Afropolitan

A major label signed her, handed her enough money to go buy a car, and then let her music sit. So she asked to leave. Less than a month after she got out, "Intentions" took off and it hasn't slowed down since.
Fave doesn't dance around why she walked. "What I want as an artist from my label is the money to market my music," she says. "I don't think they truly understand how things work here in Africa." Two years into a deal with Atlantic, she decided she would rather bet on herself than keep fighting to be somebody's priority.
She started as a law student posting one-minute freestyles to Twitter. Within 24 hours the internet couldn't look away. Since then she's been named Rookie of the Year, tapped as an Apple Music Africa Rising act and a Spotify EQUAL Africa ambassador, and pulled onto tracks by some of the biggest names in the game. This is the artist behind Baby Riddim, Kante and Intentions.
In this episode we get into the double standard female artists face across Africa, the "Afrobeats Queen" label and why crowning one woman for 200 million people makes no sense, rebelling against a strict Pentecostal home to chase music, getting stranded at a Kenyan airport by a promoter who cancelled the flights home, why she left Atlantic, and how Kante with Davido actually came together.
Become a Member of The Room (Afropolitan Private Membership)
Join our private community for deeper insights and exclusive content: https://www.patreon.com/c/Afropolitanpodcast
EPISODE SPONSORS
Zobo Money — Zobo is a money transfer app built for Africans in the diaspora. It lets you send money from the US, UK, and Europe to countries like Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, and more. https://www.zobo.money/afropolitan
BONUS OFFER: Use code AFROPOLITAN and get a $10 bonus when you sign up, complete your KYC, and send $50 or more to Africa.
Hisa — Hisa is an all-investments platform that lets you invest in Nigerian stocks, US stocks and ETFs from one app. https://invite.hisa.co/7fkf/AFROPOLITAN
BONUS OFFER: Use code AFROPOLITAN and get your first two trades commission-free.
CONVO BY AFROPOLITAN
Book 1:1 calls with Africa's boldest thinkers: https://convo.vip/
WHERE TO FIND FAVE
Music: https://onerpm.link/RNBling
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/faveszn
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@favesavage
X/Twitter: https://x.com/faveszn
AFROPOLITAN
Twitter/X: https://x.com/afropolitan
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afropolitanpodcast
Newsletter: https://www.afropolitan.io/newsletter
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/Afropolitanpodcast
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 "It's hard to manage a female artist"
0:23 The law student who went viral in 24 hours
2:08 Subscribe to the Afropolitan family
2:36 The difficulty of a male-dominated industry
3:00 "We're held to very different standards"
3:45 Judged by everything but the music
4:16 Why female artists give more on stage
5:06 Sexual advances just to get in the room
5:21 The labels that won't sign women
6:33 Wanting to put other women on
7:18 How streaming changed who gets to blow
7:47 Grouped together, never seen as individuals
8:31 Tiwa Savage vs Ayra Starr makes no sense
9:00 Too scared to headline a show at home
9:52 "Afrobeats Queen? One woman for 200 million?"
10:57 Why the comments still keep her up
12:24 A strict home and the case for rebellion
13:42 The talent her parents wouldn't let her nurture
15:31 The viral video before the song existed
16:40 A text from Olamide and a run to Lagos
17:43 Follow Chika and Eche on Snapchat
18:23 The Room: join the Afropolitan Patreon
19:14 Sponsor: Zobo Money
20:02 Sponsor: Hissa
21:06 "Wage war against your parents"
22:01 Studying law and why she couldn't be a lawyer
22:48 Baby Riddim was too big to ignore
23:31 Building a team you can actually trust
25:32 "It's a jungle, especially in Lagos"
27:00 Did law school help the business of music
30:43 Where "Dutchie girl" came from
32:00 Rebelling against the stylist template
33:49 Why she keeps getting compared to Tems
36:15 Men, women, and thumbnails that perform
37:45 Leaving Atlantic Records
38:24 "Money to ball vs money to market"
39:53 What Don Jazzy spent on Calm Down
40:52 Independent, then Intentions exploded
41:10 Is independence actually worth it
43:00 The Kenyan promoter who stranded her team
46:26 The artist's side of leaving a label
48:00 "I was very depressed at my label"
50:08 Kante with Davido: how it came together
52:55 The European tour and reaching the diaspora
54:00 Does music travel organically
56:03 Rapid fire begins
56:33 Studio at 2am, the night crawler
57:02 Dating apps or meeting organically
58:45 Why she's building on Snapchat
1:00:08 Favorite Nigerian food and city
1:01:49 Why artists are leaving Nigeria
1:03:11 The first time she hit the stage
1:05:10 Who should be in this chair next

The entire stock market of Africa's biggest economy is worth about $114 billion. One refinery just outside Lagos is asking investors to value it at $50 billion. On day one. That is one company reaching for almost half of a whole national exchange, and it just opened its doors to outside money through a private placement that raised billions.
So we brought in someone who actually builds the rails for this. Eke Urum walks through what the Dangote Refinery IPO really is, why he calls it "anchor infrastructure," and why he thinks it joins the short list of Nigerian companies you can almost never go wrong buying. He also names his own reservations, from the crude supply risk to the way the business has leaned on the Nigerian system.
Eke Urum is the founder and CEO of Risevest, the dollar investment platform that acquired Chaka and now runs Hisa, the app letting everyday people own Nigerian and US stocks in minutes. He has spent years tearing down the paperwork that kept regular people out of the market. Sign up for Hisa - https://invite.hisa.co/7fkf/AFROPOLITAN
In this episode we get into where a Nigerian in the diaspora should actually put money right now, why refineries make money from far more than fuel, the $80 to $100 billion number Eke puts on Dangote over the next decade, how private placements work and who really gets in first, the 600,000 trading accounts in a country of 200 million people, and a step by step plan to get ready for the September IPO.
Become a Member of The Room (Afropolitan Private Membership)
Join our private community for deeper insights and exclusive content: https://www.patreon.com/c/Afropolitanpodcast
EPISODE SPONSORS
Zobo Money — Zobo is a money transfer app built for Africans in the diaspora. It lets you send money from the US, UK, and Europe to countries like Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, and more. https://www.zobo.money/afropolitan
BONUS OFFER: Use code AFROPOLITAN and get a $10 bonus when you sign up, complete your KYC, and send $50 or more to Africa.
Hisa — Hisa is an all in one investing app that lets you own Nigerian and US stocks. Sign up with your BVN or NIN and start trading in minutes. https://invite.hisa.co/7fkf/AFROPOLITAN
BONUS OFFER: Use code AFROPOLITAN and get your first two trades for free. Download on the App Store or Google Play.
CONVO BY AFROPOLITAN
Book 1:1 calls with Africa's boldest thinkers: https://convo.vip/
WHERE TO FIND EKE URUM
X/Twitter: https://x.com/eldivine
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ekeurum
RISEVEST
Website: https://www.risevest.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rise.vest
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rise-vest
HISA
Website: https://hisa.co
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hisaapp
AFROPOLITAN
Twitter/X: https://x.com/afropolitan
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afropolitanpodcast
Newsletter: https://www.afropolitan.io/newsletter
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/Afropolitanpodcast
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Owning a piece of Dangote
1:23 Quick one: subscribe to the family
1:40 Where should I put my money in Nigeria?
2:19 Start with the stock market
3:35 Real estate in Lagos and the liquidity trap
4:23 The small businesses nobody is funding yet
5:33 Robinhood, Hisa and democratizing access
6:56 Own things that go up in value
7:45 Our parents did it the broker way
9:17 Why we made this episode
9:50 What the refinery really represents
10:46 Why refineries print money through byproducts
11:42 Getting the shares before the open market
12:16 A $50B valuation next to the whole NGX
12:37 Stop anchoring to the past
14:53 Why it could be worth $80 to $100B in 10 years
15:49 The 4 or 5 stocks you can't go wrong buying
16:40 50/50 diaspora signups since relaunch
17:54 Dividends in dollars and currency risk
19:15 Follow Chika and Eche on Snapchat
19:55 The Room on Patreon
20:47 Sponsor: Zobo Money
21:35 Sponsor: Hisa
22:39 A rocket, two chopsticks, and a fact
23:54 Story vs numbers in the internet era
25:45 His reservations about Dangote and the system
27:03 The $20B in remittances that just gets consumed
31:01 Money you consume is gone
31:55 What private placements actually are
33:47 Don't chase the IPO, own the business
35:50 India and Kenya as diaspora playbooks
38:35 A stock market built by colonial masters
41:45 The 7-Eleven that doesn't exist in Nigeria
43:40 Wounded by paperwork at the exchange
46:29 600K accounts in a country of 200 million
48:43 Betting everything on convenience
50:26 The real risks: crude supply and the debt
51:47 The crude supply risk nobody talks about
52:50 How to prepare for the September IPO
56:18 Can you become a millionaire off Nigerian stocks?
1:00:53 Proof homegrown capital can build Nigeria
1:02:57 $1M per megawatt: the power plant nobody built
1:04:10 Rapid fire
1:06:19 Give your money a worldview
1:08:16 Who should be in this chair next

