Billboard is expanding its Rookie of the Month interview series by highlighting rising stars from more genres like dance and rock. Like Tems, many African artists have discovered one-of-a-kind ways to express themselves that cannot fit into one box while staying true to their roots. Trending on Billboard.
The year-old artist was born in Germany and raised in Spain, the U. Some of his older friends in the U. He spent one evening after school there recording his first song and returned for a few days before the youth club shut down weeks later. While attending boarding school, he downloaded FruityLoops onto one of the laptops in the IT suite and snuck the laptop back to his dorm room so he could make beats while everyone was asleep. Odeal immersed himself in the scene by joining a group called TMG, featuring other members Curtis J and Zilla, before they disbanded soon after.
Odeal embarked on his solo career in with the release of his debut EP New Time , but just a few months later, he became severely ill and spent the majority of November in the hospital. Afrobeats Songs and No. How did your international upbringing impact the music you listen to and the music you make? It made me understand different cultures and languages that people speak all over the world.
It made me understand why other cultures like one style of music over another. So when making my music, I know exactly what to do and how to execute in a way that will resonate with certain people and the elements needed for it. How many languages do you speak?
And how many languages do you typically sing in? I used to speak it fluently, and then as I grew up, it fizzled away. Stuff just hits different when you speak a certain language โ the banter is different, the whole feeling is different. Who were some of your favorite artists whom you grew up listening to? When I was growing up around the ages of , we used to listen to [urban music channels] Trace Urban and Soundcity when I was in Nigeria, and we listened to a lot of South African music like Uhuru.
