Olakira’s EP Touches on Love, Romance

With thi Page 17ngstresses, Zuchu, Sho Madjozi and Moonchild Sanelly. Olakira’s EP which opens with the fan favourite ‘Sere’ featuring Tanzania’s Zuchu, offers four beautifully crafted songs and two bonus tracks – ‘For life’ and ‘Summer Time’, featuring Moonchild Sanelly.

Gotchu’ is the second track of the EP; produced by Drumatik, a love song through and through dipped in a splash of highlife, about reassurance and dedication to one’s love. With ‘Hot Night’, the internationally recognized “Shining Star” changes gear and switches things up while in ‘Call On Me’ which features South African Sho Madjozi, Olakira shows his production skills alongside Tboy DaFlame in rhythms from the south of the continent akin to Master KG’s ‘Jerusalema’ and Yvonne ChakaChaka’s ‘Umqombothi’.

With songs in Yoruba, lbo, Pidgin and English, ‘’4 Play’’ is indeed a confluence of African sounds and the multi-instrumentalist is the genuine article. Prior to the ‘4 Play’ Olakira, born Adelusola Ebenezer Adefemi, secured spots from an African point of view at No 6 on Top 20 Afrobeat chart UK with the release of the smash hit single ‘Maserati’ in 2020, and was hustling and bubbling in the Nigerian underground.

That made him one of the new artistes emerging from the country with a massive international following. In 2019, he released the impressive EP, ‘Wakanda Jollof.’ But since 2019, he’s grown in leaps and bounds – not least, due to his 2020 efforts which ended in a smash hit in a year that was rough for most. ‘In My Maserati’ was released in June as the follow up to Olakira’s debut tape, ‘Wakanda Jollof’; though, he already scored his first hit song, ‘Hey Lover’.

“Certain people thought it was fluke when I dropped ‘Hey Lover’ and I need to prove to them that I have that talent,” said the 30 year-old singer in a recent interview. “I just kept recording songs because e dey head (it’s natural to me). Like I told you, I like to spend time in the studio. In fact, it was too much. We should have just turned it into an album but I don’t want to rush things. Everything was just easy to record. Once you have the talent.”

A singer-songwriter, multi-talented instrumentalist and also a music producer, Olakira is signed to U&I Music. His sound and songwriting is driven majorly by beats and women. He draws inspiration writing songs by just expressing himself. “It’s just me expressing my feelings. I love women, beautiful ladies out there. It’s more of love songs and how I feel about women. They are the beauty of the world. We can’t exist without them. Love is beautiful.”