For over 40 years, one problem broke every education minister who walked in before him. Strikes that shut universities for months at a time. Students who started a four-year degree with no idea when they would actually graduate. He says it took one president and a handful of honest meetings to end it.
When his team asked the president to approve a 40% salary increase for academic staff, he thought the number was too much to ask for. The president looked up and said yes. "It was as if I won a jackpot," he says. "I was about to run out of his office before he called me back."
Dr. Tunji Alausa is a physician and nephrologist who built a career across Nigeria, the UK and the US, and served as chief resident at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. He came home to serve as Minister of State for Health, and today he runs education for a country of 220 million people, roughly 70% of them under the age of 30.
In this episode we get into the real number of out-of-school children and why he says UNICEF and UNESCO have it wrong, flipping classrooms from 70% theory to 80% practice, taking nursing enrollment from 28,000 to over 140,000 a year, why he tore up the idea that a plumber ranks below a doctor, bringing Nigerian history and a new national anthem back into the classroom, and a blunt message to the diaspora: come back home before the opportunity is gone.
Become a Member of The Room (Afropolitan Private Membership)
Join our private community for deeper insights and exclusive content: https://www.patreon.com/c/Afropolitanpodcast

EPISODE SPONSORS
Zobo Money — Zobo is a money transfer app built for Africans in the diaspora. It lets you send money from the US, UK, and Europe to countries like Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, and more. https://www.zobo.money/afropolitan
BONUS OFFER: Use code AFROPOLITAN and get a $10 bonus when you sign up, complete your KYC, and send $50 or more to Africa.

Follow Chika on Snapchat

https://snapchat.com/t/c1ercPU6

WHERE TO FIND DR. TUNJI ALAUSA
X: https://x.com/DrTunjiAlausa
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drtunjialausa
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-tunji-alausa
FEDERAL MINISTRY OF EDUCATION
X: https://x.com/NigEducation

AFROPOLITAN
Twitter/X: https://x.com/afropolitan
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afropolitanpodcast
Newsletter: https://www.afropolitan.io/newsletter
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/Afropolitanpodcast

TIMESTAMPS
0:00 The lines that stopped a 40-year problem
1:41 Quick favor: hit subscribe
1:57 The biggest myth about running education
2:52 "ASUU will be your biggest problem"
4:26 40 years of broken promises and mistrust
7:17 No more bogus agreements
8:06 "No committee between you and me"
8:44 The 40% raise he thought was too much
9:00 "It was as if I won a jackpot"
9:23 Diverting looted funds into education
10:11 "Nigeria is in a renaissance"
11:40 The 20 states that couldn't pay salaries
14:16 The president who reads every paper by dawn
15:32 A message to the diaspora
16:48 Equipping Lagos hospitals from Chicago
18:50 How Tinubu became his mentor
19:20 The year he knew Tinubu wanted the presidency
20:53 "I'd be a hypocrite to stay in America"
21:41 "Polish your shoes" — the offer to serve
22:48 From Health to Education in 18 months
23:25 Flipping the classroom to practical-first
25:10 "Government needs more madmen"
25:52 How technical schools were made to look primitive
27:49 "A plumber earns more than a doctor"
28:37 Suffering in the midst of plenty
30:22 The fight over polytechnic degrees
33:57 The dual-mandate win for colleges of education
36:13 "Why send your child abroad?"
38:03 How Ilorin stayed number one by banning strikes
40:44 24 Nigerian universities ranked, 17 of them public
43:14 Billions into med schools, labs and hostels
47:09 Taking campuses off the grid with solar
50:02 Building job creators, not job seekers
52:53 Nursing: from 28,000 to 140,000 a year
54:55 Medical seats: from 5,000 toward 20,000
57:36 The "Olodo uprising" and graduates of nothing
58:34 When Nigeria had water and light 24/7
1:04:02 Putting real skills back in school
1:05:41 Coursera certificates for global jobs
1:07:48 Rewriting the curriculum from the ground up
1:10:38 "Without data, you're flying blind"
1:12:17 Why history was cut, and how it came back
1:15:39 Why the national anthem changed
1:17:00 "We do not have 15 million out-of-school children"
1:20:20 Counting on the grid: the real numbers
1:25:00 "It's not the West's job to fix us"
1:28:17 Keeping children safe in school
1:32:25 A message to the bandits
1:34:37 Rapid fire: Chicago or Lagos?
1:37:33 What Africa should stop waiting for
1:42:48 Favorite food: beans and dodo
1:43:31 The book that shaped him
1:45:53 Who should be in this chair next

