Rising Nigerian Afrobeats artist Mavo joins Nandi Madida via FaceTime on Apple Music to talk about his latest hit “Tumo Weto”. He also discusses his early success, his own dictionary, his love for South African artists, and working with Wizkid, CKay, and Davido.
Mavo tells Apple Music about his early success
It’s crazy like I’m overwhelmed, but at the same time, I know it’s what I have to do, so yeah, I have to do it. I like the drive. I like what I get from what I put in, so I just keep putting it in.
Mavo tells Apple Music about his project ‘Kilometer’
‘Kilometer’ was, it was like a really fast paced time for me, like, everything was moving so fast. So, I had to just say ‘Kilometer’. Let’s just name it that. We’re moving fast, how many meters can you run, how fast can you run? So we just said, okay, let’s name it ‘Kilometer’.
Mavo tells Apple Music about his own dictionary
I just felt like I needed to do something different. I don’t want to do what everybody’s doing. In that sense, in that slang, I feel like you have to stand out. You have to make something for yourself. So I had to like create my own words. So from the busy lingua, we have like about like a hundred words in the busy lingua. Or if I say, a lot of words. I have a fucking dictionary. And I feel like that’s like something that you have to like say, why don’t you think about making a dictionary for yourself? I’m just 22, I have a dictionary of my own words, so it’s crazy.
Mavo tells Apple Music about working with heavyweights Wizkid, Davido, and CKay
I’m blessed, so I just have to like take my blessing because it’s mine. I can’t say I expected anything because I didn’t really ask for anything. I just said, oh, God bless me this year. This year I want to be blessed. So I never said I want to like have a song with Wizkid or Davido or CKay or all of those blessed people that have songs with. But yeah, God just said take all of these features. Bless the song. Do what you can do for it. Most of these features I’m on, I just try to like do my best, get the song out there, make sure it’s going, make sure it’s popping.
Mavo tells Apple Music about the vast number of songs in his catalogue
I feel like I have, like I already said, I’m so blessed, so like it’s not something to be surprised about, but I have like a lot of songs I haven’t put out. I can’t say like I’ve put out like my top 50 best songs. I have songs I’ve been working on since like 2023, 2022, songs I really feel like these are songs that are going to be good. But I just like keeping them for the right time. I feel like when it’s the right time, God tell me put it out. I have projects coming like really soon, in a couple of months and it’s really solid. Then after that, I have another one as well. It’s back to back, it’s back to back. It’s going.
Mavo tells Apple Music about his love for South African artists
I have like a lot of South African friends. I love South Africa. I love South Africans so much. They’re so fun. The people are so nice and so beautiful. I have two songs with South African artists right now, that are , coming; it’s so hot. I’m not going to like spill any name, but trust me, it’s going to like pop, it’s serious.
…
