On social media, DJ YK’s affect is ubiquitous – the hashtags #DJYK and #DJYKbeats have over 14 million streams and 50.5 million streams respectively on TikTok.
Lagos, Nigeria – In 2019, a catchy, melodic instrumental hit social media platforms in Nigeria. A yr later, it emerged as a fab soundtrack throughout lockdowns induced by the COVID-19 pandemic, and afterwards on dancefloors, throughout elements of Africa and the African diaspora.
Merely titled Dance, the beat had no vocals. It indisputably bore the marks of Nigeria’s blossoming Afrobeats music style however an amazing majority of those that preferred it had no thought who its producer was – till November 2019 when its creator, Lagos-based Olayinka “DJ YK” Lawal, uploaded a avenue dance video for it on YouTube.
The virality was proof of the enigma of 29-year-old Lawal, a comparatively unknown act within the mainstream Nigerian music trade however one with an enormous presence on Instagram and TikTok. He additionally has a big following on the street music scene throughout Lagos, the continent’s de facto leisure capital.
That offered a springboard for the untitled beat to overcome the continent, however Lawal has largely stayed away from the limelight. “I'm not the interview kind,” he instructed Al Jazeera, calmly in the beginning of a chat after weeks of ducking cellphone calls and never replying to textual content messages.
Final summer time, Essence, a track by Nigerian famous person duo Wizkid and Tems, peaked on the ninth spot on the Billboard Scorching 100 chart and Love Nwantiti by their compatriot cKay turned essentially the most Shazamed track on the planet. These moments, alongside the 2021 World Music Album class win on the Grammys by one other Nigerian, Burna Boy, are seen as seminal landmarks of Afrobeats and its arrival on the worldwide scene.
In response to Statista, the income of the Nigerian music trade can be roughly $44m in 2023, a pointy rise from $34m in 2018 because of the world acceptance of Afrobeats. Main worldwide gamers like Common, Sony and Empire have arrange store in Nigeria.
However the floor zero of the style, a unfastened grouping of up to date African pop sounds from principally Nigeria and Ghana, is within the internal streets of the numerous ghetto communities dotting Lagos.
And if Afrobeats is scrubbed of its Western-approved sheen, Lawal is one among its highly effective engines. His producer tag – “DJ YK Mule” (‘mu le’ is a Yoruba phrase which implies ‘drop it’) reverberates throughout Lagos alongside his catchy beats, powering many a faaji – the Yoruba idea of enjoyment as part of on a regular basis dwelling.
On social media, DJ YK’s affect is ubiquitous – the hashtags #DJYK and #DJYKbeats have at the least 14 million streams and 50.5 million streams respectively on TikTok. On Instagram, he has a mean of fifty,000 views on his reels.
His beats have grow to be the soundtrack to viral challenges on each platforms and YouTube. Popstars Naira Marley and Ice Prince have additionally given him shout-outs on social media for his affect on at the moment’s sound.
A technique to the insanity
However he's an unconventional pop star with uncommon issues: his music will get no love from many radio stations and his face barely registers on the size of recognized faces in Nigerian popular culture, even to many who dance to his music.
“I do know folks marvel what DJ YK seems like,” he mentioned.
Whereas different music celebrities publish clips of their performances on their social media pages, DJ YK prefers to share viral movies that includes his instrumentals.
However his reclusive nature has additionally affected his model worth. Whereas newbies are racking up endorsements, DJ YK has but to bag a serious endorsement deal.
“He's a type of old-school producers which can be content material with having successful track and being a DJ,” Motolani Alake, Nigerian music critic and Lagos-based managing editor of Pulse Nigeria each day journal, instructed Al Jazeera. “Possibly he's frightened of the general public, that’s a chance.”
Music critics say his reclusive behaviour just isn't reverse psychology to spice up consideration to his model however merely the case of a non-public particular person shunning the press.
Throughout the interview, his solutions have been direct and transient. He additionally nitpicked inquiries to reply, not with the vanity of a megastar, however with the impatience of 1 eager to return to specializing in doing what he loves finest – making folks dance.
Born and bred in Sango-Ota in Ogun state, subsequent door to Lagos, Lawal at all times preferred music.
He evaded questions on his household and background, preferring to debate solely music. However he revealed that he grew up poor. “Every thing was tough,” he mentioned. “I got here from a poor background. I had no supporters,” he mentioned.
Born a Muslim, he nonetheless holds on to his religion at the moment and studied at what's at the moment referred to as the Tai Solarin College of Training in Ogun state.
As a young person, he started to hear deeply to stars on the time like Terry G, SideOne, DreSan and others who took over the inner-city of Lagos and its environs.
