Ones2Watch Home

PapaRaZzle is a London-based, Nigerian afrofusion artist reshaping the global music landscape with his original and layered blend of afrobeats, R&B, soul, dancehall, rap, and pop music.

Hopping onto a call from Liverpool in the UK, where he goes to think and write, Nigerian-born PapaRaZzle (emphasis on the R and the Z) talks to us about his sophomore album Do You Believe in Soulmates Vol.1?, which is phrased as a question intentionally and explores connection and love beyond romance.

We had a thoughtful conversation where we talked about his musical journey starting from poetry and growing to be an original sound that felt right to him, his definition of a soulmate and the infinite quest of trying to understand what love really means and what it should feel like.

Read the full interview below: 

OnesToWatch: Hi PapaRaZzle! How are you? What city are you in right now, I can see the skyline behind you?

PapaRaZzle (PR): Hi! Yeah, I’m actually in Liverpool right now. So I divide my team between here and London.

Oh I didn’t know that, how come?

Most of the time, in London it's just work, work, work. You know, you got to do interviews, you got to do a lot of stuff, you know, studio sessions. So, Liverpool is where I come to write and think, kind of like a refuge. Where are you based?

I’m in Belgium actually, but I’m from Mexico. So, it’s been a challenge having to learn two languages here. Do you speak any other languages?

So I'm born and raised in Nigeria. So I speak Yoruba fluently and then English and pidgin English as well. I feel like pidgin English should be an official language.

It’s like a version of English that we speak generally even more than the actual English, especially in unofficial settings. I also lived in Benin for a while and went to francophone school, so I speak a bit of very limited French.

You just released your second album, to which congratulations. It’s called “Do You Believe in Soulmates? Vol. 1”. So I have two very obvious questions, but that need to be asked. 

First of all, does the fact that there's a volume one entail that there will be a volume 2? 

Absolutely! I feel like it's going to be a continuous conversation because love, romance and soulmates, family and companionship have always been a conversation in the world. There are so many music and movies about all of these topics, and I feel like we still don't have those answers because we're still asking questions. 

You know, people are still trying to figure out, like, what? What does it really mean? You know, how does it really feel? Is this the right way to do it? Is this the wrong? You know, there's so many questions around it.

I'm still asking questions and still trying to figure out things in that regard. After me, there will still be conversations. So yeah, there's going to be a volume two, hopefully, like in a couple years. I've had more experiences and new stories to write about.

This might be a loaded question, but what is one of the biggest questions you have surrounding love?

I always try to answer the questions, but one of my biggest questions will be: What is it supposed to be? You know, what exactly? How do you know when you have it? Especially because sometimes there's several expectations from different people. I feel like that's where the biggest problem is.

I feel like there's a difference between love and maybe being in a romantic relationship, like you guys might not be the best for each other in regards to a romantic relationship, but it shouldn't take away the fact that you love them. 

That is a very valid question because love can have many different ways of being, it’s not just romantic. In that sense, bringing it back to the title of your album and my second obvious question. What is a soulmate to you?

To me, a soulmate would be anybody that you have a deep connection with, without any specific reason. It’s a connection that transcends even evolution and the many changes we inevitably go through in life, and that's why you find that kind of connection in friendships more than in romantic relationships even. It just feels like we are meant to be together in this life together and we're meant to make life easier for each other.

That is such a beautiful answer, it almost made me tear up. It made me think about the album's cover art with two people hugging. I wanted to hear about the inspiration behind it.

With the process for creating every album I have pictures in my head and I just collaborate with the artists to try to bring that to life. Here, we wanted to represent the elements of life, like, you know flowers, fire and Earth. Because I feel like everything in this world is connected to us as much as we are connected to each other. Like my team and I, we are all soulmates, we are connected and that is why our collaboration works.

Did you meet a lot of your production team and collaborators once in London, or do a lot of them date back to Nigeria?

Yeah, actually most are from my home in Nigeria. I'm a big fan of relationships and working with people not just because they have a big name, but because when you are actually friends with somebody you are connected and having fun. If we create like that, then I feel like the music is going to find its audience. When you feel something, you get chills and it's magic, you know, it's like we're all going through the same things. You realize, like, OK, we're not so different after all, like we all have similar emotions.

Absolutely! If you had the challenge to not be able to write about love, what other topic would you like to talk about?