She landed in China with $1,500 in her pocket. That money had to cover the flight she had already booked, somewhere to sleep, and the products she came to manufacture. The factory told her the minimum order was 12,000 pieces.
She stayed anyway. She paid a $1,000 deposit on a $6,000 order, called her cousin and her father from a hotel room until they sent what they could, and flew back to Lagos still owing the balance. Then she signed her car papers over to a loan company. "Collect the car. Just give me the loan." Ten years later Beauty by AD makes 37 shades of foundation and sold out a three day London pop up on the first afternoon.
Adeola Adeyemi, known everywhere as Diiadem, is the founder and CEO of Beauty by AD, one of the few Nigerian cosmetics brands that manufactures its own base products from scratch instead of buying and stamping. She joined The Real Housewives of Lagos in season 3, represented the Nigerian beauty industry at the UK House of Lords in 2025, and was one of the first Nigerian creators Snapchat ever paid.
In this episode we get into the manufacturer who told her her money could not do anything for her, why 15 shades of foundation were not enough and 37 are, the blogger who accused her of sleeping with a sitting governor and what she did about it, the mother she only met once before a stroke took the answers away, the empty refill palette she designed while sitting on a toilet seat, why she hands every new product to working makeup artists before it ships, and the $3,000 to $5,000 she pulls off Snapchat every two weeks.
Become a Member of The Room (Afropolitan Private Membership)
Join our private community for deeper insights and exclusive content: https://www.patreon.com/c/Afropolitanpodcast
EPISODE SPONSORS
Zobo Money — Zobo is a money transfer app built for Africans in the diaspora. It lets you send money from the US, UK, and Europe to countries like Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, and more. https://www.zobo.money/afropolitan
BONUS OFFER: Use code AFROPOLITAN and get a $10 bonus when you sign up, complete your KYC, and send $50 or more to Africa.
CONVO BY AFROPOLITAN
Book 1:1 calls with Africa's boldest thinkers: https://convo.vip/
WHERE TO FIND ADEOLA DIIADEM ADEYEMI
Snapchat: https://www.snapchat.com/@diiadem
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/diiadem
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@adeoladiiadem
X: https://x.com/adeoladiiadem
Threads: https://www.threads.com/@diiadem
LinkedIn: https://ng.linkedin.com/in/adeola-adeyemi-
Website: https://adeoladiiadem.com
BEAUTY BY AD
Website: https://beautybyad.com
Shop: https://beautybyad.com/shop
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beautybyad
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@beautybyad
Threads: https://www.threads.com/@beautybyad
AFROPOLITAN
Twitter/X: https://x.com/afropolitan
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afropolitanpodcast
Newsletter: https://www.afropolitan.io/newsletter
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/Afropolitanpodcast
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 "I will debunk it"
0:40 The $1,500 that had to cover everything
1:15 Her first 800,000, made by hand
1:38 Subscribe to the Afropolitan Podcast
2:09 Driving around Lagos with a makeup box in the car
2:57 Mixing shades by hand because nothing matched
3:25 "How long do you want to do this for?"
4:29 Why Western brands still miss African undertones
5:32 Building from customer feedback instead of trends
6:56 37 shades and the for us by us rule
7:42 Self funded, and why that is not an excuse
8:47 $1,500 for a flight, a factory and a bed
9:32 The manufacturer's verdict
11:02 Paying the $1,000 deposit anyway
12:13 Her cousin and her father borrowed the rest
13:13 Handing over her car papers for a loan
14:31 What the first production run actually cost
14:54 The first store in Lekki
17:26 Letting people go in peace
18:53 The Room on Patreon
19:45 Sponsor: Zobo Money
20:30 Joining Real Housewives of Lagos on purpose
23:48 Why every influencer needs an exit plan
27:19 Why she does not overpay influencers
28:34 The mother she never got to know
30:36 Refusing to blame her mother
33:26 The blogger who tied her success to a governor
36:11 "Even if a man is sponsoring me, what is your business"
38:33 The naira going from 318 to 1,600
42:15 Sephora versus a beauty brand in Lagos
44:44 The influencers abroad who would not touch African brands
45:38 The London fair that sold out on day one
48:27 What Nigerian women actually spend on beauty
51:52 People copying her products
52:59 The empty palette she thought up on a toilet seat
56:54 "Two things I can't keep are friends and men"
1:00:17 In no hurry to be married
1:04:53 Giving every makeup artist a sample
1:05:58 Why Snapchat builds cult followings in Nigeria
1:07:46 Getting verified, then getting paid
1:08:59 $3,000 to $5,000 every 2 weeks
1:11:52 Rapid fire
1:15:15 Her favourite product she makes
1:16:26 Who should be in this chair next