The music from these artists was crude and vulgar however represented the sound of the inner-city youth. Its tempo was additionally quick and the songs had an unconventional construction, which was partly why a lot of the musicians didn't hit mainstream stardom.
And Lawal gravitated towards this sound in his atmosphere.
His foray into music started round 2013 when he began as a disc jockey however he was not raking in good cash from deejaying. Throughout these darkish instances, Lawal determined to attempt his palms at manufacturing.
“I discovered the whole lot I find out about music on YouTube,” he mentioned. “Music manufacturing is how folks knew about me,” he mentioned. ‘When you may have been doing one thing for some time, and persons are not turning up, you need to sit down and discover the best way ahead and make your self in style.”
With manufacturing in his repertoire, Lawal’s profession started an upward trajectory. He credit the viral instrumental he launched in 2017, South African Beat Fashion, as when issues began to pop for him. It was throughout this era that he carried out at concert events headlined by Afrobeats stars Mayorkun, Mr Eazi and Reekado Banks.
That instrumental was later rechristened Dance when it began to get mainstream consideration. And when he formally launched it in 2019, it moved from barbershops in inner-city Lagos to lots of the most unique nightclubs throughout Nigeria.
Its reputation coincided with the emergence of a brand new dance wave accompanying the introduction of Afrobeats to world audiences. Dance steps Shaku Shaku, and Zanku turned a part of in style tradition and have become the right platform for DJs like Lawal to flood the scene with their instrumentals.
Lawal’s different beats initially adopted the identical sample as Dance, not requiring a singer or rapper to leap on them. It takes him something from 2-10 hours to provide them, or typically two days.
They sound crude however are a tour de drive sans vocals and fast to induce sweat and euphoria, due to a nifty undercurrent that's onerous to withstand, his followers say. And maybe another excuse the beats catch on so properly, critics say, is as a result of they're additionally harking back to in style avenue musicians.
A type of is Terry G, a veteran singer, producer and hood genius who blew up circa 2008, due to a staccato move and equally groovy songs.
“I really feel it's Nigeria’s model of EDM, rave music, and dubstep,” Alake mentioned.
After making a reputation for himself within the underground scene, Lawal was not happy with being a one-trick pony. In 2020, he add a brand new component to his beats, viral vocal gaffes or buzzwords. He would splice the buzzwords and embed them in his instrumentals.
“Primarily my beats turned songs,” he mentioned. The brand new model labored tremendously and elevated his profile extra. At present, most DJ units throughout Lagos are incomplete with out Warisi and Lure Lanje, two of his greatest songs.
Unmasking the enigma
However virality has its drawbacks.
In response to Metropolis 105.1 FM Lagos presenter Melody Hassan, “Individuals assume that the whole lot that goes viral on TikTok routinely will get performed on the radio. It’s not essentially so.”
Every radio station has its music model, and DJ YK’s beats are barely radio-friendly. Even with a bias for Nigerian songs on the channels, most stations hardly play “avenue music”; once they do, marquee artists like Naira Marley or Zlatan get the slot.
“His songs [also] don’t work in radio format due to the sparse vocals and extended instrumental,” Hassan instructed Al Jazeera.
Nonetheless, many mainstream acts would gladly pay handsomely to get his stage of cultural relevance. However Lawal says he solely posts his songs on-line and does no different type of promotion. And he credit the brand new era of dancers with serving to promote his music.
Unsurprisingly, his affect is now more and more chopping throughout financial strata. Not like a number of years in the past, it's now frequent to witness bedlam at a avenue carnival within the low-income suburbs of Agege or concert events within the intellectual district of Victoria Island, when a DJ YK beat comes up. Individuals grow to be “possessed” as they shuffle their legs in a variety of dance strikes popularly referred to as “legwork”.
“His work is a unifier,” Alake mentioned. “It’s the power that the streets get pleasure from. It’s infectious and distinctive.”
Even with out little or no radio play, Lawal is joyful about his impression. But when there's any clear grand plan or grasp technique to push himself additional, he's being cryptic about it, as regular.
His solely physique of labor is the 2019 album, The Face, Vol. 1, and he's tight-lipped about whether or not one other mission is on the best way.
The Face had 9 tracks and no options. Other than two acts – Dammy Krane and Q-Dot – Lawal has not labored with any artiste of reputation in a strictly collaborative sense. He prefers to slice catchphrases from in style artists and pattern them on his beats.
However even the enigma could also be uninterested in lurking within the shadows and Lawal is engaged on new music movies that he might star in – and that would unmask him. However he appears ready, prepared even.
On his album cowl lies what is probably a prophecy for the times forward. “You realize the content material, so unhappy you don’t know the face, now it’s time you all know the face,” it reads.
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