The Fresh Prince of LasGidi channels Nollywood vibes and feminine energy into his debut solo EP
Behind most culturally impactful movements within the creative industries, there is an African innovator leading the way, changing perspectives and expanding audiences in their wake. One such key player is creative director, artist and all-round visionary Teni Zaccheaus JR, otherwise known as Teezee. As one-third of the alté originators DRB Lasgidi and co-founder of the youth platform Native, it’s hard to ignore Teezee’s contribution to Nigeria’s ever-evolving creative space. It has been an electrifying few weeks for the artist as he primes listeners for the release of his debut solo EP ‘Arrested By Love’. Tracks like ‘Badi’ featuring DaVido, ‘New Government’ alongside Prettyboy D-O and Kofi Mole and ‘NOK’D’ with Deto Black have provided teasers for what we can expect to hear in the exhilarating project.
“You guys are in the cold abi?” he asks jokingly as we settle into our conversation, detecting the hint of FOMO in my tone when describing his set-up by the beach. However, Teezee is no stranger to the grayscale tones of the UK as he grew up splitting his time between London and Lagos. “I was just into a lot of different types of art,” he confirms of his culturally rich upbringing. “My father was selling relatively high fashion stuff in his retail store in Nigeria while my mum was more into visual arts, collecting some pieces from legendary artists like Tola Wewe.” In his early teens he began to tune into the sounds of legendary Nigerian musicians like 2Face, PSquare and African China. And when MTV arrived in Nigeria, it opened him up to the likes of Blink 182, Fall Out Boy, Backstreet Boyz and Britney Spears. “Those kind of things moulded one’s view of the world. Like okay, there’s what we do out here that I love so much and what happens in the outside world that I connect to as well.”
Teezee began to experiment with whatever creative outlet he could get his hands on. He reminisces on winning all of his dance competitions to playing the drums and piano and singing in the choir. “I was a born performer. It was second nature to me. My grandfather was someone that inspired me to do that because he was a similar character as me. And when I used to watch Puff Daddy and all those guys on TV, I always felt like one day I could do this, I don’t know how but one day it would click.”
The love for LasGidi is omnipresent in Teezee’s persona and creative pursuits. “Lagos is one of the craziest cities in the world, a great variation between heaven and hell,” he says, going on to tell me that there is absolutely nothing you can’t find in Lagos. It’s this juxtaposition of chaos and beauty that keeps him inspired. “It’s the top five English-speaking city in the world so you can imagine the kind of cultural impact that Nigeria has. I’m just glad to be a part of it, nowhere is doper than this.”
Simply being a part of it is an understatement. Teezee, along with two secondary school classmates BOJ and Fresh L, are revered for their boundary-breaking discovery of the alté genre that has now taken over on a global scale and paved the way for so many new artists. However, this was only a by-product of the trio expressing their individuality. “Out of all our friends, we had different styles and people were like ‘Teezee and BOJ, you guys are alté, you guys are weird, why do you dress like this or talk like this?’ and we were like you know what, that’s actually what makes us different.”
This free-flowing sense of individuality is what continues to fuel ‘Arrested By Love’. While exploring themes of personal freedom as well as freedom for young people, the project also narrates his transition into fatherhood last year. “My son just gives me so much happiness so it felt like love was definitely the most overwhelming feeling I had once I met my son. So yeah, I was arrested by love.” He describes it as the most vulnerable piece of work he’s ever made, leaving no stone unturned from relationships, heartbreak and scandal to bragging, loneliness and spirituality.
“When I used to watch Puff Daddy on TV, I always felt like one day I could do this”
The title is also taken from a classic Nollywood flick, a nod to the timelessness of a genre and an aesthetic that continues to inspire today’s youth. “Why I relate so much to early 2000s Nollywood and what I’m doing right now is that it took ten years for people to realise how impactful those guys were. They were so ahead with style, fashion and looks so it’s just about regenerating and celebrating something from our culture,” he muses. “If the internet was as big back then, Jim Iyke and Genevieve Nnaji would have been the biggest stars in the world and today we do have some of the biggest actors, singers and designers in the world, so it’s kind of like a new renaissance.” For this project, Teezee replicates the melodramatic portrayal of emotions of Nollywood into his music and the narrative of the submission of men towards women. Despite their deceitful femme fatale tendencies, he praises these films for always making the women the stars of the show because “in hindsight, that’s what the future is all about”.
