Blaqbonez talks about 'Mr. Boombastic EP,' 100 Crowns, Prettyboy D-O and Davolee [Pulse Interview]

The same freestyle has a second part on which he replied Davolee's diss track to him and other rappers. Blaqbonez called Davolee, 'Akamara rapper.' It was Blaqbonez's best piece of rap in a while - forget the diss. The cadences and flows were impressive. A few weeks before all these happened, Blaq visited Pulse studios on a sunny afternoon and talked about a few topics.

"That's the best feeling I've gotten from a diss (from another person)... I don't know (laughs). Like, if somebody is dissing you, the person is supposed to say stuff that hurts, but if you don't understand, you get a free pass (laughs). The funny thing about Davolee is that the day Olamide DMed him to sign him to YBNL, It was after a Hennessy VS Class session on radio.

"Guess who told him to be there? Me. I sent him a DM to tell him that I saw his freestyle on the internet and that it was mad. The I asked him if he wanted to come on VS Class and he said. Although he dropped out on the first round, it was enough to impress Olamide. At the end of the day, I don't hate the guy.

"Giving him that opportunity means that I recognize that he's a talented individual. But in the process of chasing whatever attention they're looking for, they forget that this person that he's attacking was instrumental to him getting his first big break. That moment was when everyone knew who Davolee was and Olamide signed him. I guess inside life (laughs)," he says about Davolee.

While he was slightly condescending towards Davolee - as is expected, he seemed subtly letdown by Davolee's hit.

Before the interview began

Blaqbonez visits Pulse Nigeria and talks about 100 Crowns, similarities to Prettyboy D-O, his new persona, 'Mr. Boombastic,' 100 Crowns and Davolee. (Pulse Nigeria) Pulse Nigeria

Supported by a cast of two women, he rocked a pink shirt, skinny jeans and sneakers. This writer was seriously nap-deficient before the interview. He was only alerted to its certainty when a colleague opened the 'nap-room' he was holed into to notify him of what was going on. As he stepped into the studio, something weird happened, but there's a history behind it.

In July 2019, Pulse released a list of Nigeria's hottest rappers and Blaqbonez rightly didn't make it. While things might have changed for him with a project, a good song and dope video, they were not so at the time and he was left off the list. He confronted this writer about it on social media, but sensitive trolling was the language of choice between both parties.

Back to the current day, while this writer waited to start the interview, Blaqbonez was joined on the podium by his two-woman supporting cast and then supposedly got on Instagram Live to say the following words, "I'm at Pulse, man. The game is the game..." He laughed and looked at this writer while saying, "Abi, bro?"

Coincidentally or incidentally, "The game is the game" represents this writer's words for things with little to no significance. If Blaqbonez was playing a terrible joke or attempting to troll is unclear, but this writer didn't show emotions. He waited for the antics to be over to avoid inflaming the situation and in case he was wrong.

Interview starts

As the situation naturally died out, a hint of tension was still in the air. The cordial hue that accompanies most interviews was expectedly lost, but Blaqbonez was articulate, cool and honest. Each word was picked with thought behind it. Not thought of media training, but one of honesty.

The interview might not have been as cordial, but the distant admiration later grew from this writer towards the rapper. Before the days of social media, he was the rapper kid everyone noticed. He had been building his current social media popularity for a while, but a lot of people just didn't notice. However, the few who noticed him actually did.

He was also a battle rapper who is adept at coming with heat bars off the top. At one point, he also stanned Kendrick Lamar due to his breath control and energy.

Blaqbonez at 15

His story takes us back to Blaqbonez at 15 years old in Ketu, Lagos,Nigeria. Blaq's cousin had had his fill of Blaq's constant criticism of Nigerian rap, so he told the then 15-year-old Blaq to rap. In defiance, Blaq decided to go upstairs and write his first lines.

According to him, "It was interesting to rap my own lines back to myself (Laughs)." As he was about to record those lines in a studio, he broke the microphone stand and had to pay double the price of his studio session and the entire process. According to him, the costs were sizeable. Due to grievance of this experience, he stopped recording for two years.

Blaqbonez visits Pulse Nigeria and talks about 100 Crowns, similarities to Prettyboy D-O, his new persona, 'Mr. Boombastic,' 100 Crowns and Davolee. (Pulse Nigeria) Pulse Nigeria

The next time he recorded was on his friend's laptop and his story started. Then Facebook group chats happened. In his Hip-Hop group, there were about 4,000 people. Whenever one of them dropped a track, everyone goes to listen and comment about it. He says, "I think (the Facebook experience) gave me a headstart. Many rappers start without a fan base or anything.

"But for me, going into my first track, people were ready to listen... So I recorded my own song. It was the cover of Terry Tha Rapman's 'Zombie Competition' which I won. It was the first time I got validation from outside." So he became a rapper.

On whether it was hard to go into making music, he says it wasn't. "Music took over me and I chose it," he says. When this writer asks what Blaq's inspiration currently is, he says, "I'm already the best. But right now, it's about proving it to everyone and most of all, making money from this talent."

Last Time Under

In February 2017, Blaqbonez released his sixth studio project, Last Time Under. On its songs, he jumped on popular beats to songs by acts like Travis $cott, Tory Lanez, Migos and so forth. It was arguably his major introduction to a larger audience than the small following he had previously garnered. When this writer heard it, he was shocked at its quality.

