Young, talented for days, and brimming with energy, The Creative Rae is the latest member of the league of new wave rappers looking to out the genre on the map. We catch up with the Lagos-based artiste to discuss him and his music.
49th Street: Can you introduce yourself to our audience?
The Creative Rae: I am Precious Henry Okoi otherwise known as The Creative Rae. I am a rapper, singer and songwriter but other days when I’m not behind the mic or creating magic on paper, I’m a student of Lagos State College of Health Technology (Lascohet), a Pharmacy Technician in training. My interests and hobbies include watching movies (BIG Marvel fan), researching and learning new things, working out, listening to music, creating music, playlists too and discovering artistes across all genres.
49th Street: What type of music did you grow up listening to and how has that influenced the type of music you make?
The Creative Rae: My dad was a huge country, pop and blues fan so I grew up listening to the likes of Westlife, Don Williams, Phil Collins, Michael Jackson and the likes. It didn’t inspire me to start making music or anything like that though, I was young and didn’t have a say as to the kind of songs I wanted to listen to so I just went with it. They grew on me eventually. It wasn’t until 2013 when I came across Kendrick Lamar’s Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe on the radio one day and I got hooked. This was new for me cause I actually didn’t like rap music. I guess it was due to the sentimental attachment I had for the song seeing as I was graduating from secondary school at the time and that was the last song I heard that day so I occasionally listened to the song whenever I wanted to reminisce and I started liking it. Paid more attention to the way K. Lamar structured the lyrics in that song, it felt poetic and that was how my love for Kendrick Lamar and rap music came about. It was then I realized that the reason why I hated rap was because I never really understood it and when I got a better grasp of it, it started making sense. So from checking all other songs on his discography to checking out similar artistes (J. Cole, Big Sean, Drake and Logic), I picked up rap styles from each of these 5 artistes, blended them into my own rap game and started writing my own lyrics which gave my pen game the depth and ingenuity you see and hear today.
49th Street: What is your sound and the genre of music you make?
The Creative Rae: My sound/genre of music… I keep getting asked this question and to be honest, I still don’t have an exact answer for it. I’m very versatile due to the fact that I listen to a vast number of artistes from different genres and I pick things from them in the process. Reason why I can create bangers on any genre. So my music is a blend of Hip-Hop/Rap, Alternative, R&B/Soul and other things.
49th Street: Walk us through your creative process, what’s the journey like from the moment you have an idea to the finished song?
The Creative Rae: My creative process ehhn…you see this music of a thing, it has a mind of its own. Sometimes I finish a song in minutes, sometimes I spend months writing one verse. But I realized that my creative thoughts are more at peak when I’m walking, in Lagos traffic or during late night hours from 12 – 6 am and before I write a song, whatever the topic is, I always try to make it relatable cause I feel that’s very important when it comes to songwriting or song making cause if no one can relate to your song, no one will be able to connect with it. I also try to make the song REALLY catchy and add a little bit of storytelling that can engage the imagination of anyone listening to the song. These things attract people with ease.
49th Street: Considering the relationship between the Nigerian public and rap music, what motivates you to continue rapping?
The Creative Rae: Seeing every other rapper go hard on beats and also seeing people understand and expatiate on the ingenuity behind my punchlines, wordplays and double entendres makes me challenge myself to put in that extra work regardless of the fact that rap music isn’t the most sought after genre in Nigeria. I do it for the love of it and doing something for the love of it & not just for clout or streams is something I will never trade for anything.
49th Street: Run us through what your discography looks like so far?
The Creative Rae: So far, I have 6 official songs (Slay, Man’s Hot, Worth It, For You, Wys & After Hours), 4 of which are on all streaming platforms and the rest can be found on Audiomack and SoundCloud.
49th Street: Do you have anything new dropping soon? We’d love to hear all about it.
The Creative Rae: I have a single that’s set to drop on the 19th of November titled Jaiye co-produced by Rettro5 and H3llloWorld. Remember what I said about music having a mind of its own? This song proves it. Retrro sent the beat to me when I was in school on a Wednesday and immediately I listened to it, it was love at first sight or in this case, love at first listen! I already knew the kind of song I needed to make with it, a song about flexing, a song that can put people in a party mood…a song for Jaiye! I wanted to add some Yoruba essence to the song and I knew nothing about writing in Yoruba so I hit up my guy Habeeb to help out with the Yoruba lyrics and then I added my finishing touches by making it catchy and that was how the chorus came about. By Friday, I was done with the song. I hit up Retrro, we linked on Sunday and we recorded a hit. It was one take by the way.
49th Street: Which artistes are your biggest influences?
The Creative Rae: Artistes that greatly influence my craft in no particular order are Ladipoe, Kendrick Lamar, Big Sean, Jhene Aiko, Drake, Tay Iwar, Logic, Oxlade, J. Cole, Rema & Ogranya.
49th Street: What’s one unpopular music-related opinion you have?
The Creative Rae: One unpopular opinion I have about music is that producers (the ones who know what they’re doing at least) should be given more credit than the artiste. I mean I spazz on my songs but if it wasn’t for H3llloWorld, Retrro5 & Waveman supplying me with insane beats and also providing me with strict A&R, my songs would sound subpar. Especially Retrro, the work he did on Jaiye, the mixing and mastering, the manipulation of the beat to flow with the words I said, God bless him for real!
49th Street: Outside of music, what other areas of endeavour might we see you venture into?
The Creative Rae: Well I know I would make a pretty good OAP but I’m quite comfortable in the artiste zone for now lol but I’ll definitely venture into other things more music-related like sound engineering, beat production, graphic designing and videography.
49th Street: Any shout-out(s) you would like to give as we conclude?
The Creative Rae: Yeah shoutout to my boys in the Oakstr33t collective, T4ni, LOH-renzo, Ganjü, Caleboniel, shoutout to Seun & Banty, shoutout to Grizzy Grae, MTK, Leksthekeed, my producers H3llloWorld, Retrro, Waveman, my boy Swiitch, Onesimus, my hypeman Temi TBB, Fefe, shoutout to Silva, Teni, May, Remy, Esosa, Aliyah, Bukie, my main girl Zia, Orezi, Guys Central, Cristian, Nosa, Patrick, Korede and every Raenegade out there supporting my craft.