Ah shit, here we go again…
My exact thoughts as I raised myself slightly enough to search my bed for my phone with my head blaring from just not enough sleep and general tiredness. I’d stayed up till 5 ‘o’ clock writing one of my articles that do not gain enough traction and leaves me wondering why I keep trying. This was 8:30 on Friday 10th of May and I was just about to religiously scroll through my phone for emails, opportunities, interesting articles, Twitter banter or see if any of the few people that care about me had decided to text me.
First thing I see is a message from an artist whose album I’d just written about – Dusten Truce. He likes my work but thinks there is a lot of “misinformation” in my work and he is kind enough to point one out for me. Mistakes, but I still count this as a win. I tell him “Thank you”, screenshot the message for memories of this small victory and then update the article with the information Dusten kindly pointed out (all this while, I’m building up the courage to ask him for an interview). I’d cried the night before as I’d sought out an old friend who had blown up for an interview and she replied with the two worst words in the human texting world ‘Aii’ and ‘k’. I gather the effrontery to ask Dusten if he’d like to do an interview, ‘yeah definitely’ he replies. He follows up by asking if I’d like it to be over the phone or if I would be mailing him questions. I told him I wanted to sit down with him to talk and he sets up a meeting for Tuesday, 12 noon. Praised be Ragubaba.
‘Ikotun to Ikoyi. Father stretch my patience.’
On Tuesday morning, there’s a fallen tanker across both sides of the road at Oke-Afa, causing a massive hold up and my semi-drunk driver is turning back to where he picked us up from to avoid this traffic. I left my house by 7:30 to beat Lagos traffic but its 9 ‘o’ clock and I’m back to square one –once again Lagos wins. I text Dusten to tell him I may be later than usual (my first interview and I’m late, my stomach churns at my incompetence) and he replies with a simple “No wahala”. He would later explain that he grew up at Isolo and understands what such a distressing journey involves.
I pop in a menthol as I step into a shuttle that’s supposed to take me to his office. It’s about a minute from the park to his office and I’m at his reception by 11:56 am despite another bus I took breaking down on third mainland bridge. The receptionist calls to inform him that he has a guest. In a minute, he is down and I’m following him through an open office with about 8 staff members to a spacious room.
Dusten towers well above my 5ft9 frame and the first thing that comes to my mind is “Told her my shoe size is 49 in case she’s wondering”. I notice he is wearing his wristwatch on his right hand with his bracelets on the left and I’m almost using my eyes to will his accessories to change positions. I drop my bag on the floor despite the massive space by my side on the sofa I’m sitting on (I’m a bag of nerves) although luckily, he doesn’t notice as he looks like he doesn’t know what to expect. Even with the AC on, the air is stiff with apprehension. A desk between his chair and my sofa, I turn on my voice recorder (my phone). We begin. Praised be Ragubaba.
ME: TWO BIRDS ONE STONE, I DON’T GET IT.
DUSTEN: So, everyone, especially Nigerians are trying to kill two birds with one stone. Most people juggle more than one thing at a time. You are probably doing that right now (gesturing at me). It came from me working a day job and making music. It’s the theme that guides the creation of the album, that’s why a lot of songs were two songs in one. You’ve seen the visual with a target on two birds, yeah that’s killing two birds with one stone. It’s the theme. (It is at this point I recall that on the album cover, there’s a mic on one side and a briefcase on the other with Dusten in the middle and there’s also a laptop that reads ‘music/work’).
He is now much more comfortable, he is gesticulating a lot while making a lot of proper eye contact. His hands move a lot even when they are on the table, his fingers motion. You can tell he uses his hands a lot for something. A laptop.
ME: SO, WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN UP TO?
DUSTEN: Making videos for the album. We have a day for conversations, rollup. Depends on what the finance is saying (chuckles).
M: ARE YOU WORKING ON ANY OTHER PROJECTS?
D: Yeah, I’m working on some singles. After that, I’m going to start working on my album. I’m just creating, I’m not thinking about whether people like it, I’m just creating. People hit me up and tell me ‘I remember I was in a specific scenario that was the same’ or ‘oh this song helped me through this’. That’s the reason I make music to be honest. And personal satisfaction too.
M: DO YOU STILL ROLL WITH THE MITSUBISHI?
