Cover star interview: Nigerian rapper and singer ODUMODUBLVCK

ODUMODUBLVCK talks about how he feels about being called the best hip hop artist in Africa

It is a blessing. I’ve never said that I’m the best. I don’t think I am. I just feel like music comes from God, and all of us in our different ways, are vessels. One thing for sure is that I’ve been the face of hip hop in Nigeria for a couple of years now, and I don’t take it for granted. It’s not something that I set out to be, it just happened by chance. Since the crown is on my head, I have to wear it.

The making of The Machine Is Coming mixtape

My headspace was just to basically show character. A lot of people have been dropping EPs and I’m like, “Yo, since I’m the face of hip hop, I need to act like Lil Wayne in 2007, dropping a mixtape, 16 tracks, heavy, with no fear. The Nigerian music industry has been trying to play it safe for a while and I decided to just change everything. Funny enough, 11 songs from THE MACHINE IS COMING were recorded this year. I was moving with time and I was recording my experience. The mixtape is preparation for the album.

The ‘LEGOLAS’ track

‘LEGOLAS’ means everything to me. That’s why I made it the intro. I lost my dad in 2021, and since then I’ve literally been doing everything he had been doing. If you go through my hood, my dad was helping with school fees of 20 people; now I'm doing school fees for 30 people. People are even begging me, “Yo, save your money, save your money. You’re helping too many people.” I’m like, “No, I’m not going to listen to you guys. I’m going to go with my guys. We're going to go to the top together.” When they say, “If you go with so many people, you’ll be slow.” No, I’ve defied those odds. I’m still with my guys and my momentum has not stopped.

The ‘TOY GIRL’ and ‘GASOLINE’ tracks

I want to say shout out to Juno and Valentino Rose first. These two girls, they came out the doors! A lot of people don’t really know them in Nigeria, but they came and they took their place and they took what was theirs, and they delivered heavily on ‘TOY GIRL’. Then to Vector, I’ve been telling him (because he’s an OG in the hip hop space), like, “Yo, we need to do something.” I always had this song, but I tried to prepare the song so well, so when I sent it to him, it wouldn't be hard for him to navigate it. When I sent it to him, he sent it back to me in less than 24 hours! Imagine, how are you spitting those bars in that time? I really appreciate him. He's a legend. He’s an OG, a veteran.

His forthcoming album

‘THE MACHINE IS COMING’ is the preparation for the industry machine that is going to shake the world up. One thing that is has been so exceptional about these rollouts is [that] it has been like a movie, like a plot twist all the time. I’ve been saying, “The machine is coming”. People thought it was the main album, the industry machine, but this was just the story for the wait. This is like the album promoting the album. And who is this machine that we’re talking about? It’s me. I’m the machine that has produced; the machine is coming, and the industry machine that will come in a couple months’ time. So the world has to brace themselves, because it’s intense.

Tune in to catch the full episode on 11 April.