Wizkid gets candid about “Made In Lagos”, Growing as an Artist & Parenting Goals with Zane Lowe

Afrobeats superstar Wizkid joined Zane Lowe on Apple Music to talk about everything including the success of his latest album “Made In Lagos“, the resilience of music and growing as an artist, collaborating with Projexx, Damian Marley, and Ella Mai, what he listens to, his goal as a parent, making music, and more.

On the resilience of music:

…like you said, music is life, basically. We’re just going to keep creating music and showing our important… even just pull in as Africans, we’re just going to keep doing that every time. Regardless of the environment we’re in. Regardless of the madness around us. We’re always going to keep showing the excellence in the art.

On the success of “Made In Lagos”:

It feels so great, man. Especially when you spend time making the music and spend a lot of time on the art. It’s just amazing to see that people appreciate the music around the world. Not just Africans because that’s why I make music. I’m just trying to connect to the world and just spread good vibes to the world. So yeah. It’s just very, very… It’s a blessing to me to be here, play my own role and do my own thing. But I’m very thankful. I’m very thankful that people love the album. Every day I wake up it’s like… I see something nice that makes me go, “Oh yeah, we did it. We did a great job, man.”

On the importance of growing as an artist:

It was very, very important for me to pass my message without losing my name or myself, like as artists, I believe we all want to grow. So we all want to grow. So whenever I make an album or I make a project, I just try to make sure that the growth way very evident. Not just in the music and the art and everything and like the artwork, the videos, the rollout. It was very, very important for me to like… We had to sit and structure all of that. Like I had to make sure that the music was very, very, very, very, very solid. So I definitely, definitely… It was very intentional. I would say it was a very intentional record.

On collaborating with Projexx, Damian Marley, and Ella Mai:

You know, first of all, like when two artists go in the room to make music, especially two great artists, you definitely going to create magic. But when you have like two real people or like three real people in the room that you’re bound to make, even like exceptional music. So me getting in the room with Projexx, Damian [Marley], Ella Mai, everyone that I made music with, it was very, very important for me to like, just making music regardless of where the sound was coming from or whatever anyone was bringing to the table. I just wanted to make sure I’m making music. I’m not making music for the name or just cause the name looks nice together or.

On what he listens to:

I listen to everything, man. You’d be shocked. I listen to everything, everything that comes out I’ll listen. I listen, man, everything, everything I listen to because… Like I said, music is life and I stay, sleep, eat music, that’s in anything I do. So. Yeah. I listen to everything, man. I will get down so like… You think about it, anything you can imagine I listen to. And I listen to a lot of old music too, cause I’m old. So like I love, I love, I love all records.

On being an old soul:

Like you said, like when I was young I used to hear that word being thrown around. First of all, I thought it was cause I was always cool with the older people. Cause I had like all older friends, I was always hanging out with people a lot older than I was. So I thought, “Oh, maybe that was the reason why,” but as you tend to grow older and you get to know yourself better as a human being and you grow spiritually as well, you tend to understand that term that is deeper than that. Like you’re here for a purpose. You’re here for a reason. I’m here for to cater for family, in case for anyone that crosses their path around me, she’d be good. And it also is deeper. Like when you know the essence of why you care, can you understand it beyond any human understanding? Like trust me, I think that’s what that is. You know? And you just know yourself.

On his goal as a parent:

First of all, it’s a crazy generation we’re living in and as time goes by, like they exposed to everything. So it is very, very important to let my kids understand life and understand themselves. I wouldn’t want them to emulate me, be even better human beings.

That is my own important role to be able to raise great, amazing human beings, man. But I mean from the soul, cause whenever I meet a great person, I’m happy. Like I feel I go out and like there’s a whole lot of us around. You feel me? So I would just want to always in the midst of everything, in midst of the madness, in midst of how fast the world is growing, like I would just always want my kids to stay true to that. Just by me just staying true to who I am, so yeah.

On lessons learned during quarantine:

… As human beings, I feel like we have our survival instincts, right. So when everything happens we all just automatically… You just switch into survival mode, like, “Okay, yeah, this is what we’re doing. This is what the world has come to. So we need to keep moving forwards.” That I put that in mind. And secondly, it’s like I love performing, I love the energy from people.

So where you don’t get that, I feel like the crazy times were hard but as I see it made everyone understand what is important in life. And us artists you… This is the first time where everyone’s kind of slowed down and paused in like a minute. Like, “Oh no one is really touring and jumping around.” So everyone’s home. Like there’s a more human, like you’re a little bit more human.

I feel like that reflects in the music. And so now it’s like, “Oh whoa, you see things a little bit clearer.” Because sometimes you make music, you get in the club, you’re touring, but that’s like… You can be stuck in a place that is not real when you’re on the road, and you’re making music like that. But when you’re home and you’re really going through everything like a normal human being it’s like… You just realize music comes from a real place. Especially when the music comes from a real place for you as an artist and for me it does.

So right now it’s like, I’m making some of the most purest, realist music I’ve ever made in life.

On finding peace:

Man, I just found myself. I found my peace, man. I found myself. I found my peace in ways I can’t even put words to explain. I can’t explain it. As we are growing as older people… So when you’re young, it’s like you’re searching like, “Okay, who am I? What?” You’re inspired by a lot of people. So it’s like you’re trying to find yourself. But right now I feel like I’m in the best, I’m in my zone. I know exactly why I’m here. I just found my peace, man. I found my peace in ways I can’t explain.

On music moving forward:

Yeah, I don’t even, right now I don’t even have to think too deep. Cause the music comes from here. So it’s how I feel. So it just comes easy for me. I’m making some amazing music, man.

Watch a snippet of the conversation below: