My father banned us from speaking English at home – Naira Marley

Popular rapper, Azeez Fashola, professionally known as Naira Marley, has revealed why he speaks Yoruba fluently despite growing up in London.

The British-Nigerian artiste, while being interviewed on Cool FM Lagos, said his father banned the speaking of English in their house while allowing only Yoruba.

The music executive said that though he was in England, most of the things he did and liked were mostly traced to Nigeria.

Naira Marley noted that he listened to Fuji music, ate African foods and they lived in Peckham, which was like an extension of Lagos.

Naira Marley said: “What made it easy for me [to blend with Nigerian street music] is that I grew up in South-East London, Peckham to be precise. That is like small Lagos, you know what I mean?

“And all my life in England, my dad banned speaking English in the house. So, we had to speak Yoruba and all these Yoruba stuff. I still listen to Fuji. We eat African foods. Even though I’m in England, it was like I’m still in Nigeria. Yeah, it was easy for me. When I came back [to Nigeria], people didn’t really know I came from London.”

Meanwhile in other news….

Budding Afrobeats singer, Ahmed Oloade, also known as Asake has revealed that he was a dancer before poverty made him consider a career in music.

The ‘Peace Be Unto You’ crooner made this known during a recent interview with ABC News, as he explained that he couldn’t make enough money from dancing. Asake also said his father gave him an early exposure to music using classicals, which made him develop an interest in singing and enabled him to hone his talent.

The 24-year-old musician said he never wanted to be a singer at first, because his passion was in dancing, however, he had to combine both in order to start making money.

He said; “My parents used to play me a lot of classical Songs. They love listening to songs. The kind of father I have is the one that will wake up in the morning and have one cigarette then loud music.

“At the end of the day, I feel like I can actually sing. Then I added music to it. Maybe because I know how to dance then I know how to bounce on music. I actually don’t want to be a musician in the first place.

I just wanted to dance. It feels like water. I love everything that comes with dancing. But at the end of the day, after dancing I fell in love with having money too. Then I started thinking about it, is dance going to give me the kind of money I want?”

Asake also earlier explained why Yoruba language is an integral part of his music. He said he loves singing in Yoruba because it is very important to him and there are lots of people who understand the language.

The artiste said he understands music to be a feeling and at times one does not need to understand it to like its usage on a song.