up next: EESKAY | amped interview

interview by TeamAmped

photographs by MykeVisuals

styling by jefegongetit

production by Nidi Shaga

June 1, 2025

creative process, industry reflections, breakthrough & growth

up next

interview series: detailing the creative process and journey of a young energetic nigerian rapper.

Eeskay’s journey is defined by authenticity, grit, and innovation. Turning early grassroots lyrical talent into a genre-defining career, and evolving from drill to rave with energy and depth. Keep an ear out, his next releases are shaping to be even bigger.
He continues to evolve, his versatility moving from Afro‑Drill into Afro‑Rave while still tackling grounded, street-level themes. He’s steadily building crossover appeal, marked by strong independent releases and high-profile collabs. With fresh singles and more co‑productions on the horizon (rumored features with Zlatan, Dremo, BOJ), he’s on a promising path toward becoming one of Africa's next big stars.

Let’s start from the start. What was the first time you realized music hip-hop specifically was more than just sound to you, but something you had to do?

I mean from the first moment I bumped my head to a hip-hop beat, I knew, yeah!! or should I say any beat, I knew this shit was for me

Coming out of Abuja, a city often overlooked in mainstream rap conversations, how did your environment shape your sound, your hustle, and your message?

So like you said its overlooked, so I feel when someone is overlooked, they have to work like twice as hard as possible to make sure they’re not under looked, not really for the attention but basically like sort of to be heard in a way. It’s quite fulfilling to know that people enjoy what you have to create, so my environment shaped me in a way that it made me very very hungry, yeah… And it was a message too as well to everybody to never stop and always keep fighting for what you love.

Who were the people or events that pushed you to record that first bar? And do you still go back to those memories when things get tough?

Record the first bar! Hhhmmm….. My first song was a remix of “No lie” by “Drake” the original song was by Drake, 2 chainz and I think Asap rocky, nooo I don’t think Asap rocky was on “No lie”, but yeah, so I think “Drake” was one of the people that pushed me to go record my first song. I mean I had already been vibing, freestyling and knowing a couple cats in secondary school that were freestyling with me, that really pushed me to want to go to the studio you know, and show my people what I was about, like taking it to the next level.

Your bars feel like journal entries—personal, layered, confident. What's a typical EESKAY writing session like? Chaos, structure, solitude?

So my writing session is quite crazy, cause I have to be tapped in, if im not tapped in I feel like I’m making a lazy song, so I have to be tapped in, not necessarily getting high though, but you know, feeling the energy of what I’ve been through, what I want to go through, all of those things come to light spiritually and I flow with it, and just try to make the best of it. You get me! So most times I like writing on the plane on the bus, just on motion, I like writing on motion, I can just pick up my pen pick up my paper and start scribbling down, then next is to my phone, from my phone to the freestyling on the mic, from there I get my flow, the next thing I build and do my take…

Do you start with a beat, a line, or a feeling?

I start with a line, I start with a line, in fact I start with a word, I just pick a word and go with it. The word determines how I’m feeling, yeah, it’s gotten from how I’m feeling and the way it goes with the beat, so yeah… The beat determines the feeling the feeling determines the line.

How do you know a song is “finished”? Is it a gut feeling, or do you let trusted ears in before locking it in?

Yeah, I just go with my gut feelings to be honest, you can never know when anything is really finished, you know, when everything is in motion, you can never really know, there’s no such thing as a perfect ending..

You often bend between mainstream appeal and hard truths—how do you strike that balance between staying you and appealing to a wider audience?

I just make sure I bring the best of both worlds every time i'm recording, I’m never too carried away to over-do mainstream music, or staying true to myself, cause you have to give the people what they want but you also have to give yourself what you want. So sometimes those personal achievements are what I look out for, I don’t really look at people liking the song I really look at myself liking the song, and sometimes I look at songs, and i'm like ok I want people to like this song. And it goes the opposite way sometimes, the songs I want myself to like, is what people like more and the songs I want people to like more is what I basically just like myself, so yeah!

You've touched on mental health subtly in your lyrics. What role does music play in managing your own mental health?

