WORDSPJ Some
ESTRELLA DE PORTADA - Prettyboy DO
DIRECTORES CREATIVOS - Derrick Odafi y Jessica Rushforth
PRODUCTORES CREATIVOS - Jessica Rushforth & Derrick Odafi
FOTÓGRAFO - Barbara Premo
DIRECTOR VISUAL - John Serunjogi
ESTILISTA - Malcolm Yaeng
ASISTENTE DE ESTILISTA - Gloria Iyare
DISEÑADORA DE ESCENARIO - Jessica Rushforth
MUA - Bendición Kambanga
ESTUDIO - Estudio para tomar más fotos
Destroy Lonely doesn’t give a f*ck whether you like him or not. He doesn’t care whether you hate the music he makes and he doesn’t care if he’s not on your top five rappers of all time list. At the end of the day, all he wants is to be a vessel for his raw vulnerability. His jagged and spectral sonics feed into horror, like claws to flesh scraping through a brash lifestyle that he follows unapologetically, with the music bleeding through him into the world, seeking out those who ache in the same places who crave beauty laced with chaos.
Born from the shadows of Opium, the cult label formed by innovator Playboi Carti, Destroy Lonely exists within a new order of rap, trap, punk and hyperpop where peril reigns champion. Alongside his labelmates Ken Carson and HOMIXIDE GANG, he rides the edge between fantasy and fear, feeding his fanbase obsessed with destruction, gore and thrill. Together, a gothic underworld is formed where there are no rules and no order.
With his rise shaped by moments and experiences that he’s had through his life, he was given the chance to walk in Milan for Matthew Williams’ brand 1017 ALYX 9SM after the designer discovered his song ‘1017 ALYX’ from being friends with mutuals. Since then, the two have remained close and an abundance of opportunities have come Lonely’s way such as being inspired to create motorsport-style merch that reflects his strong connection with Alpinestars, collaborations with Marc Jacobs and making music with some of music’s biggest names right now. He cherishes every collaboration and every chance to extend his world into a new medium. Whilst surrounding himself with people who move like him in a quiet, focused and magnetic way, he shapes his identity into something deeper and darker that allows him to live out every fantasy that flickers in the back of his mind.
El estrellato de Prettyboy DO se difunde
Como 'Wildfire' en el número IX
WORDS Shenead Poroosotum
“La música me hizo un hombre. Siempre he estado enamorado de la música, incluso cuando era niño, pero más aún del lado de la moda de la música. Biggie, Mase, Tupac ... "
¿Cuál es tu opinión de Londres?
P: He venido aquí a menudo, esta vez es diferente por la música y ya estamos levantados. Amo Londres, amo a la gente, me parece muy africano. Parece estar en casa de alguna manera.
Londres y Lagos tienen una gran conexión, ¿cómo crees que es?
P: En primer lugar, tenemos mucha gente nuestra aquí, muchos africanos aquí. Aquí hay toda una vibra que es similar a Lagos porque está muy ajetreado, muy ajetreado. Pero aquí es un nivel más alto, todavía hay lucha. Me encanta Londres, pero al mismo tiempo, la lucha aquí es una locura porque aquí no dicen nada, es solo interna.
También tienes experiencia en Nueva York, y ese es también un lugar donde realmente tienes que esforzarte para salir adelante.
P: Creo que la vida que he vivido, una cosa que he aprendido es que realmente no puedes arrepentirte. Y si tengo algún tipo de puesto, no puedo desperdiciarlo. Londres está lleno, como el metro, realmente no tienes espacio y Nueva York es así, y es como si x2 no estuviera limpio, es más arenoso que Londres.
Y volviendo también a la música, ¿dirías que la música te encontró o tú la encontraste?
P: Eso es profundo. La música me hizo hombre. Siempre he estado enamorado de la música, incluso cuando era niño, pero más aún del lado de la moda de la música. Biggie, Mase, Tupac… Me encanta Tupac, incluso tengo un tatuaje como él. La moda siempre estuvo muy presente en mi cabeza, al mismo tiempo lo era la música, pero nunca me vi a mí mismo como un rapero, lo veo como un estilo de vida, así que en todas partes estoy bailando, vibrando, imitando. Su cultura, especialmente su moda. Cuando era más joven probablemente quería ser diseñador. El caso es que en la secundaria solía escribir mucho, poemas, etc., mierda cursi pero siempre funcionaba. En la universidad, me dijeron que escribiera un poema en inglés y lo hice tan rápido que me dijeron que lo leyera en voz alta y era tan largo y todos estaban como wow. En ese momento realmente no tenía música en mi cabeza, pero en ese momento sale Drake, sale Rocky. No me estaba yendo bien en la escuela, solo perdí a mi chica y el corazón roto. Luego comencé a ir al estudio, pero no lancé nada hasta que sentí que era bueno y eso fue en 2012 y no he mirado atrás.
Estaba un poco destinado, era un proceso, pero no sabes cuál fue el proceso.
P: Sí, no sabe lo que encontrará en la forma en que conoce gente. La cosa se agranda. Es dios. Es Dios y el trabajo.
