Korede Bello: ‘ Minding My Business, Sharing Happiness Is Priority’
Barely three weeks ago, Korede Bello returned with a two- track release, one of which was the Minding My Business duet with his former label boss, Don Jazzy. If you’re looking for proof of whether the erstwhile Mavin Records star of Godwin, Do Like That and Dorobucci fame still has that star- factor, then that track is all the confirmation you need.
Korede Bello, the ‘ mega- superstar’ that bursted through airwaves circa 2014, with that prayerful pop- anthem Godwin carries a unique, gingerly voice that neatly aligns with all of his lyrical storytelling. On his most- recent EP, Beauty & Bliss, the indie singer rehashes the warming tempo and stirring lyricism that has kept his discography filled with gems. Across all eight tracks, he fuses genres, traversing between Amapiano pop and RNB as he shuffles between edgy ecstasy and soothing introspection. It was definitely a captivating return after his first post- Mavins project, Belloved, failed to transport his evergreen talent to new fans back in 2017.
Since the musician’s big break in the early 2010s, being relevant has remained quite easy for Korede Bello. He sits, tucked inside the annals of great singers in Afrobeats’ history. As the industry evolved, so did his music, especially its production and composition. His mental health and cancer awareness advocacy, as well as a youth ambassadorship with the country’s police, continues to give his scandal- free image a generous retouch.
In this week’s Guardian Music, we catch up with the 28- year- old star, delving deeper into his recent collaboration with Don Jazzy, as well as his past projects, especially his anxiety with making more hits after Godwin; as well as his vision of serving a slice of ‘ heaven’ with every song he will ever create.
How has life been for you these past few years?
L
IFE has been beautiful and blissful. It’s been an interesting stage of life to be. Being a young adult, being in a stage where you question the nature of existence, purpose and possibilities of the future, it’s a very interesting place to be. Life has been fair to me. Life has been good to me, actually. I’m in my most intentional phase of my creative career.
You just released your new single with Don Jazzy. How do you feel about it?
How I feel about it is in the song itself; it’s a self captioned feeling. I literally spoke about my feelings on the song and it flows from how I feel and how I’ve been feeling about life in general, minding my business, focusing on the work that pays me, just paying attention to what feeds my joy and feeds my bliss. It feels good to also reconnect with my boss and friend. I enjoy making music with him, so making music together and seeing people respond to that, it’s a beautiful feeling as well because we just like to have fun anyways. So, I feel like minding my business is actually a good investment.
What was the experience like reuniting with Don Jazzy on a song again?
We did not reunite because we did not divide. So, I don’t call it reuniting; it’s just a link up. We always link up, but not every time to make music. We could just link up for link up sake. I could go see him and we would just talk about life. It just feels like a regular link up. The only difference right now is that this one is recorded in a song. It started from “Oh, let us just give them something to dance and feel excited by”, and theexperiencewasbeautiful. Youknow, one day, I was scrolling through tik- tok and realised some of our songs that we made together were trending and I remembered that Jazzy and I make beautiful music. On my next album, I’d like to make something with him again. He’s the only person I would feature in the album. So, I wanted to touch base with Don J and just make something joyful and that also communicate our lifestyle just like minding our business and doing what we do.
Your new two- track project is self titled, Tell us about it
Koreday.
Yes, it’s self- titled, Koreday, but it’s also a mixture of two words, Kore and Day. So, Kore’s Day and Kore’s Day is a nod to my birthday, which is February 29. I thought it would be a really good idea to create a project that reflects my day from beginning to end and also to try to make the project that if my day or my lifetime was codified in one day, what would it look like? So, if someone presses play and they want to know what Kore’s Day was like in the year 2024, when they’re listening 50 years from now, they can just press play and see, oh, it’s such an interesting day. So, it’s a way to codify, you know, a life cycle in one single day. Tell a story about Kore’s Day from my perspective, you know, a dialogue where I have someone asking me questions and I’m answering with, I’m responding with songs. It’sastoryaboutcelebratinglife, love, experiencing heartbreak, responding to life’s challenges, falling in love again, focusing on what matters mostandjustlookingforwardtohavingabetter day. Enjoying the moment, enjoying the day and looking forward to being better another day.
