Rising singer Fola talks Ibadan roots, his mum’s early prophecy, the Kizz Daniel deal that almost was, and buying her a plot for a church.
Four months. That’s how long it took for Fola to go from an unknown face behind a betting shop counter in Ibadan to someone people now stop on the street.
He still remembers walking back into his old neighborhood after his music took off, and barely recognizing the reaction he got. The Bet9ja cashier everyone knew was gone. In his place stood a musician the whole city seemed proud of.
Long before any of this, Fola’s mother had a feeling about him. She used to tell him, often, that he’d become a star one day. Her advice was simple: pray, stay yourself, and let it happen.
So when it actually did happen, it didn’t feel like luck to him. It felt like something she’d already seen coming.
Fola’s real reason for picking up music wasn’t ambition. It was a boy in his class getting attention from girls because he could rap.
Fola wanted that too. He borrowed his brother’s rap style, performed it at school the next day, and watched his classmates, and even the school proprietor, react with excitement.
That moment convinced him music was worth pursuing seriously.
Singing, it turned out, ran in his blood anyway. Morning devotions at home were built around it.
Fola’s path crossed with some big names early on. His label boss, Bella Shmurda, once brought him along to meet Kizz Daniel during talks about signing him. Kizz Daniel liked what he heard and considered signing Fola himself, though the deal never came together.
Instead, Fola built his own lane, eventually working alongside artists like Ayra Starr, Wizkid, BNXN, Zlatan, Victony, and DJ Tunez.
Staying Out of the Comparison Trap
Now that he’s inside the industry, Fola says the biggest threat to his peace isn’t competition, it’s comparison. His fix is refusing to measure himself against anyone else, choosing self-belief over pressure.
When the money started coming in, Fola didn’t spend it on himself first. He bought his mother a plot of land in Ibadan. Two years ago, she used it to build a church.