¿Qué otras cosas creativas haces fuera de la música?
P: Cine, dirijo muchos de mis videos musicales. Probablemente entraré en el cine dependiendo de cuán ambicioso y dispuesto esté a hacerlo. Realmente quiero empezar ahora.
¿Tienes estilista? Si no es así, ¿de dónde viene?
P: Solo estoy en Instagram, guardo las cosas y luego las mezclo.
Uno de nuestros proyectos favoritos es su proyecto de 2018, ¿cuáles fueron sus momentos favoritos para crearlo?
P: Cuando volví a Lagos, había ido a Birmingham y Los Ángeles, y esa vez decidí dejar un proyecto. Luego tuve una conversación con mi primo quien me dijo “tienes que dejar un proyecto, dejar algo y conocer tu sonido, como si tus singles estuvieran explotando, eres tonto pero necesitas conocer tu sonido”. Así que boom, una vez que dijo que era genial, vamos, vamos a hacer estallar. Tenía un montón de música que ya había grabado, llegar a Londres para grabar 2 canciones. Vete a Lagos, empieza a grabar con mis chicos, Hugo, y luego tenemos 2 en la bolsa. Ahora podemos tener un espectáculo ... un nigga me cabrea, odio la política de la industria, si trabajamos duro, tú puedes trabajar duro, vamos, aprovechemos esta oportunidad. Voy a por una industria del espectáculo, los niggas intentan joder conmigo.Estoy cabreado como el infierno. Pero después del show, estoy molesto. Voy a su estudio y le digo que me toque algo y ese ritmo me hizo más feliz que me sentí. Levantar
With Love Lasts Forever and since the release of the big singles like ‘No Stylist’ and ‘If Looks Could Kill’, how do you feel like you’ve grown musically and in general?
Just by telling my story and getting deeper into who I am. I feel like I’m sharpening my pen a bit and I feel like I can explain things a lot better than I could have in the past, or even word it differently. Like with what I was saying earlier; convey a different emotion, translate it in better ways… Just really even becoming more transparent with my fans through the audio of it, whether it be on the internet or trying to talk on the phone, Tweets or Instagram or whatever, just really trying to share more of who I know I am as a person and how I want people to understand me through the music and just making sure that, as I was telling you earlier, every time I make a song, I’m always putting a real piece of me in it so people can take that and do whatever.
It comes out in the lyrics. You have a line that says, “This ain’t a lifestyle, this is just life”. What’s the difference to you between a lifestyle and just life?
Style changes, style is trends. Style could be today and not tomorrow. The style could be tomorrow and not today, but life is forever, until it ends. So, change is what we’re doing right now, what we’re doing for the fun of it, what we’re doing because it’s cool. This is who we are. N*ggas was doing this before and n*ggas gonna do it after. Like I was saying, I was trying to be this when I was 14 and I’m probably going to try and be this til I die. This is me.
How do you feel like you create balance? You’re a very stylish person and you’re in the know of what’s going on in style, culture and fashion. You have your own life and your own experiences, so how do you feel like you try to merge the two or bring both to the forefront?
I’m always just expressing a piece of me through everything, whether it’s sonically, whether it’s through the clothes I wear, a f*cking picture I want to take for social media, the way I’m talking to y’all, expressing myself through an interview. It just all comes down to just showing people who I am or who I even think I am at the time. We all go through motions and moments. I wouldn’t even call them phases because I feel like they’re all just different versions of myself, but phase is kind of like a style or a trend. But it’s just always, even with the clothes, just expressing that this is who I think I am, this is what I want to look like. And I don’t really give a f*ck what, what anybody thinks.
Setting trends rather than following them as well because you just live your life as well.
Yeah, definitely.
If there was a particular era or time frame that you are plugged into, what would that be? Would it be the past or would it be the future that resonates with you the most?
It would be right now. I’m always gonna be right now. Whether it’s in the past, in the future, I always existed, but I’m here right now.
What keeps you in the now all the time and not thinking about things you probably did before, or things you might be doing in the future?
I think that’s what keeps me here. I’m always constantly thinking about the past and the future. I don’t know how healthy that is, but those two thoughts remind me to always stay right now, because I can’t tell you what’s gonna happen in the future, and I can’t change the past so, I just got to stay right now.
You’ve previously said, in relation to the internet and the concept of the internet, that you don’t really understand it as much or anymore. If you could change one thing about the internet, what would it be?
You know, I wouldn’t change anything because the internet is right now. I feel like if I were to change it, it’d be a contradiction to how I just said I even feel about myself and I can even thank the internet for playing a part in some of my career. So, I can’t really act like, “Oh, f*ck the internet, everybody needs to put their phones down and everybody’s brainwashed” But I feel like people could use it a little healthier, even myself. [laughs]
You’ve said your creativity comes from real life so, what’s happening in your life right now that’s influencing what you’re creating, music or otherwise?
