Mr Eazi Wants to Be the Jay-Z of Africa

MIC/LINE is HYPEBEAST Radio’s music-centric show that looks to deliver in-depth conversations with your favorite artists, digging into their origin stories and asking the questions you want answered. For this week’s episode, we sit down with Mr Eazi.

Nigerian superstar Mr Eazi has traversed the African music scene, fusing together Nigerian and Ghanaian influences. With afrobeat’s rise to popularity, stars like him have helped the world become familiar with Africa’s scene as a powerhouse. Born Oluwatosin Ajibade, the artist was born in Nigeria and later relocated to Ghana to study mechanical engineering at KNUST.  It was there where he began a number of businesses, one of them being a successful party promoting company called Swagger Entertainment, which have booked artists such as Burna Boy.

After looking for a new hobby outside of party promoting, Eazi began dabbling in the music scene, having put out his mixtape About to Blow as an experiment. Eventually, his music caught fire and it was in July 2016 after a successfully headlined show, where he realized being a musician would be his calling. With a tech startup already gaining traction from investors, Eazi pulled out of this venture, losing his shares in order to focus on becoming a musician.

Eazi attributes much of his success and luck due to the timing of working with DJ Juls, who remixed his second single “Bankulize” featuring Pappy Kojo. Since then, Eazi has been propelled into international recognition with other hits like “Skin Tight” and “Leg Over.” He most recently launched emPawa Africa, a talent agency focused on promoting independent and emerging African artists. With most African artists being independent and lacking proper music business structure, Eazi hopes to provide a platform that is self-sufficient in creating an effective place for these musicians.