SPOTLIGHT: Loye — the MI Abaga label’s first signee soaring to stardom

Daniel Olaloye, fondly called Loye, is a fast-rising artiste with a singular ambition; to make it to the topmost level attainable in the music industry. In this interview with TheCable Lifestyle’s PELUMI BOLAWA, Loye talks about his struggles before the spotlight and how he eventually signed to MI Abaga’s record label.

TheCable: Can you tell us about Loye?

Loye: I am Daniel Olaloye Junior. Yeah. Loye is a guy. Let me use the word guy. He is a guy who has gone through tribulations, trials and troubles and is just someone who finds peace with music and has a goal with music. Yeah, I think that’s a summary of who I am. I’m just someone who finds peace in music.

TheCable Lifestyle: Tell us more about your genre of music

Loye: My genre is Emo-Afrobeat – Emotional Afrobeat.  It is a type of music that has to do with how you feel at the moment. It has to be real. It is not something you just cook up in your head. It has to flow with things that happen as you go on with your life.

TheCable Lifestyle: Who inspires you in the music industry?

Loye: I would say, Chris Brown. Because growing up, I used to listen to Chris Brown and Michael Jackson. Chris Brown does most of the love songs while Michael Jackson does love songs and situations.

So like, I think I kinda like got induced in Michael Jackson and Chris Brown more than any other artistes before I finally started listening to Nigerian artistes.

I feel like I am more of a Chris Brown… Nigerian Chris Brown rather. Because I sing in that direction. I draw musical inspiration from whatever I am in. Either love, trials, sadness, or depression. It just tends to become the music in my mind. Cause it makes me flow with it easily. It makes me just get to whatever it is easily.

TheCable Lifestyle: How do you feel being the first artiste signed under the MI Abaga-owned music label?

Loye: It is amazing cause aside from being a rapper, MI is someone who knows everything about the industry. And aside from the industry, he is a great big brother and a great father in total. Let me put it that way because he has played both roles in my life, business-wise. He is always going to stand out as an amazing person.

TheCable Lifestyle: Before you were signed into Incredible Music, have you been approached by any other music label?

Loye: A lot of labels. One thing is, most of them did not just sit right in my head. And when I met MI, he was not ready to start a label at first. He wanted to help me get opportunities, but when I discovered that these opportunities are actually going to be the same if he starts something and I jumped on it.

He just asked me if I wanted to start Incredible Music with him and in my head, I was like, why didn’t you say this earlier? This is like a dream. Cause we could start something great. It will be like a record-breaker for myself and my family. I don’t know. I don’t really know how to explain it. But then I just felt like I was in the right place with MI.

TheCable Lifestyle: Let’s talk about ‘Runaway’, a song in your EP. What was the inspiration behind the song?

Loye: Yeah. ‘Runaway’ was inspired by my love life.  Although, I look really, really young, then, I feel like I have gone in and out of experiences with relationships and stuff.

TheCable Lifestyle: Let’s talk about the TikTok challenge. What brought about the challenge?

Loye: The thing is, I didn’t actually start pushing it on TikTok. I think I posted the song on TikTok maybe two days when I was about to drop the song. If I had wanted to push it on TikTok, I would have started like a month ago or two weeks. But I’ve been pushing it personally.

I’ve been heading around radio stations and stuff. Cause I felt like going to radio stations helped me connect with fresh people and not just social media fans. I want to have hardcore fans that would like to listen to me naturally and without even following me on Instagram, when they come across my music, they would be able to sing along. Those are the kind of fans I want to create for myself, not social media fams, fans, and streaming fans. So yeah.

TheCable Lifestyle: You previously said your family didn’t like the idea of you being a musician. What has been the reception now?

Loye: They finally accepted it. They didn’t have a choice. It’s been really tough. I came to Lagos in 2017 and since I came to Lagos, I’ve been like hustling and bustling. I used to stay with my elder sister in Ikorodu. I’ve always had my music dream. Cause my late elder sister was my motivation toward singing. She always enjoyed my singing. She would always be like, come and sing for me and stuff.

So, when she passed, it was just really traumatic and crazy. So like when I got to Lagos, I realized, man, I need to chase this dream for real. Cause this is one of the things I am really good at. So why not just make it bring something good into reality and honour my late sis memory?