D: (Laughter) Nah Nah, I sold that car. I bought a new car, so I had to say goodbye to the Mitsubishi. That Mitsubishi had memories. (I interject with ‘sentimental values’) Yeah, sentimental values. I hope I can track it back. I want to, I have the number of the guy I sold it to.
Here he and I get into a chat about relationships (his relationship mostly). I can tell that he is mature and emotionally intelligent but also willing to learn along the journey. He is open, insightful and understands things from perspectives different from his. This is the part where he fully opened to our discussion. We bond over his relationship experiences and the raucous the infamous ‘Bumbum not bread’ video caused. He isn’t mad, he is learning (both in his music and his personal relationships). He tells me he grew up with his mum and two younger sisters, so he quite understands or at least tries to understand things from the female perspective while not discrediting the validity of his own experiences.
M: YOU WERE RAISED SOLELY BY YOUR MUM, WHAT WAS THAT LIKE?
D: It was okay, my mum did what she could for us. I mean I turned out fine, I guess. My sisters too.
ME: DO YOU THINK YOU ARE GOING TO DO A MAJOR COLLAB ANYTIME SOON?
D: I’ve reached out to a lot of people in the past. A lot of these guys are peers, friends. Vector featured on my first mixtape. It wasn’t a verse, was a skit of us in his house chilling. When I was 17, I was on Modenine’s project so, I have relationships with a lot of these people. I’m not one to chase collaborations. Its crazy, the song that had Straffitti, was supposed to have Blaqbonez but I guess he got busy with his album. (I tell Dusten I’d like to hear him and Blaqbonez on a song) Yeah, it’d be fire bro. We did a song a long time ago. So Straffitti’s elder sister was my classmate in secondary school and he got in after I’d left, so there was that connection. I played him the song, he liked it, I sent it to him and he sent me back a verse in a week. It was fire bro. Paybac’s feature was more intentional cos I’ve always wanted to make a song called ‘Oga police’ from time. I’ve had different versions, Osagz knows one of the versions cos I’ve rapped it to him before. I had different versions of the song written out. Oga Police was the only song on the album done in the same quarter in which the album was released. It was the most recent recording. So that day I was going to try and record on some other beat but then DJ Xtreme was in my house and he was playing beats. I was like ‘yo, chill, chill’, I have a song for this. I took the beat, recorded a hook and gave it to him, it was fire and I was like, ‘you know who’d be perfect for this?’ – Paybac. If you see me and Paybac tweet, we go back and forth. I always tell him I have a song for him, it was the Oga Police song, but I didn’t know what it’d sound like. I mailed it to him and told him to send a verse back. The features were very special.
M: SO, WHAT ABOUT YOU FEATURING ON OTHER PEOPLE’S PROJECTS?
D: I’ve been giving out verses bro but a lot of people don’t put out the work. I don’t know why bro. This is classified info but me and Paybac are talking about doing a project together sometime, very soon. I’m also working on something with 3rty, sent me a beat. I’m supposed to do a record with Buju as well, he sent me something, but I’ve been too busy.
M: YOU MIX YOUR OWN STUFF RIGHT?
D: Yeah, recently.
I tell Dusten about how Freedom is my favourite track on the album and he proceeds to give me the background story of the record.
D: You know the crazy thing is, I didn’t write that song. Was off the top of my head. I mixed it and I don’t even remember how but I just remember hearing the beat and I snapped. It was Justice (Jayblakez) that produced the beat and there was a back and forth cos he wanted to sell the beat to someone and I was like, ‘It’s cool’. I saved the MP3 demo that I’d made, and I deleted the data, but I saved it to the folder for songs I was making for the album and anytime I played that song to anybody, they like ‘yo, yo, play that song again’. I played the song to Peedi (CEO of Aristokrat) and he told me ‘play that song again’. I realized this record is powerful. I like the song but seeing people’s reaction to the song made me love it even more and I realized, this is the first song for the album. I called Justice and we tried to remake it – I frustrated this guy, but it didn’t feel like the first recording and we had to leave it at that.
Dusten and I begin talking about the “Igbo feel” to his songs. ‘Well, I’m Igbo’ Dusten replies as he laughs. He reveals that the sample for celebrity champagne has not been cleared so we won’t delve into further details, but he acknowledges his Igbo vibe and the extra layer it adds to his work.
