Barelyanyhook: "It gives the people options," returnee rapper talks music journey

For Barelyanyhook, he is rest assured there is a market for him as he speaks on a journey of self-discovery and self-actualization with his music.

Nigerian rapper with the interesting name - Barelyanyhook made his way to the Pulse Nigeria office on Thursday, August 10, 2017.

Barely, speaking with confidence talked about still on a journey to self-discovery of all that his music can do for him and the world.

The rapper and poet credits his interest in music as being aroused by a certain longtime secondary school  friend of his named Blackwood who used to rap while he was more of a poet.

As good friends do, they ended up rubbing off on each other’s talents, teaching themselves the art of rap and poetry with constant practice.

Eminem was also a huge factor, Barely explained, in keeping his interest alive with rap, also growing up and listening to all kinds of music - both Nigerian and foreign, all shaped the experiences of the rapper.

On how he got the name ‘Barelyanyhook’, he recounted trying to put out an earlier project and realized that on all the songs he had down, there was little or no chorus for them, and so thought of naming the project “The Barelyanyhook EP”, which with time that name started ringing in his head until it stuck and became what he would call himself.

 

For Barely, he says he is still trying to find his sound as he goes along. Back in the United States where he had his tertiary education, he talked about vibing with a fellow student artist up until his second year when they parted ways, which kind of ‘downed’ his spirit of making music. Barely studied Economics.

The Hip-Hop act talked about the power of words in his music and how it gives life to something that he has no idea about, that results in impacting the listener more often than not.

‘’Your words kind of shape your reality, so it’s kind of like understanding that power and knowing how to craft it and use it for good or use it to steal someone’s girlfriend.”

On why he does music essentially, Barely says it’s about finding himself and also letting others have that opportunity to do same as well.

“Music is self-understanding and self-discovery in a way that translates to other people, it gives them an opportunity to be able to understand that they can do the same thing, that they can find ways to better themselves, and become more knowledgeable of themselves as individuals.”

To Barely, his music mostly comes from a personal place and if you are faking it, the people can tell he says; so basically being one’s self is the way he goes.

Asked if he thinks his music resonates from the performances he has had so far in Lagos, he says it really primarily lies in the kind of audience placed in front of him

“I feel like the pathway to get somebody to resonate with you on that level really first of all starts with the kind of person that they are.

You are talking about yourself and all those things that are very personal to you and then It’s just a case of somebody out there seeing any part of themselves in that, whether it’s in the whole song or a line in the song.”

On how he plans to get himself more out there, Barely is of the thought that it’s just about being yourself as cliché as that sounds.

Speaking briefly on throwing shades and beefing in rap, Barelyanyhook says he is really not all about that, because in his opinion your music is meant for impacting and making a change in the world, so if anyone is trying to come with that negative energy, he is going against all music represents.

“There are bigger things in the world, it’s so unnecessary, nobody has time for that” he says about beef and shades.

On how he feels about the apparent emergence of new school generation of musicians in the Nigerian music industry, Barely thinks it’s great for variety and discovery of new perceptions of life through music, and the sound will keep growing and building up to travel far and wide beyond Lagos which happens to be the takeoff point.

“It’s good, It gives people options, When people come with diversity of talents and views of seeing the world it gives you more stuff to play with, it helps open people’s minds to think outside of what is it that they have seen.”

Barelyanyhook is confident the market will create itself for his music and also thinks leveraging on smart collaborations with other relevant artists will help his growth process in the industry.

“It’s a case of the market creating itself such that people will understand what it is that I’m bringing in, and smart collaborations always help.”

“At the end of the day we understand that it is business, but that’s only secondary to what the art should be.”

 

The opportunity once came for Barely to freestyle on a beat in front of Nigerian American rapper Jidenna at the Beat FM where he is currently an intern and a youth corper going through the otherwise mandatory one year National Youth Service Corps scheme.  To him it was more of the experience.

On his performance art which he has been getting good feedback from, Barely sees it as acting out his emotions on stage which is something he is comfortable doing - acting. For him, when he performs, it’s because he is passionate about the music and the story behind that song he is about to perform, and that’s why his performance is like a movie.

Barelyanyhook has told Pulse Music he will be coming out with a body of work before the end of the year.

Catch up with his music on Soundcloud.

from pulse.ng - Nigeria's entertainment & lifestyle platform online