Music doesn’t play any role in managing my mental health, I think if anything, it deteriorates my mental health, but I still try to find the silver lining regardless, it’s a beautiful occupation to have, its free, fun, there are a lot of incentives that come with it, so yeah, but it deteriorates my mental health sometimes, but yeah, I keep pushing through those troubles with music too as well, so yeah it’s a long lasting commitment that I have.

Do you ever feel like the pressure to be “hard” or “unshaken” in rap makes it harder for artists to be vulnerable publicly?

Yeah I do, but that’s something everybody has to learn by themselves, if naturally you are not a person that likes even being vulnerable regardless, you now start rapping it makes you feel like omo, you can't be vulnerable outside, but truly and truly I think that’s something that has to be tackled, when you’re being a rapper you don’t have to be you know closed up and not sensitive and all of that, but I’ll say yeah, I feel like the pressure to be “hard” or “unshaken” in rap makes it harder for artists to be vulnerable publicly.

Beyond music, how do you use your voice or platform for advocacy? Any causes or communities close to your heart?

I mean, anything you know, related to “a fight against drugs”, I see myself going into advocacies like that, like people like talk about you know, drug related issues, sometimes I say it in my songs, like songs that are about to come out, like I try my best to send a message about it, cause that’s something that like most teenagers and most young people go through, that I know about, and also safe sex, yeah that’s one of them too as well..

What does healing look like for you outside of music?

Basically just getting away, with a couple people around that basically work with music, would just be indoors, that’s how I get to heal, just like you know, being on my own for a while, staying off anything that will throw me off my vibe, my mood, and hangout with my family, yeah, those are the things that heal me up, like they assure me that they’re always here even if they don’t say that with words. And its not like they will be here forever but their presence is always felt whenever I go back home, so yeah.

The Nigerian music scene is exploding—but rap sometimes still feels like the underdog. What’s your honest take on the current state of rap in Nigeria?

I feel like we are going somewhere, like I feel like for rap to really grow here, everybody just really needs to play their part, and its going somewhere. Whether its with us or the next generation. We did something, the other people do better, its like a relay race, you keep passing the baton until you see the winner. So yeah, fine and fair.

Is the industry friendlier to rappers now than when you started? Or do you still feel that pressure to “sing your hooks” or “commercialize” your craft?

It is, it is, yeah we are doing better sound wise, you know we are even bringing some of the OG’s into the stuff that we’ve created now, like they bumping they heads too, cos like they passed the baton down, so I feel like its getting a bit of smile right now.

Have there been moments where you were close to quitting? What pulled you back?

Omo.. Generally I’m not a quitter but there were times, but all I had to do was reflect on where I was going to, where I’m coming from, I see the silver lining and know that yeah, I just need to keep on going, I’m really a motion guy, like I literally just keep going forward so quitting is hardly there, but I mean no one can say they’ve never like almost quit something before. You have to be like a maniac to have never thought that u need some setbacks to like push you front, yeah..

What do you think industry gatekeepers still don’t understand about the hip-hop movement in Nigeria—especially from places like Abuja?

Hip-hop is not something you can be a gatekeeper at, so the gatekeepers will definitely see us in front of their gates, or we’re jumping into it. That’s all I can say mehn.. [ laughs ]

What was the hardest moment in your career so far—and what did it teach you?

The hardest moment in my career will be, basically thinking looking out for other people was looking out for myself as well, and I mean I had lessons to learn from that. This question is tough cause bro I can’t even lie, there was a lot of hard moments in my career. But everyday is a lesson, it just keeps on teaching me patience, patience. Patience is one thing music has taught me, patience is on thing life keeps teaching me, so patience.

How do you stay grounded with wins? And how do you reset after losses?

I just spill all my wins to my mum, instead of spilling it to people, cause there was something I had to learn, people don’t want to see you grow, but your mom does, so yeah I keep it within the team, and I don’t get too overly excited it, I just hope for the next.

Reset after losses is to just get back to the studio and keep pumping this iron..

What’s a recent lesson the industry has taught you that you wish you learned earlier?

