Ikuforiji Olaitan Abdulrahman, better known by his stage name Oxlade, a Nigerian singer, has described how he spent a period of time sleeping under a bridge after leaving home to pursue his musical career.
Oxlade, aged 26 years (born on 22 April 1997, Surulere, Ikeja), in an interview with Adesope Olajide’s Afrobeat podcast, expressed that his father, a lecturer, opposed his intention to pursue music as a vocation, causing him to flee and work multiple menial jobs to survive.
The singer mentioned that he occasionally slept at the Ojuelegba barrack bridge and sold BRT bus tickets to survive. Oxlade discussed how picking his circle carefully changed the course of his professional development.
“Back then, I used to sleep at Ojuelegba Barrack Bridge sometimes. I did several menial jobs to survive. I was selling BRT tickets. I use to travel to Onitsha to record for free but when I realized that I can’t do that from time to time, I surrounded myself with the right people, the people I needed and I knew that would benefit from me too.” he recalled.
