Talented Hip Hop artist Joulesdakid also called Young Joulsey made his way to the Pulse Nigeria studios on Wednesday, June 14, 2017.
If you an ardent Nigerian radio listener, you may have heard ‘Aunty Dupe’ by Young Joulsey, a song which got him quite some buzz and airplay, a song he toured with in the UK alongside Ajebutter 22 who was also making waves with his single ‘Omo pastor’ .
Young
Joulsey tells Pulse he has been grinding with music since junior
secondary school, performing at shows in school and learning how to
write raps using unfinished songs of his brother who also was an artist
in a music group at the university.
Joulsey dropped his first official single at
foundation level right before university, before he would then stumble
on a group of buzzing producers called LazyGNius and KTP, whom he worked with on a mixtape "JoulesDaKid:LazuGNius The Official Mixtape Vol. 1" in 2012.
Joulsey’s
music is usually inspired by women he says because he always finds
himself in relationships. Also the go-getter hustling spirit of
Nigerians, the Chocolate City Music rappers such as MI and Jesse Jagz, indigenous rapper Olamide and rap sensation Falz alongside American rappers Kanye West and ASAP Rocky inspire and influence his music development.
On his challenges with the music, the young
rapper says it’s trying to strike a balance to be commercially
successful while not losing his sound.
“Not compromising what you actually want to do for what you know,
“ Joules explains, adding that there seems to be a formula with
Nigerian music that makes all songs sound the same - from the lyrics to
the beat, with the understanding that it might make you money.
“Then
you forget your own sound and it just becomes about the money. Focusing
on your own thing and being able to compete with people doing things
that seem mainstream to the core," he further explains is a challenge.
Joules recognized the need to get back to
Nigeria after his studies abroad in the UK. He tells Pulse that a song
might be big in Nigeria but not necessarily make it to the clubs in
London, so there was always that disconnect for him as an artist over
there.
“Nigerians over there don’t
really know what’s popping in Nigeria to connect with Nigeria. They just
have what’s popping on Youtube but they don’t know what actually gives
the feeling of like a big jam.”
Joulesdakid
also talked about stage performances and how the crowd only needs to be
feeling your music already, leaving the artist with less work to do.
He
talked about how he tries to sometimes perform his most popular songs
at the end and other times at the beginning, then introducing them to
new songs to go check out on his project. “It’s all about giving them a different vibe” he explained.
To Joules, "it’s all about the experience on stage and the people identifying the music.”
On
the state of Hip Hop in Nigeria, Joules thinks Nigerians are not giving
the rappers enough recognition compared to the kind South African
rappers are getting from their people but also added that the rappers
need to put the listeners first.
“I
don’t think rap is the problem, I think Nigerian rappers need to
understand that it’s not about rap, it’s about the people listening to
the rap and you need to be able to make it work.”
On his thoughts about Nigerian music generally, Joules says, “Nigerian
music is one of the fastest rising in the world right now because
there’s no one that doesn’t know at least one Nigerian song”, referencing Wizkid’s ‘One dance’ as that song which has opened the door for the world to discover other Nigerian acts.
“So
I think in terms of the music, the artists are trying to push more, and
get the music out of Nigeria, and it’s not like we don’t want it to
just be Nigerian, we want it to be something we can stand proud of and
take to everybody else.”
“Our pop songs don’t have to be like almost nonsense.”he adds.
Speaking
of Alternative music in Nigeria and the artists labeled as such, Joules
made it clear that he’d rather not be placed in that category because
he feels like it makes such artists work less hard.
The rapper who would rather be classed with
the likes of Olamide advises that as much as those artists may be trying
to push their music outside of Nigeria, they should remain aware of the
fact that their primary market should be for Nigerians, and encourages
them to carry the Nigerian audience along with the music.
'Beef'
as they call it in Hip Hop and rap music was also discussed to find out
Joulesdakid's thoughts on the issue generally speaking.
Pulse
asked Joulsey if he likes to employ that in his music to which he
replied that he only expresses how he feels and if that involves name
calling then he is unapologetic about it.
“I
wouldn’t say I do a lot of name calling but I do definitely make it a
point to say how I feel and if your name is in the middle of it, then I
am sorry, I have to do what I have to do.” the rapper said, however
adding that if the idea of two artists just beefing is for the fun of
it, it comes off as unnecessary.
On measuring his music career growth, and
purpose for doing music, Joules believes he now has a clear purpose for
why he is into music, which he says is to pass across messages and
influence people as a confident rapper.
“I know what kind of music I want to make, I know I’m a rapper. I might do different instrumentals but I’ll still rap over them."
‘’I
feel like I’m more confident with my music because I’m talking about
myself and no one really can have an opinion about you, If I'm rapping
about cars , If I’m just writing bars and punchlines you can choose to
like the punchline or not but If I’m telling you about my life then you
really can’t have an opinion, you just have to accept it, you can
either relate to it or not.”
On what’s next for Joulesdakid, the rapper
reveals he is working on releasing singles, getting his songs in the mix
of the playlists and into the clubs and just being part of the industry
proper.
The rapper noted he would like to work with Nigerian acts like MI, Jesse Jagz, Terry Apala, Cynthia Morgan and a Tiwa Savage though
he mentioned he is trying to get to that point in his career where even
if he features a big artist, people would still want to hear his rap
after the featured artist is done with their part.
“I
don’t wanna feature somebody that would come and own my song, so it’s
all a process and if you understand this, it makes it all easier to get
to that point.”
Joules, when asked
about his favorite Nigerian songs, told Pulse that he doesn’t do much of
listening to fellow artists’ music not because he is arrogant or
anything but because it distracts from his creative process which he
said is quite common among some artists, not just him he explained.
He, however, was able to mention four songs he has bumped into and likes which include Niniola’s ‘Maradona’, Falz’s ‘Jeje’, Tekno’s ‘Samantha’, Davido’s ‘Fall’ and then drops his own upcoming track titled ‘RRS’ as the fifth song.
Joulesdakid shows good promise of moving forward the Nigerian Hip-Hop scene as his earlier body of works, the mixtape and the most recent "Homecoming" EP would suggest.
Get familiar.
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