As part of our About to Blow series we will be highlighting talented creatives in our Afrobeats Head community who are igniting the scene and poised for stardom.
For the first edition I spoke to Slay Papa, an artist who’s childhood dream as a devout Catholic was to become a priest but by divine intervention ended up studying Theater Arts at the University of Benin.
“My secondary school was a minor seminary,” he tells me over the phone.
“I believed it was Gods plan for me but I wrote a letter to a letter to Claritians about attending a major seminary after secondary school and they never got back to me. Then I became anxious about getting into university.
“During Benediction, whenever the monstrance was raised I would pray to God to help me get into university if it was his will. And if not, let me get into a major seminary.
A real lover boy, the Ibadan-native got his stage name thanks to his popularity with the girls in a neighboring secondary school.
“My friend Clement TYB and I used to pay 300 Naira record love songs at a studio close to our school and sent them to the girls in another school. I had a lot of female friends on Facebook so my friends called me Slay King and later I became Slay Papa
His dilemma meant that he was the last of his classmates to register for the UME exams but was surprisingly the first to be accepted into the university.
While in school his music took a back seat and until he graduated in 2024 when he released his song “Sport” inspired by Asake’s “Skating” off his Lungu Boy album
“I wrote it on a trip to Abeokuta. My friend Jumabee invited me and I just spent a lot of time checking out beats on YouTube till I found the perfect one.
“It’s a reminder to myself that I need to keep moving forward in life. I can’t be stagnant. Just like Asake in “Skating”
Slay Papa and Jumabee are also working on a new song to be released “soon”
Slay Papa’s Top Three:
- Influences: Wizkid, Asake and Shallipopi
- Dream collaborations: Wizkid, Asake and Shallipopi
- Dream venues to perform in: The 02, The Royal Albert Hall and The Wembley Stadium
Slay Papa and is confident that his music will change his life
“My greatest wish is for my music to take me around the world.”
He also has a mantra which he lives by and emphasizes on all his songs.
Before we end the call he makes me promise to include it my article.
“Slay Papa never dies.”
Stream “Sport” by Slay Papa
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Afrobeats Head Contributor