Just growing. Getting older. Becoming a real f*cking adult in this world but I’m still a f*cking kid. Learning from decisions I’ve made in my life and really getting a good feel for feeling like an underdog and being ready just to tell people what I’ve got to offer. I always feel like that. But right now, I feel like that’s a big focus of mine. I just want to continue to drop great music for people and continue to please my fans and just make everything about the music. I don’t even necessarily want to exist past my music anymore. I just want it to be DL and I’m just the audio.
You had an amazing show in London and the stage design was great. Talk to us about the stage design, how you put that together and what you were trying to convey to your audience with that.
Basically, my stage from my first leg was pretty much the same, it’s just a speaker tower. And the first leg I had LED lights around it with my video on behind it, but that wasn’t necessarily part of it. It was supposed to look more like how it looked in London at the European shows. Just minimalistic, how I was just saying about music. It’s just to portray and be looked at as just a great musical artist. I don’t even want it to go too far past that anymore. I just want it to be about music and eventually my stages will get crazier but this time I just wanted the speakers, myself and just the sound. Even with the DJ putting a backing track a little bit because I just wanted to simplify it and make it about throwing a really good show, and people having a good time. It feels like when you arrive at a rave or some sh*t.
You pour so much energy into it and into your performances and your music. When you step away from that, how do you recharge or how do you get re-inspired?
I’m a very still person. I move around a lot, I travel a lot and I’m always working but there are lots of periods and times where I find myself just sitting in my house doing absolutely nothing for days on end or just downloading from the world. Just constantly teaching myself and learning from the world instead of riding my own d*ck all the time. Listening to new music or watching new movies or listening to a whole new artist for a week straight.
" Me veo siendo uno de los GOATS que alguna vez lo haya hecho musicalmente en Nigeria, si todavía sigo haciendo música ".
Vemos que tiene una carrera muy larga y que lidera una nueva carga de artistas. En los próximos 10 a 15 años, ¿dónde se ve a sí mismo y a su oficio?
P: ¿Dónde quiero estar dentro de 10 años ... Maldita sea, seré viejo [Risas] Veo cosas diferentes, pero me veo siendo una de las CABRAS que alguna vez lo haya hecho musicalmente en Nigeria, si todavía sigo haciendo música. . Si no lo soy, tendré un artista, pero aún seré uno de los grandes que lo haya hecho. Probablemente haré películas dentro de 10 años. Quizás en mi cabeza probablemente esté tratando de conseguir un Oscar. Me veo siendo un Titán para entonces, un nombre familiar. Ni siquiera será mi nombre artístico, será mi nombre real.
Increíble, con suerte, ¿hacer películas generacionales que sean recordadas en todo el mundo?
P: Sí, solo para ser un titán en el entretenimiento. No me veo a mí mismo ahí fuera como algo comercial, pero sumergiré mis manos en eso y sé que entraré en películas. En ese momento, no creo que esté en el centro de atención, pero mis películas lo estarán.
The collaboration you did with Alpinestars blends a lot of that energy with your own vibe. What drew you towards that silhouette and lane involving motorsports gear into your fits?
I pretty much had a real experience in my life. I went to a motorcycle trail, and we were just riding our bikes and I fell in love with it because I never really rode a four-wheeler dirt bike before. That sh*t kind of f*cked my head up because like I said, I’m really obsessive so I was just stuck on that for a while. I was wearing this sh*t as clothes. I recently just bought two bikes and I’m learning how to ride and wheelie and sh*t, going crazy. But like how I was saying earlier, that was something that came from a real part of my life that I just started expressing through the music. I just look at it like “F*ck, this sh*t hard!” I’m really good friends with Alpinestars.
The owner of the brand and his wife, Ms. Denise, they take care of me a lot. We always talk and chop it up about things that we could do together or what they could do with the brand. And they actually took me to F1 probably about a week or two ago. When I’m meeting or working with people or brands, it’s always stemming from another real part of my life. Whether it’s a relationship that I have with somebody or somebody that I truly believe in, or they truly believe in me, it’s always genuine and that’s important to me. Like, I don’t really f*ck with AI and that type of sh*t, I’m not into that.
Is there a particular reason why?
Specifically with AI. Computer generated art is cool, real people create that, but I don’t f*ck with AI because it’s not real art. Imagine if everybody’s like “wow, we really like this artist because they make all their music, this is real sh*t bro” and then the n*gga comes out one day and says “man, all these songs are AI”. That sh*t is fraud. It’s just disingenuous, I don’t f*ck with that.
You and the crew have been very successful with Love Lasts Forever, Music and MORE CHAOS. Do you guys feel like you’re changing the landscape of music?
Yeah, man. That’s why we’re here.
In this new era of music that you’re stepping into, you already have a lot of different aliases such as Look Killa, Top Floor Boss and Dark Lord. Which one are you channelling at this time for the next phase of your career?
I’m on some new Top Floor Boss sh*t, you know what I’m saying? I’m on some new Top Floor Boss sh*t! That’s all.
Dress, TRACY CUI.
Ring (Right Hand), KHIRY
Rings (Left Hand), AGMES
Nose Ring, ARTIST’S OWN.