A recurring sonic texture within the project is his heart-racing, high-energy take of afro-trap. The intoxicating merge of afrobeat melodies over tittering 808s and otherworldly, electronic effects is what will have listeners hooked from start to finish. “I think it was important for me to let people hear a Playboi Carti-type beat but I’m speaking Yoruba and pidgin English on them. It’s just to break down those barriers of miscommunication. I want to be the artist from Nigeria that’s performing on the same stages as Lil Yatchy or Kid Cudi. It’s not just Afro Nation. I want to do Wireless again, I want to do Coachella, I want to do everything.”
There are many stand-out moments within ‘Arrested By Love’ from artists he’s invited to feature. Afro-house sweetener ‘Do Me Je Je’ opens with Teezee’s smooth vocals soon giving way to London rapper Knucks’ mellow rap style. Elsewhere we are gifted by the presence of artists including Midas The Jagaban, Pa Salieu, BackRoad Gee, Teni The Entertainer and Lancey Foux, each of them adding different layers to the world Teezee has built. “Me, I’m all about Pan-Africanism. Pa is from Gambia, Backroad is from Congo, you get, just mixing all those characters up and putting them together to bring this world forward is something that was really important to me.”
The spellbinding cover art rings of Teezee’s heavy Andre 3000 inspirations. Three different versions of his personal are presented – to the left is Teezee the devil with horns. To the right is Teezee the angel in a white suit and rocking a halo. And in the middle, he’s joined by his son and fronting his neatly permed hair. At this point, he lists a number of artists who have paved the way for his own radical self-expression such as Lenny Kravitz, Will Smith and Pharrell Williams, but his most well-defined influence, as I guessed, is Andre 3000. “He wore dresses and wigs and to me that was freeing because hip hop is such a hyper-masculine genre. That’s what encouraged me, in my own very conservative community of Nigeria, to have my hair out and be effeminate. Female energy rules my vibe.” He also points out the fact that these stars all take care of their kids but still enjoy their rock star lifestyles, which is something he relates to. “Omo, you can do it and you won’t die,” he laughs.
Teezee has already had the experience of looking up to an artist and then sharing a track with them when he featured alongside Kid Cudi on Skepta’s 2021 hit ‘Peace Of Mind’. “That even gassed me up more because that’s another person that’s changed his own path in his career to make it fit the mould of himself and he had that cultural relevance as well. It was a mind-blowing moment, I loved it and I’m so happy,” he reflects.
Beyond making music, there’s Native, which he first seeded as a magazine back in 2016 with co-founder Seni Saraki and has gone on to become an annual Lagos music festival, too. At the time, mainstream media in Nigeria chose to only celebrate the big names but Native’s focus was on those breaking into the scene. It was the first magazine platform to feature Burna Boy on the cover as well as alté superstar Santi and fashion designer Mowalola. “That’s what Native is about, supporting the next generation of African superstars, at home or the diaspora. When we put Damson Idris on the cover early 2021, Damson was bigger in London than he was in Nigeria and he’s now a major player in the entertainment space. He doesn’t need to get bigger in other places but in Naija people still need to know your story and know what you’re about. That’s the narrative we’re trying to push - how do we make everyone bigger holistically.”
Teezee acknowledges his hustler energy and rightfully so; aside from his electrifying solo debut, he’s currently working on a short film about the alté community titled ‘What The Fuck Is Alté’ as well as other film projects exploring Yoruba spirituality. “I did something in Brazil and Cuba so I want to continue doing that in other places that have the Orisa religion. It’s something that was alienated in Nigeria but Brazil and there are cities that, instead of people looking at the zodiac signs, they’re using the Orisas for guidance. So back home why have they made us feel like these things are bad?” The self-styled ‘Fresh Prince of Lad Gidi’ is here to tell you to let those spirits – and his music – move you.
Arrested by Love by Teezee is out now. Discover it here.