Spotify Original Podcast: “Mic Check” Talks With Rising Star and Nigerian Singer-Songwriter, Ckay

Spotify released the latest episode of their podcast series, “Spotify: Mic Check”- a series aimed at connecting listeners and fans with the world’s biggest creators. The podcast features exclusively intimate conversations with musicians and podcast creators from around the globe – so far this season, fans have had a chance to hear from Morgan Wade and Julia Wolf.

This week’s episode welcomes rising Nigerian singer-songwriter Ckay to the mic to share with listeners some of his personal stories, from his decision to runaway from home to follow his dreams; to the meaning behind “Love Nwantiti” and how the hit song went from an afterthought on an EP to a viral social media sensation. You can listen to the full episode here.

Available to stream for free exclusively on Spotify.

Please see below for interview highlights in the episode:

KEY MOMENTS

• 3:02- CKay talks about how he ran away from home and at one point he was working at 3 studios at the same time because he wanted to make ends meet. The one thing that kept him going was the fact that he kept believing in himself.

• 3:34- Afrobeats is a really deep genre, you know It spans for decades and it has evolved over the years. The founding father of Afrobeats is Fela Kuti and he was a visionary in so many ways

• 4:26- CKay describes his genre of Afrobeats, “Igbo Afrobeats.” He explains that he is very key on communicating his emotions through the music and singing the lyrics, and the way he makes the music.

• 4:51- CKay’s hit song “Love Nwantiti” is him talking about his own love life.

• 6:25- CKay describes how his journey of his hit “Love Nwantiti” came about. He released “Love Nwantiti” in 2019 on his EP. After the EP dropped, organically it started to gain traction all over. In 2020, it was a hit in Africa and after that, moment lead to more moments. In 2021, a bootleg version an illegal remix of the acoustic came out and they noticed it was on the Shazaam. His team reached out and we basically reclaimed the song.

•  8:10- CKay states how Spotify has supported his music in so many ways. From playlisting to programming, he feels that Afrobeats is crossing into the non Afrobeats listeners spaces and Spotify plays a large role in that.