About life, which I also already do. I have like a couple of other projects coming next year, I’m planning 2 EP’s and one album hopefully.

One is a story project about somebody that's full of life and has like that happy spirit that infects other people. Another project will speak more about mental health.

You know, you could write about stuff that's just you imagining from the imagination power that we are gifted with. But there's also, you know, you writing about stuff that you go through and I feel like people relate to it.

Wow, it sounds like you have a lot coming your way. What is your process of starting to make something? And also how do you not get it mixed up maybe with other parallel projects? 

So generally when I'm recording a song and we do like a mixing and mastering and I listen to it I’ll categorize it based on what project it could fit into. I have some ideas of projects that I just kind of put the name of the song under and I just include it. Sometimes it's a new song that inspires a project. Either way, my notes and my voice recording app are the most important things in my phone, because that is where I keep track.

That is so amazing to hear. I'm wondering if ever instead of songs you write poetry as well?

Yes, I do. I actually started out writing poetry and that's how I got into writing.

Which is, which is why I feel like it influences me trying to kind of dig deep when in the topics of my projects or songs. You know, I started out writing poetry. I started out just trying to express myself. Hopefully one day I’ll publish something. 

Do you feel like your style changed in a way from when you lived back home in Nigeria to now in the UK?

I feel like my style has always been a fusion of so many things, especially what I grew up doing and then listening.to R&B music, you know, like 90s, 2000, the Nigerian music like the Afrobeats and then open the traditional music like Fuji.

I listen to everything. Like my playlist is super weird because if you put it on shuffle, you will encounter some weird, really, really weird music.

When I started kind of like making my own music, it kind of sounded quite different, I was making some of these songs that were original, but also at some point I was trying to write like what was mainstream to fit in. Over time, I kind of grew into myself to a point where I felt comfortable just doing whatever, being like, OK, I just need to express myself basically. Somehow the music found its own audience, which opened my eyes to people connecting with each other through a mutual appreciation of something.

Nowadays, I don't think there's anybody that listens to only one artist in this generation, like we listen to everything as well. So, the more the better, you know, the more styles, the more genres, the more artists!

Speaking of being able to find like connection, I like in researching you, I saw so many people that were really enjoying your music and like they do choreographies to it or even a Forever fan edit. How does it feel to see to see those moments? 

Honestly, it's been amazing so far and it again opened my eyes to knowing that the music is just going to find its way in the world and find its audience and people.

And also I feel like that's giving me more even the confidence to just create rather than worry too much about the sound. Like the foundation of my music because of where I'm from will always be Afrobeats, but then there's so many layers on top of it. So it's amazing seeing the choreographies, there's a lot of people like sending messages about how deeply the music impacts them. Something I hear very often is like healing. It feels really good because for me, that's what music does as well. 

And I ask as well, more for my personal curiosity, but how did you choose the name PapaRaZzle?

So, Papa is a name that everybody calls me back at the house, like a childhood nickname. Like some people when I was in school, some people actually thought my real name was Papa. When I started entertaining the idea of being like a musical artist. I was like, OK, I need to add something. Some of my friends will go like, oh “paparazzi”, but I'm not a photographer so, I looked in the dictionary and I was looking for words that was like razz, you know, like and then I saw “razzle” and the meaning is kind of like, you know, like right from “razzle dazzle”. 

And what was the choice between putting the R and the Z capitalized? 

Uh, yes. So, that came later on because I wanted to kind of stylize it. So the emphasis is in the words that are like the capital letters are more of like when you pronounce it like the emphasis and power you have to put into it.

Who are some of the artists that are your OnesToWatch? 

Oh my God, I'm going to mention some of my friends, you know that we've been riding together. These are all people that I feel like make totally different sounds and that need more attention, you know, and they're killing it.

TMARO is an amazing artist, Nigerian, but he's based in Germany right now. Keziah as well, we have a collaboration together and she's an amazing singer over in France. Then, Mack H.D, we actually have an EP coming out together later this year, he is based in America. Also Wiss Mani, the wizard, he is one of my producers and he is great!

Thank you so much for chatting and congrats on the new album!

Thanks for sharing your day with me and asking amazing questions. Hopefully we talk again when the rest of the projects are out! 

You can listen to Do You Believe in Soulmates Vol. 1? here: