Olaitan Habeeb Taiwo, professionally known as Droxx, is a 22 year old rapper based in Lagos. He is a graduate of Law, and he has come a long way from writing music and rapping at age 14 to building his audience throughout his time in the University of Ilorin. While many are still getting to know about him, one thing is certain; Droxx is destined to be at the top.
Droxx is the one half of the duo D.S.6 (Slimsyxx making up the other half). D.S.6 released their debut EP Ignis Grando that impressively charted in 20 countries around the world, making it to the number 2 spot in Dominica Republic, number 16 in Estonia, 53 in United Kingdom, 3 in Brazil and 65 in Nigeria.
Droxx is on the forefront of Drill in Nigeria, notably starting the #234Drill movement with Mo’Gunz on Twitter. His joint EP, Riot, with Mo’Gunz was the perfect way to make the statement that Drill is here to stay in Nigeria. Riot charted at the number 21 spot on the Apple Music top 200 chart in Nigeria while also charting in Ghana and Ireland. The #234Drill movement keeps growing by the day, with increasing attention from fans and artistes both locally and internationally. He has gotten recognition from top UK Drill artistes, notably Backroad Gee, Glizz and top notch Drill Producer M1.
49th Street sits with Droxx to discuss about his career so far, enjoy.
49th Street: You started writing and rapping at age 14, how did it all start?
Droxx: I’d always been in love with music and arts as a kid. In my junior secondary school days I was doing a lot of stage performances, cultural dances, plays and whatnot, so art has always been in me from my childhood. I started off memorizing other rappers lyrics and all that, then we’d do rap battles in class. I Idolized lil Wayne a lot and was either rapping his lyrics or Eminem’s. Eventually got to a point when I had a book where I write all my original rhymes and I’ll rap it for girls in my class back then. Had my first studio experience in 2015, it was towards the end of my first year in the university and I’d like to think it’s been an amazing journey of self discovery so far.
49th Street: How did you balance music and Law in the university?
Droxx: At a time – from 2016 to 2018 – I completely quit music. I was pushing a professional modelling career. I had a couple challenges in that field, can’t lie, and music was always calling to me. I couldn’t ignore it, so by 2018 I was back on the scene as D.S.6, after I met Slim in school. Balancing both wasn’t easy, it came with sacrifice; I had to make sacrifices in school and made some sacrifices in music too.
49th Street: How did your parents handle it when you told them you would be picking music over law?
Droxx: (Laughs) I’m still going to Law school this year so I’m not dropping law yet, at least not completely. And I never even told them about music, I become so popular in school and made so much noise they heard and till today they don’t really support it but a man gotta do what a man gotta do, you know.
49th Street: D.S.6, how did the group come to be?
Droxx: I met Slim at a time when I didn’t really believe music could work. It was just a hobby for me but he inspired me to take it serious. Like me he’d been putting rhymes together and writing, and I followed him to first ever studio session. We ended up jumping on some tracks together, and we performed all around campus together. With time we were already known together,and the chemistry on songs was too mad,we decided to make it official.
49th Street: How do you balance being part of the group and also being a solo artiste?
Droxx: I never even intended to go solo this soon, but it’s really no hard-work. D.S.6 already had something like a cult following from our Uni days, so I used that already built fanbase to launch a solo career. It doesn’t take anything from D.S.6 still. When it’s time, we’ll get active.
49th Street: Did growing up in London influence your love for Drill? Was there a connection?
Droxx: I grew up In Nigeria. I just spent my summers in London, about 4 different summers if I can remember correctly. It was basically like a second home for me. Last time I was in England was in 2012 and Drill had not really been popping then, but it definitely influenced my love for UK Rap. I was heavy on Skepta, Giggs, Section Boyz back then so when Drill came it was only right I fell in love with it too. In a way I grew up in London still, spent many of my childhood summers there.
49th Street: There has been some comments about Nigerian Drill rappers trying to rap like their UK counterparts instead of rapping with their original accents, what do you think about that?
Droxx: Can you do a Reggae song without Patois? (Laughs) What’s a Nigerian accent even? If you can deliver, you can deliver, accent or not, so far you’re able to pass your message across effectively, I don’t care about accents. I try to infuse Yoruba and pidgin in my Raps but if it’s Drill I believe some original elements should remain; it’s not our genre.
49th Street: #234Drill is getting bigger, what’s the scene like?
Droxx: When the hashtag popped off and was trending everywhere, I was surprised but happy because we’ve been making the noise, you get me? I have been keeping tabs of the guys that have actually been doing justice to the genre (#234Drill) but with the Backroad Gee challenge, I saw there were a lot of folks drilling and they had talent too. Burst my head! The Scene still needs a couple more years to grow, currently there’s really no structure yet, just a lot of guys winging it. I have been encouraging more collaborations, I believe with more collaborations, visuals and shows/platforms and deals, it’ll definitely have a strong structure, we’ve laid the foundation already.
49th Street: You recently dropped a joint EP, Riot EP, with Mo’Gunz. How has the reception been?
Droxx: We almost didn’t drop that project cause it was lockdown material, we recorded the bulk of the project during the lockdown and we already grew past that stage. But thank God we did, the roll out was clear, I had a lot folks reaching out wanting to help with promo or creative direction for free. And from the first week and even first month numbers, there are lot of Drill lovers in Naija, lot of plays from Ghana too. It charted 21 on Apple Music top 200 charts. I can’t even front the reception was satisfactory, we can only go bigger from here. The Reception was massive, can’t lie
49th Street: How did the EP happen? What was the idea behind it?
Droxx: Basically we just wanted to make a joint Drill project, I discovered Gunz on twitter sometime in January 2020. Saw a Drill freestyle he did, I hadn’t see many other drillers like me back then and I was impressed. So the main idea was to actually make a Drill Project in our own style at the same time asserting out dominance of the Naija Drill Scene. If you read Heathrow lyrics you’ll see we addressed a couple personal issues on there.
49th Street: Do you think Drill is here to stay in Nigeria?
Droxx: For the rest of the world Drill jut started popping but for me I’ve been listening to it since like 2016 from “67” Days and Old OFB (Headie and RV)and it has always been Poppin to me cause these guys keep dropping and their target audience stream and engage their music. So either Drill stops popping or not they still gonna make their bag. And being a Drill artist don’t stop you from making pop music or doing other stuff
49th Street: What’s Bad Influence, is it a boy band or a group of rappers? When are we going to hear their music?
Droxx: Bad Influence is a Music , Fashion and Lifestyle Collective. Not just rappers, we’ve got vocalists and producers on board too. Not a boy band cause we are looking to have female artists on board too. The primary members are; Droxx, Slimsyxx, Samvsthekids, Mo’Gunz, Big C, VRSD and Drillo. Our last Tape was called ALL HAIL THE INTERNET, we have a sequel coming in some months.
49th Street: How many songs will be on the project? Will there be any feature from people outside the Collective?
Droxx: Yes definitely, we are gonna have features from other artists outside the Collective. We are still in the recording stages. There’d probably be 10 or 12 tracks, album standard.
49th Street: A new song or project coming soon?
Droxx: There’s a Bad influence tape, there’s a D.S.6 tape Afro fusion/pop on that one and I have many singles. Collaborations with Drill rappers from Abuja, Ibadan, Calabar and Lagos and Port Harcourt too.
