I Discovered Olamide When He Was 14 Years Old – ID Cabasa

Legendary music producer, Olumide Ogunade, better known as ID Cabasa, has disclosed how he met and discovered the talent of popular rapper & singer, Olamide, when he was between the age of 13-14.

“Olamide came with a friend to record in my studio; a friend was featuring him. I fell in love with the young boy of 13 or 14 as he delivered his rap line. I could hear a depth that you won’t get from most of his age mates.”

“I was so impressed that I told him that he’s free to come to my studio at any time. He will come to the studio, then I will make beat while is writing his lyrics. From there, the interest to have him as part of Coded Tunes developed and the rest is history.”

“By the time Coded Tunes transited to a proper recording label, Olamide was the first person signed alongside Seriki and Kayefi,” he said during a chat with Olaitan Ganiu of The Nation Newspaper.

ID Cabasa also spoke about promoting aboriginal hip hop acts.

“It was something we started subconsciously but we are very proud of it today. As a musician and producer, I love to be original in all I do. I like to sound not local but indigenous because the way to get to people’s heart is majorly from their culture. There is a Yoruba language that says, “Ile latin ke so r’ode”, meaning charity begins at home. Obviously, the law of attraction worked for us, I met 2phat and Spaco who are infusing Yoruba to their hip hop music and that is what I also wanted to do. It was 2phat that later introduced me to, Lord of Ajasa who raps strictly in Yoruba.”

“Our staying originality then also attracts 9ice, Seriki and even Reminisce that you see today rapping in Yoruba. He was actually rapping then in pure English and he is very fluent. The same things apply to Olamide; he rapped in English, but when you move with people you will get influence by them.”

On the high rate of hard drugs consumption among youths, he said:

“For every human being there’s a hunger for one to be high. I mean the hunger of seeking for more and people like to isolate themselves. They are looking to get to seventh heaven but unfortunately, it is a means to a particular end. If they understand the end before the beginning, they will know that you don’t need drugs to get to that end. When you smoke Marijuana to get inspiration like they say, it will only get you isolated. What inspires is right inside you. If you don’t give your mind capacity, you’ll get to that place of highness and nothing will come out. These guys don’t know they are destroying their destiny. But can you be so high and be higher than the Almighty God? It is impossible. For someone like me, if I want to get high, I’ll just close my tinted windows and put on loud music till I get high, that is the way I meditate. I don’t need to engage in drugs to get high.”

“I like the fact that the government has stood up to eradicate it but I don’t think they can eradicate it by just banning the importation of codeine, because codeine is a medicine just like Indian hemps. Depression is actually pushing people to do drugs. If the government can have plans for the youth who engage in drugs the level of consumption will automatically reduce.”