D: Crazy thing about “Celebrity Champagne”, I started making it on my birthday, May 8, 2017, and two days after that, I moved from Opebi to my former place in Ogudu. Rollup was inspired by an Opebi babe. My music is an extension of the life I live, things I talk about on the album are real-life experiences. So anyway, I finished recording at the new place and I got robbed that night. Next day, I woke up, broke AF, and I thought okay, cool. Got a trap laptop and made Celebrity Champagne again so that song is very special to me.
M: HOT BOX
D: (Laughing) As you know, it was in my Mitsubishi, it was me, Tyler, 3rty and Wale (Tyler’s older brother). It was just vibes. That’s always the way it is when me, Tyler and 3rty are around.
ME: YOU GUYS HAVE A GROUP PROJECT?
D: Tyler and I have a project together but as a group, no. I’m putting out a record later in the year that has Tyler and 3rty on it. It’s a vibe.
Dusten has been working in advertising for a while now and I ask him if his new job at a creative agency still allows him time for music.
D: It helps me actually. It helps me think of my album as wholesome. I broke out the idea of ‘two birds, one stone’ and you can see now. Wetin dey kill rollout na money (we both laugh). If I had more money, I’d put it on platforms that make it clearer and help people understand how it all connects but yeah, I’m doing what I can.
I ask Dusten about his time with X3M and he is grateful to them. He acknowledges the part they’ve played in him being where he is today. ‘My contract expired but it was good’ he replies.
ME: YOU WERE ON MODENINE’S PROJECT AT THE AGE OF 17, WHAT WAS THAT LIKE?
D: Bro, I can fucking rap bro! Now I’m more concerned with making actual music. I’ve outgrown the days of just wanting to spit on Hot 16. If you listen to my music, you can tell that I can rap. I don’t need to prove it to you, you I just want to create music that you can enjoy, but at a point in time, what was more important was spitting barzzz. Well yeah, I’m grateful that happened cos it was one of the major things that started this whole thing off.
I tell him I have as many as 25 questions lined up for him and he checks out to go get his phone and in about a minute, he is back.
ME: DO YOU THINK THERE ARE ANY MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT YOUR MUSIC?
D: There are a lot, I might not be able to pinpoint a lot of them, but they are a lot. I was having a conversation with a friend the other day and she pointed out to me that there were ‘misogynistic undertones’ on Celebrity Champagne. I felt I addressed both sides of the table. They don’t see that. I was raised by my mother and my mum doesn’t say she is a feminist, she acts as a feminist. I can never fully understand what women face because it has never happened to me personally but, on my own side, I know what I’ve faced. At the end of the day, everybody deserves to be treated fairly, and it’s what I believe. I will never do something to a woman that I know if it was done to me, would leave me fucked up. I told her the reason why the song is like that is because if I told it any different, it’d be a lie. There are multiple issues in our society, I can’t speak on all of them, I can only speak on what I’ve experienced. (Speaking about misconceptions) Same way people see me from afar and assume I’m an asshole – I get that a lot. I look like that but I’m just a regular guy. So yeah, there are a lot of misconceptions about me but fortunately, I don’t know all because I’d overthink, and I have enough things to worry about.
ME: WOULD YOU CLASSIFY YOURSELF AS ALTE?
D: I’ve been doing alternative before the word Alté came up. I would rather call myself a fusionist. I don’t really know man, I’ll just let people classify the music. Genre’s are dead to me, this guy is hip-hop, this guy is that. I know when all these guys started and to see how far everyone has come, believing in themselves. 2017 was such a big year for upcoming artistes in music. I did a tour (Young Kulture), 6 shows back to back and we know how much a show cost us, but we figured a way to make it happen. A lot of people were inspired by that. When we started, it was at the same time 90’s baby started. We weren’t all friends, weren’t all cool but we were aware and feeding off each other’s energy. There was a sort of unspoken ‘Let’s just keep it pushing’. The beauty of this is that younger artistes will start jumping on this. Imagine a young guy still in school with the convenience of collecting money from his parents and he gets a nice small laptop. His parents send money and he is meeting some other guys to start up something with – form a collective and start pushing out. Lots of opportunities, information out right now than there was before, it’s a gradual process. You just must keep putting in the work cos that’s the only way. Sometimes, it hits you that people you started off with are doing better off, you are human, but you find solace in the fact that ‘I’ve been able to achieve this, and I’ve been able to achieve that’.