So, can we say all of these things are things that happen in real time?
So that’s where as an artist, you know, there’s a little bit of fiction, a little bit of reality in there to amplify the story. But the core of the story is Kore’s Day. I mean, it’s true that it’s my birthday. It’s true that I look forward to going back to my bed. It’s true that I travel to the past to speak to my inner child as a mental or wellness check. It’s true that nobody knows tomorrow. You know, a lot of the songs are rooted in reality. But for artistic expressions, like if you see the statue of David, for instance, by Michelangelo. Is it real that that’s David? No. But is it also true that that’s David? Yes. It’s David because that’s the statue of David. It was just crafted with rock. So it’s rooted in reality. All art forms are rooted in reality. All the best ones. Anyways, but for me, yes, Koreday is rooted in authenticity and reality. And it’s also like a birthday gift to myself. So, I want it to be as true as possible. Especially for my inner child.
How would you describe your artistry right now?
I think the answer is just simply experience. The more you experience as an artist, the more the experience finds its way to your art that is just the way of sharing experience. I think I’m justseeingthroughthelensof experienceatthis point and trying to communicate as realistically as possible the things that everybody faces from day to day, so, I’m not trying to make music because I have a song to make. I am trying to make music because I have something to say in a song. You know it’s something that I’ve seen or experienced and I want to share so that’s what’s different. I’m just trying to communicate, you know language music is a language of emotions and experience, rience, so from time to time you know as an artist you find your unspoken words or you know feelings pouring into the art and I think hink that’s what it is sometimes the art makes itself through. You’re ’ re just a medium and you don’t know what you’re making until il it’s ready but I wanted to make something that you know w can be experiential. It’s like a Disney story.
Where do you generate nerate most of your ideas from?
Sometimes, the ideas themselves come to me. Like I said; aid; when you listen to the album it feels eels like it’s something that always already existed and they just needed ed me to put it together. So sometimes mes I don’t like to take credit for generating enerating anything because nobody ody really generates anything. The generator doesn’t generate electricity, it’s just a medium for or converting energy to another form orm of energy you know, so the generator will not come and say “ah that me i’m the generator of electricity ectricity without electricity i’m the he generator of electricity without electricity i’m the generator of electricity.” ectricity.”
That’s me. Ultimately, tely, stories are the source of all our ideas. You know someone says s I want to build a light bulb. Why is it t a story? He was trying to tell a story of he was trying to complete a story y so that people can know. Sometimes mes the stories were even here before ore we were born, we just connected to them. And I am part of a story that’s been told. Am I the main character? I don’t on’t know yet. But I think what matters s is that we are in the position, whether you’re ou’re a writer, painter, journalist, whatever, r, you know, you understand your part in the story and you play your part well. That t is a sense of humility, knowing that you’re re part of the story, not necessarily the end of the story.
Obviously, you are to some extent in charge of how you tell your story, but the story does not start art with you and it doesn’t end with you. ou. I think that’s ultimately the story of Kore’s Day. You know, it’s gonna be someone one else’s birthday. And tomorrow, it’s just a new day. You know? Like, life doesn’t sn’t end when they stop playing, when you get to the last song on Kore Day. I think that another message in there is that the story doesn’t start with you, it doesn’t oesn’t end with you, but you have this little ttle part that you get to play in the day, in n the story of this lifetime, and make sure e that you spend your time well or at least t allow time to spend you well.
Tell us about one of your most memorable music making ng experiences ever?
There are so many ny memorable experiences, but this particular ticular song I’m watching on the screen right ght now, Romantic, takes me back to the day that we made this song. Then Jazzy and I just t came back. We actually went to church. It was like a harvest program, and, you know, ow, we were invited to come. We were invited nvited to sing together. It was Don n Jazzy’s church.