Having grown up in a family of music lovers, TLO talked about how he was fully supported by his parents and siblings in the journey to stardom, “a rare thing for parents these days”, he says.
As 2021 packed its bags to round off one of the most iconic years in the history of Nigerian music, one major question on everyone’s lips was “How did Ed Sheeran get on Peru Remix?” Same question Fireboy DML seems not to have an answer to as the spread of Afrobeats took an exponential jump in 2021.
Wizkid’s ‘Essence’ and of course, we can’t forget in a hurry the 2019 sleeper hit ‘Love Nwantiti’ by Ckay, which did a lot of madness two years later in 2021.
Afrobeats in itself is a gift that keeps giving with lots of talented emerging artists springing up each day, month, and year, and like the saying goes “the beautiful (talented) ones are yet to be born”. From the sold-out shows in London to uber-packed concert venues in the US and much more, it’s safe to say we have not seen anything yet as regards the rise of this beautiful genre of music.
2022 is definitely set to be bigger and one of Nigeria’s emerging artists, set to shine that afrobeat light to the world is none other than Delta State-born, 25-year old music genius, TLO (real name Ogheneochuko Orugbo), a multi-talented singer, songwriter, and producer.
“Bro, those are major achievements and I sure know that my time has come because I believe I can and will do it,” Now, no truer words could have been said than these as we introduce to you.. TLO, Nigeria’s newest kid on the Afrobeats “breakout’ block.
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Having a sit-down with TLO just shows how passionate and dedicated he is to his craft, talking about how he intends to use his music to continue to preach the gospel of Afrobeats to every corner of the world. In his word “music is that one thing I never knew I needed so much I am glad I found my calling,” he says.
Catching up with TLO in the studio is so much fun as he talks about his early days of rapping, taking influences from the likes of M.I Abaga and Lil Wayne before switching to singing and he’s never looked back since.
Having grown up in a family of music lovers, TLO talked about how he was fully supported by his parents and siblings in the journey to stardom, “a rare thing for parents these days”, he says.
Having waited till 2018 to start music professionally, TLO believes he started at the right time and with his 2021 debut single ‘Heartbreaker’ doing the numbers, it’s no surprise that “everything don dey pure”, he bursts out in laughter in the presence of studio friends and of course, some cups and bottles.
“We still dey hustle o” were the words when asked about how he promotes his music in conjunction with Slash Music Worldwide, his affiliate record label. For TLO, pushing and promoting his music has been one of the major challenges for him as an artist, something he’s gradually getting a hang of.
When asked about what his dream collaboration would be in Nigeria, there was a long silence and a chuckle before the name WIZKID popped up and in his words ‘Wizkid is the one I’d really love to have on my record” while he also picks out Bryson Tiller as his dream international collaborator.
“I am dropping a new single soon and possibly an EP in 2022” were the words of the Auchi Polytechnic graduate who is looking to make a decent mark in the Afrobeats space this year and beyond.
As he steps out of the studio, TLO has one final thing to say to everyone in the industry “please, treat emerging artists with respect and support them”, the singer as he reiterated the singles and projects dropping from him as not something anyone should me. “Stay with me, guys, and thank you for the support”, he says.