ME: WHO ARE YOUR MODERN INSPIRATIONS?
D: I’d say M.I, I would say, Santi, I love what Russ has been doing. I love J Cole (I scoff, and He laughs). (I tell him I love J Cole, but I hate his stans) You can’t help but stan. J Cole went on tour when his label wouldn’t back him. He was like ‘I’ll show you guys that I’m worthy of your investment’. He plays the long game, ‘oh nobody will produce for me? I’ll make my own beats’. Not everyone’s story will be the same. Not everyone can get signed and take off in two years. Not everyone can be as lucky as Simi and have their debut album hit number 1, but if you look at the short-term satisfaction, that’s it.
ME: CLASSIC INSPIRATIONS?
D: Studying the game, I’d say Dr Dre. He understood the power of collaborations from early on and he created a platform for it. When he was at Deathrow, he had a lot of work with 2pac. He started Aftermath, realized that ‘if I sign this boy called Slim Shady, it’d make a lot of sense as I already have a good relationship with Snoop’. All the way down to TDE. He is working on one project but here, Kendrick do your thing, Anderson .Paak, come through, write, create. That’s how you do it.
ME: HOW WAS GROWING UP IN ISOLO?
D: It was rough, but it was happy. I don’t have a lot of bad memories, but I don’t have a lot of outstanding memories. My life was very linear. Besides the point where for the longest of times, I didn’t know what my talents were. It was right after secondary school, so I studied engineering cos I’m smart AF but then I didn’t realize I wasn’t an engineer but a creative. I was the only science student that used to offer art – drawing and shading. I used to have an eye for things, back then I didn’t understand. My growing up was kind of meh, except with my dad and mum breaking up, that was what kind of gave me my super powers.
ME: BREAK THE STORY DOWN
D: Nah, it was just a lot of drama, so I became a quiet, reclusive kid. Back in JSS2, we had just learnt about how nations call a truce and because I was quiet, they started calling me Truce. Tyler was T-blaze. So, we wanted to make it cool – my name is Dusten and we got D-Truce. When I was in SSS2, I changed schools, a lot of people thought I was dumb cos I didn’t talk. I’d just look, and I guess that’s where I got the resting bitch face from. I still get very socially anxious. I don’t do well in social gatherings. I just find my corner and post up but because I’m a big guy, dark skin, they be like ‘He is in his section chilling’ but I really don’t know what to say. (Laughs) I wanna leave.
ME: DO YOU STILL PLAY BASKETBALL?
D: Nah, I don’t have time for it anymore.
ME: YOU ARE INDEPENDENT NOW YEAH?
D: Yeah, fully.
ME: YOU WORK A 9-5, MAKE MUSIC AND STILL HAVE YOUR OWN THING WITH YOUR GUYS (LUCID COMPANY), HOW DO YOU BALANCE IT ALL?
D: I don’t know honestly, I just do. I don’t know, and Nigeria gets harder every day. I don’t know to be honest.
ME: SO, WILL YOU BE ACTING AGAIN?
D: If anyone throws a script at me then sure, but I’m not actively looking. I’m too busy and acting takes a lot of your time with the schedules and all.
ME: WHAT SHAPED YOUR MUSIC?
D: Life bro, life. Because my music is very personal, very I, me, us, and the people around me so, the more I experience, the more songs I make. It doesn’t have to be that deep, it could just be that a babe texted me and told me I look good, let’s make a song about it. Or it could be shit I lost a friend, let me make a song. So, it could either be lighthearted or it could be more real.
ME: SO, WHAT DO YOU FEEL IS YOUR ESSENCE? WHAT DO YOU GIVE OFF?
D: I don’t know what I give off. I can’t be the hero of everyone’s story, so sadly I don’t know what I give off. I do know what I look for and its peace of mind, so I’m not interested in anything else – that’s how I make a lot of my decisions. I am a bit of an overthinker so I’m actively trying not to that’s why I go with the peace of mind option so, if it makes me feel good then yeah.
One word I used to describe Dusten’s music was “verisimilitude” and having sat down to chat with him about the spheres of his life, that description remains very apt. He makes music about the things he sees and faces daily, allowing his very young but vast experiences in the ‘backyard called Lagos’ to come to the fore on his music. Be sure to listen to Two Birds, one stone if you get the chance, it’s a brilliant piecing together of everyday life in Lagos.