If anyone loves the apparent and inevitable evolution of Laycon, it is me.

Photo: Courtesy of the artist

Before Laycon—real name Olamilekan Massoud Al-Khalifah Agbeleshebioba—joined the cast of Big Brother Naija, he wanted to be heard. Laycon’s passion and motive were to become a professional musician, revered for his skills. With a plan in place to give his dreams a real shot, in April 2020, the twenty-six-year-old Lagosian released the eight-track project ‘Who Is Laycon?’ to help with his musical discovery. The body of work couldn’t boast of having a GRAMMY-nominated musician on it, but he did his best to answer the question he believed people would ask once he debuted on the reality show Big Brother Naija.

The fifth season of Big Brother Naija aired that Summer and a new glaring spotlight shone on him. Subsequently, he endured loads of criticism.

By the time we connected through the internet, Laycon had prepared to release ‘Shall We Begin‘ and I was invested.

‘Wagwan’, a track without a feature from the album, made its debut on the Billboard’s Top Thriller Global Charts in March of 2021, and Laycon’s profile as a competitive commercial artist continued to strengthen from there. The following season, he was chosen by the Recording Academy/GRAMMYs through my pitch to record an at-home performance series ‘Press Play At Home’ and interview for its video series ‘Herbal Teas & White Sofas’. To the shock of many, Laycon also had a huge moment when he took over BMI’s Instagram Story, showing his fans and new potential fans what’s a day like in Laycon’s world. The hashtags for each moment went viral, trending on Twitter. In December, he played a live concert dedicated to his fans called ‘iCONs Fest‘. Fellow African stars like 1da Banton, Zlatan and others joined him onstage.

It’s been a whole year since Laycon and I crossed paths with the help of his loyal fans, the iCONs. Now, he has an explosive new record out called ‘New Dimension’ with GRAMMY-nominated musician Made Kuti, which he paired with a presidential address to his superfans before its release.

Catch a vibe and check out his latest upload on YouTube, the official lyric video for ‘New Dimension’ featuring the legendary Afrobeat icon Fela Kuti‘s grandson, Made Kuti, on the saxophone.