
I think relaxing and performing. Sometimes people get carried away, thinking that they need this mad energy at the beginning. Especially when people don’t really know the music yet, it just looks like somebody that’s just screaming and jumping up and down. So I feel like you need to relax and actually perform the music so people can hear the music the way it should be. I feel like the energy and all the jumping; it’s lit when they already know the song, so they can vibe with you.

Thank you so much for the advice, and also, thank you so much for your time. As I said, we’re so excited to see what’s to come with your work Blaqbonez and we’re excited to have you in Australia as well!
Yeah, thank you. Thank you. I’m excited for what’s coming too.

Follow Blaqbonez here for more and stream the new album Emeka Must Shine here.