"'Last Time Under' showed me what to do and how I should do it. As at that time, there was no promotion or budget, I mixed and mastered it myself. I just pressed the laptop and found a way. But it showed me what I could do with proper backing and a proper team. The moment I dropped he project, my focus went into everything else.

"I felt like I had worked on everything else and it was time to make good music. However, I felt I needed every other good thing around it like producers, budget, PR and so forth. The idea was to make the music the best it could be," he says about Last Time Under.

100 Crowns

After Last Time Under, Blaq became signed to 100 Crowns, a subsidiary of Chocolate City. The label is owned by rappers, AQ and Loose Kaynon. With the label, he has released two projects. On what attracted him to the label, he says, "That was a team. Before you had these one-man labels where one yahoo boy just comes and says he wants to own a label...

"When you're signed to a one-man label, you're like a toy that he (the label owner) is fond of at the moment. A while later, he might stop being fond of you. But when you have a business like a proper label with structure, they know that they have to make the best of you. Sometimes, they are not even finicky about your music, it's the business.

"Whereas one-man labels are based on feelings. and that is very scary. So I try to avoid those things. You sign a four-year deal, they promote you for one year and then you're stuck there doing nothing."

Shut Up

Two weeks after Blaqbonez released his 2018 album, Bad Boy Blaq, he recorded and posted a funny video telling Nasty C to listen to his music. Before the video was recorded, Bad Boy Blaq was ranked number 19 on the Apple Music charts. After the video went viral on social media, the album ran up the charts to number 7.

Then, Blaqbonez realized the PR 'tool' he had in his persona and social media. "When you're promoting something, whatever you do to your brand adds to your numbers." Since then, he has kept using the tool that many have ignorantly called, 'pointless.'

Before his latest single, 'Shut Up' dropped, Blaqbonez took a megaphone to the streets of Lekki and kept saying, "Hi everybody, my name is Blaqbonez and I've come to save Nigerian Hip-Hop." That was him using that tool.

Blaqbonez visits Pulse Nigeria and talks about 100 Crowns, similarities to Prettyboy D-O, his new persona, 'Mr. Boombastic,' 100 Crowns and Davolee. (Pulse Nigeria) Pulse Nigeria

While talking about it, Blaq claims he did it because, "As much as Nigerians didn't grow up with rap, rappers also don't take it to them. Rappers always sit back and expect things to fall in their laps. I'd rather take the aggressive approach, Put it in your face till you notice."

He feels like other Nigerian rappers should try this PR model because rap is already at a disadvantage in Nigeria.

On what inspired the song, Blaq says that he wrote it during the 'BRIA' beef moment when he was dissed on records by TenTik, Vader and MejiTheRapper. He saw it as a song that ascertains his dominance over those guys.

Mr. Boombastic vs. Rasaki vs. Blaqbonez

Blaqbonez feels like people use not having a hit song against him. He feels it is unfair to judge people by having or not having a hit, but claims that due to the times we find ourselves, he understands that line of thought. He feels like artists should also be judged by the quality of music.

So, to complete his transition, he has gone after that hit by expanding his range. On 'Shut Up,' he merged afrobeats with Hip-Hop and introduced Mr. Boombastic, a patois-speaking, musically flexible, rap-sung artist with a risque fashion sense. Before Mr. Boombastic, Blaqbonez also had Rasaki, a ratchet Yoruba-speaking persona with a head for carnage.

Mr. Boombastic is the guy in charge on the newly released EP of the same title. "Mr. Boombastic is a groovy guy, he makes bangers. 'Shut Up' is a Mr. Boombastic song. I actually wanted my songs to make everybody vibe and jump. That's the whole energy with Mr. Boombastic," Blaqbonez says of his alter ego.

Blaqbonez visits Pulse Nigeria and talks about 100 Crowns, similarities to Prettyboy D-O, his new persona, 'Mr. Boombastic,' 100 Crowns and Davolee. (Pulse Nigeria) Pulse Nigeria

According to him, it was while he was recording Bad Boy Blaq Re-Up that he realized that side to him exists. Trickles of the persona now known as Mr. Boombastic were felt on songs like 'Nikes' and 'Play.'

On the similarities of the persona's vocal deliveries to Prettyboy D-O's sound, Blaqbonez says, "I don't have a problem with that because I replied a tweet that Prettyboy D-O tweeted at me. I told him that he inspires me before I started making progress with the Boombastic sound and I sent him music. I believe he started this sound in Nigeria; I need to pay respects and I need to let him know...

"If they say I'm trying to sound like Prettyboy D-O, that's fair. But when you think further about it, patois is not a Nigerian sound. People imbibed it because they appreciate its origin and sound, not especially because they're trying to imitate anybody. I appreciate what D-O has done, but I'm trying to recreate it in my own way. "

With these different sides, this writer asks Blaq if he had ever considered acting. He responds that after the therapy session he posted on social media, he has considered it. However, he is humble enough to know that he doesn't know if he is a good actor.

On how he responds to negativity now, he claims he just ignores because no matter how much he tries, everyone is not his target audience. Since then, Mr. Boombastic EP has dropped and you can read Pulse's review HERE.