WurlD went digging through his own royalty data and found somebody else's name sitting where his publisher should be. Three, four years of money had already moved. He only caught it because he knew what to look for.
Back in 2015 he started showing Nigerian producers how to register their records properly. IPI numbers, publishing splits, performing rights organizations, all of it. "I made some enemies in the process," he says, because he was walking into rooms telling people the person handling their paperwork was putting the records under their own name.
WurlD is Sadiq Onifade. Born in Lagos, studied computer science at Georgia State while sneaking into Atlanta studios at night, wrote records for Akon and B.o.B before anyone would sign him as an artist, co-wrote Davido and Chris Brown's Blow My Mind, and made I Love Girls With Trobul with Sarz. His new album Born To Win is on the way.
In this episode we get into the EP he pulled off every streaming platform, the two years he sat on a finished hit, the night he almost got stuck in Berlin filming COLORS as the world shut down, why he left clothes behind to fit his recording rig in a suitcase, and why he gave Blow My Mind away.
Become a Member of The Room (Afropolitan Private Membership)
Join our private community for deeper insights and exclusive content: https://www.patreon.com/c/Afropolitanpodcast
EPISODE SPONSORS
Zobo Money — Zobo is a money transfer app built for Africans in the diaspora. It lets you send money from the US, UK, and Europe to countries like Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, and more. https://www.zobo.money/afropolitan
BONUS OFFER: Use code AFROPOLITAN and get a $10 bonus when you sign up, complete your KYC, and send $50 or more to Africa.
CONVO BY AFROPOLITAN
Book 1:1 calls with Africa's boldest thinkers: https://convo.vip/
WHERE TO FIND WURLD
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisiswurld
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisiswurld
Twitter/X: https://x.com/thisisWurlD
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/thisiswurld
WURLD LIVE
Website: https://www.wurldlive.com/
Live in Atlanta at Terminal West, Sunday September 6. Doors 7:00 PM, show 8:45 PM. Full live band, new music.
Tickets: https://www.axs.com/events/1540218/wurld-tickets
AFROPOLITAN
Twitter/X: https://x.com/afropolitan
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afropolitanpodcast
Newsletter: https://www.afropolitan.io/newsletter
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/Afropolitanpodcast
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 The producers he worked with were not registered
0:59 "We don't like it when it sounds too American"
1:21 Someone else put their name on his publishing
1:40 A quick word about that subscribe button
2:12 Lagos to Atlanta, and how the career started
2:29 The calling he had to hide from his parents
2:45 "People wanted songwriters more than African artists"
4:27 Writing for Akon and B.o.B
5:37 When labels wanted the artist instead of the writer
6:10 The EP he pulled off every streaming platform
6:38 A house record that blew up in Eastern Europe
7:04 The beat that became Show You Off
8:10 Do writing code and writing songs rhyme?
9:17 The Tiny Desk moment that explained songwriting
9:38 How the money actually moves
11:57 Coming home to a business run on vibes
12:37 The registrations that kept coming back blank
12:54 "I made some enemies in the process"
13:47 Producers with huge records still chasing credits
14:34 "If that can happen to someone like me that's informed"
15:14 Lagos-born, US-raised, and why that is the advantage
16:11 Quiet in life, loud in the music
16:41 Meeting Sarz in LA
18:49 Recording Mad in Lagos
19:01 The Room on Patreon
19:52 Sponsor: Zobo Money
20:38 Sitting on a hit for two years
21:41 Putting the producer's name on the front
22:46 Where the blue came from
24:55 Why he slowed the tempo down
27:28 "Trust your gut and the God feeling"
27:59 "Show You Off was not a trend"
29:21 The Afrobeats and Nigerian-American disconnect
30:54 "If you're going to speak Yoruba, speak it with the gut"
32:16 CDs to iTunes to streaming
33:51 The 2021 breakdown
34:50 Filming Ghost Town at COLORS as the world shut down
35:30 Almost stuck in Berlin and London
36:24 Making Lagos feel like home after 18 years away
37:12 He traded clothes for his recording gear
38:09 "The industry only loves you when you're on top"
39:03 "I'm moving on every song"
40:24 "Find your tribe and communicate"
41:44 "Don't sound like another WurlD"
42:11 Keeping Blow My Mind or giving it away
44:20 "More hype than actually great music"
47:06 The new album and what is coming
49:07 What AI is about to do to creatives
51:40 "I've heard more no's in my career than yes"
52:45 Where the name WurlD came from
54:08 Rapid fire
57:48 The producers he loves working with
1:01:13 What legacy looks like for WurlD
1:01:41 Who should be in this chair next