Ayooluwa Akindeji-Oladeji, popularly known as Luwa.mp4 is a Nigerian musician who fuses multiple genres, although his go to style is a mixture of hyperpop and trap. Luwa’s sound can be characterized by clean bars paired with unusual melodies often jumping energetically on eccentric beats. There’s not much of a way to pinpoint Luwa but you’ll know it’s him.
Luwa was born and raised in Nigeria, along with two sisters. He grew up in Ibadan, although he attended a high school in Lagos then switching to a school in England at the age of 15. Luwa describes himself as outgoing and simply adoring cruise! Looking for fun and excitement? Luwa is your guy. Asides from music, he expresses that he has many passions, the only one that seems to be on par with music is fashion. Taking one look at his instagram would tell you that.
For Luwa, music has always been something he was inclined to make without being fully aware. Although he denied his interest in making music at first, he eventually gave into it. Being someone who speaks a lot, articulating clearly is sometimes difficult. Music is the avenue through which he feels most comfortable conveying what he has to say.
Explaining what exactly it is he has to say and the overall message of his music, Luwa strikes a very important point that I whole-heartedly agree with. He states that the essence of his sound is to prove that music is universal, its a medium through which people communicate and express themselves. In his case, his music embodies the notion of existing within the universe and being aware of oneself. Luwa adores music, dubbing it a mood fixer and a way to appreciate life.
“It doesn’t matter where you seem to come from, or sound like, anyone can make any type of music, because everything is all connected through energy that we give and we receive.” – Luwa.MP4, 2021.
In terms of his creative process, Luwa is very much focused when attempting to write a song; completely abandoning any task he was occupied with previously. Heavy focus is placed on creating melodies; nothing less than five or six either. If he has trouble here, the beat is either scrapped or saved for later. This attention to melody is very obvious in his music, the melody often being extremely stimulating.
Furthermore, saving the beats serve to attend to the unexpected nature of his flow. He tries to be consistent but sometimes will switch up and needs many different melodies to play with. Unlike most artists who report a better ability to write in high moods, Luwa actively tries to write in every mood, whether happy, angry, sad or humorous. Unlocking and displaying various sides of his person is the reason he cites for doing so.
Inspiration wise, although he has many people who inspire him, he only mentions his parents as the most influential.
I am delighted to see what MP4 will bring to the music scene. His Debut Mixtape titled Preternatural Popstar releases this summer, so keep your eyes out for him, we know we will!