I started to chase my dream, but I wasn’t allowed to go to the studio when I was in my sister’s place. So I had to just cook up a lie and told my pastor to help me plead with my sister. That was when I got admission into Yabatech (Yaba School of Technology) in 2020.

Yes, I actually wanted to go to the studio, but I had other plans in mind. My best friends were like, we should run away from home and so I threw my bag outside the fence.

Leaving the house without having a place to stay, I started to sleep on school premises for like three months on the bare floor. Repeating clothes over and over again – the three or four clothes I had then.

We started to sing in clubs. We performed in places just to get cash and still slept on school premises while attending lectures. I wasn’t able to concentrate on lectures that much. So we came across this club where we went to perform and they didn’t let us perform till like late after everything was almost done, so it was around four, I guess.

So they were like, people are already leaving. I started to sing outside and then these girls just came to me and they were like, there are some rich men over there, go sing for them, they will enjoy your music. I started to sing. I was really shy at first, but then I started to sing for them and they sent me N30,000.

That N30k went to the wrong account, but I didn’t realise it until the next day. I just woke up one morning and I was like, guys, let’s go and have fun man. We have money now let’s go and chop life. We went to the bank to withdraw the money and there was like N100 left in my account and I was like, yo, we lost this money.

So I called the man and the man was like, his fiancée, who is his wife now, lost her sister, that she needs some encouragement and upliftment.

We went over there to start singing for her. Then her own best friend was on the call with MI and then she switched to video call and he was like, yo, I need this guy’s number immediately he heard my voice.

So he got my number. He didn’t call me for almost two months. I already lost hope.

Then one morning, I followed my best friend to his grandmother’s place in Epe, since I didn’t have a place to stay and we were on holiday then. And then the next morning, MI just called my manager and he was like, yo, come to Lekki Phase 1 now. And then he called me and I was like, yo, are you serious?

I didn’t have clothes to wear, I just wore one cloth I just washed and I started heading over there.

I got there and MI was about to leave already. Then he met me at the time. He was like, oh, you’re here, come in. He asked me whom I wanted to work with. I listed some industry heads and he reached out to them, but they were not really ready. They were like, Nah.

Then he asked me, do I want to work with him? He gave me time to think. Took over a year out planning myself after I already accepted to work with him. Took a while to set to work on my skills, work on my craft, and it’s been two years now and here we finally put out my debut single and we’re moving, working on greater things, a chance to meet up for collaborations, and all other stuff.

And I have my EP. Runaway is off my EP. I recorded my EP in two days. More than five songs in two days. So like he was there, he was really shocked cause we traveled to Jos together after he rated my writing skills 2/10, I was like, men I won’t accept it.

So we traveled to Jos. It was more like on the writing camp and then I blew his mind. He was there in the same room with me recording and he was like, you don’t need my help again now. You know how to write already. And was like, mad, this is amazing. It was just great song after great song continuously. And he just kept feeling each one of them. Here we are today, thanking God for life and course.

TheCable Lifestyle: MI talked about you going back to school, are you back to school already?

Loye: Yeah, we needed an apartment cause we didn’t have a place to stay. We needed to get things better. Yeah. I was already going to school before I met MI. I was still trying to sort out my bills myself, help people do assignments, and get some money when we, or together. But when we met MI, we started working together and getting cash on a monthly basis. Everything just started to look okay.

Now I’m able to provide for my mom in the little ways that I can. I can sort out my bills myself. I have a roof over my head and I’m just grateful, man. I’m doing stuff and hoping for greatness. I’m not where I want to be yet, but I’m definitely working to be where I want to be.

TheCable Lifestyle: So which artistes are you looking forward to working with now? Your dream collabo?

Loye: I am like the Nigerian Chris Brown, so I feel like you guys should expect a bigger version of Chris Brown in Nigeria.

I look forward to working with Chris Brown, most especially, and then Wizkid, Davido, Joeboy, Victony, a lot of them man – CK, Black Bones. They’re just a lot of talented people in Nigeria and they’re doing amazing work right now. Big shout out to them. If you look at what they’re doing right now, they’re all making waves and yeah, I really want to be in that picture with them as well.

TheCable Lifestyle: What is your contractual relationship like with Incredible Music?

Loye: From the look of everything we are on good terms. This is the most amazing set of people I’ve come across in my life. The fact that they make me feel special every step of the way makes me want to be in their business more. Cause whenever I’m in their midst, I feel like a baby, an adult baby sometimes. Cause they’re always looking out for me personally.