I wouldn’t call it a lesson but patience is still one of them, but then if you come up with a sound, stay consistent to your sound, and stay consistent to you. It will pay off, don’t go jumping from one place to another, you might be versatile but that’s where over excitement comes, and music also sees when you’re not being humble, music is a spirit so definitely if you don’t appease to the spirit friendly, you’re going to see a bad spirit, so you have to be humble even to your music. And stay true to your sound and be consistent, if you do that you’re definitely assured it back, and more..

Let’s talk about the fans. What’s the wildest or most touching fan interaction you’ve had so far?

I mean I still have it till today, there’s people calling me, messaging me, telling me they’ve never heard anything like me, which is quite surprising and not surprising, and I’m doing so good, that I got to keep going, I check my message requests once in a while, once in a while I get a couple touchy messages, but sometimes its really when the fans are able to sing the music back to you, there’s something about when the fans can sing the music back to you, it’s a feeling I cannot explain.

How do you keep your core fans connected even as you grow bigger?

Me and my manager, shout out Jefe, he does a little bit of ground work you know, like just trying to build communities, even sometimes behind like my back, people say he keeps spreading the good word, I mean we do this thing organically but we’re trying to have a system to it, but organically is still mainly the way we go, and the fans are still here, the core ones. They’re never gonna leave, cause they know what we’re about, we’re all about that energy, and energy no dey lie..

Do you read your DMs or Twitter mentions? What do those conversations mean to you?

I mean I think its good for people to go read all those things once in a while, know where you’re going wrong, you don’t really have to accept, but you can agree, you know to some things people say, and yeah it keeps you going, you know the good ones help you boost your self esteem and you keep running up, keep running up, keep running up, sometimes it’s a downer, cause some people take pride in trying to get you down, but in this industry I just learnt omo, its just words, before I’d get down over all of those things, but yeah, its just words and its just peoples opinions that’s one thing.

What should 2025 EESKAY fans expect? Is there an album, a tour, or a sound shift cooking?

There’s definitely an album, mixtape, 4 track EP, 2 track EP, everything is loaded, its in the works. Sound shift? Definitely…. Ok I’d keep that a secret but just know we took it back to the roots…

HIP-HOP IS NOT SOMETHING YOU CAN BE A GATEKEEPER AT.

Are you experimenting with new sounds or collaborations that might surprise us? Maybe even a genre left-field of rap?

Yes I am, constantly working on that, I’m constantly working on new sounds, collaborations…

I don’t know if it’d surprise you, because the level I’ve reached, I think by now I should be less of a surprise to you guys, like whenever I drop music

What does legacy look like to you right now? And how has that changed from when you first started?

Legacy… I obviously want to leave a long lasting one, but legacy I realize doesn’t always exclude the chinks in your armor, like the bad times will also leave a legacy, the good times will also leave a legacy so we have to find a way to balance both of that, your legacy doesn’t have to be strictly good, you can try but it will never be strictly good. Cause when I started I was trying to keep it all good, by force by fire, making sure it was perfect, I’m a perfectionist but I realized yeah! they want to see the chinks in your armor too as well, you’re not that special from other people that make mistakes..

What would you tell 16-year-old EESKAY if you could speak to him today?

Stick to your sound bro!!! that’s what I’d tell myself..

When the lights are off, the mic is down, and it's just you—what keeps you going?

Family, friends you know, that’s what keeps me going mehn, God, the almighty Allah, keeps me going all the time, every time I pray, I feel him listening, yeah! So all that keeps me going.

What’s the most misunderstood thing about EESKAY that you wish more people knew?

That I’m actually more friendlier than you understand, like I feel like I’m doing things for people, like if I’m doing something for you its because I didn’t have it done for me. And I just wanted to show that yeah, there’s people that actually can do things for you, that people don’t do for you on a normal day.

Finally, if this interview were to be read by a young Abuja kid chasing rap with no blueprint—what would your message be to them?

To get a blueprint, if you can’t get a blueprint just get ready to run through walls and get ready for the pain, but get a blueprint, try and follow up on it, patience is key... Coming from a man with thin thin patience, patience is real and it’s a virtue.

Shout out to you guys.. Love.