The Beginning
One evening in 2002, the social prefect of Lagos State Model College, Meiran, watched as the first DJ to ever perform at his school showed off his skill. He fell in love with the music and how this man could control the party’s tempo. He had grown up around music but never seen anything quite like this. He was intrigued, in love, and determined to be better at DJing than the man performing. 19 years later, the whole of Nigeria would come to know Oluseye Desmond Sodamola as DJ Spinall and respect him for the brilliance he brings to the craft.
That night, that moment, as he watched this DJ, he had paid almost as much as his school fees to show up, a star was born, but nobody knew it yet. It would take several years of training, hard work, and free gigs for the whole continent to know him. This is the story of how Oluseye Sodamola became one of the most incredible DJs in Africa.
Oluseye, popularly known as DJ Spinall, was born to entrepreneurs Chief and Mrs Sodamola on June 2, 1984, in Lagos State. He is the third of five children. His older sister is in the medical field, and his older brother is a professor. His younger brother, who also serves as one of his managers, is an insurer, while his younger sister is currently studying international relations. Spinall himself has a degree in electrical-electronics engineering and is the only one to have caught the music bug from his parents.
Spinall says his parents always filled their house with music while growing up and are still avid music lovers. He tells Netng, “Growing up was fun, extremely fun. But more than that, I’ll say my parents really loved music. My mom and dad listen to everybody’s music, even the guys I’ve not worked with.”
After completing his primary school in the mid-90s, Spinall went on to Lagos State Model College, Meiran, where he fell in love with DJing. He says growing up with music influenced his behaviour and what would eventually become his passion.
“Dad and mom were all about music. So, I took all of that with me and grew with it. My elder brother was so much a Biggie fan. So I took all of that to high school, and I think the school authority noticed that too. As in – this one is always going around with his walkman and Discman, so we will make him social prefect. While I was the social prefect, I thought of events that we could do that we had never done before, and one of them was to bring a DJ to the school.”.
This singular decision would change Spinall’s initial dreams of wanting to become an engineer. However, watching the DJ perform was the catalyst needed to change his life, and he embraced it wholeheartedly.
He says, “A lot of us as kids didn’t go to parties, so we didn’t get the opportunity to see how DJs do what they do. All we could hear were DJs on radios, someone talking about DJing, but we never really got to see them. So seeing him and watching him was mind-blowing. So I decided that I was going to learn how to do this stuff. I thought that it would be an added advantage as I already loved music. So immediately after school, while my colleagues were going to learn typewriting and computer studies, I learned how to DJ.”
A Star Is Born
When Spinall finished secondary school in 2001, he immediately started learning how to DJ from DJ Slim in his neighbourhood. He continued training even after he got admitted to study electrical-electronics engineering at Olabisi Onabanjo University in 2002. After four years of training, he finally landed his first gig at a church event in 2005. He says that he only played two songs, but they liked his vibe and paid him N500 for his performance.
His career didn’t kick off properly until he was through with university in 2009. He became more deliberate about creating a name for himself as a DJ after completing his compulsory youth service in 2012. Matthew Ohio, Founder of Industry Nite, says Spinall was an incredible contributor to the event’s success for years. He tells the story of a dedicated young man, determined to show his worth before getting paid.
Matthew Ohio tells Netng, “I met Spinall around 2012/2013. One day, we hosted Faze of Plantashun Boiz, and some guy walks up to me and says he’s going to play for free. I say, ‘alright, fine. If you are going to play for free, set up your decks’. The guy is Spinall, and he sets up. There was a famous DJ there at the time. So we had two DJs playing for that show. And Spinall, who was unknown at the time, outplayed him, out-worked him, out-did everything.”
Matthew Ohio says Spinall played for months without pay. He was so good that he eventually became a significant side attraction of the show. He shares, “For the next two to three months, he was coming every Wednesday to perform from Alagbado or some distant place for free. He was just so focused and eager to get his brand out there. After 2 or 3 months, I was like, let me start giving you a stipend to cover your transportation and everything. And he was there without fail for probably another 7 to 8 years, every Wednesday. He became part of the show. He became like part of the attractions.”
His hard work at Industry Nite did not go unnoticed. Instead, it opened the door to new opportunities for him. After another incredible performance one night, Wande Coal’s manager, Nana Abbey, approached him and asked him to become the superstar’s official DJ.
Spinall says the show gave him the first avenue he needed for people to see what he could do. “One of the nights I performed at Industry night, Wande Coal’s manager walked up to me and went like, ‘come here. I want to have a meeting with you. I’ve watched your performance, and you are a big deal’. His name is Nana Abbey. He walked up to me and told me, ‘I love how you DJ. I think you are extremely talented and want to introduce you to my artiste – Wande Coal, and we will go on tour together’. I was so excited, and I remember that I couldn’t believe the first time I met Wande Coal. I was thinking, ‘I’m in the same room with this iconic superstar’.”
Spinall also met another act, Adekunle Gold, while he was working at Industry Nite. AG was the event’s official graphics designer while he was trying to break into the music industry. Spinall was one of those who encouraged him to put out his first song, ‘Sade’, and his career has not slowed down since he released that debut single in 2015.
Adekunle Gold says Spinall has been supportive of his career since the very beginning. “Ever since I released my first single, which is ‘Sade’, he’s been very supportive. He’s been very, very supportive. This guy has gone on to play my music on big stages, so you know, he’s a top guy.”
Spinall’s deal with Wande Coal helped him begin to chart a new path. He eventually became Mavin’s official DJ, but he left the record label in 2013 after Wande ended his contract to start up his Black Diamond Entertainment.
Making Hits and Going Global
In 2014, he launched TheCAPMusic, a record label/management company. He soon released his first hit single, ‘Gba Gbe E’ in 2014, featuring Grammy award-winner Burna Boy. At that time, Burna had just released his first album, ‘Living An Impact For Eternity (LIFE)’, but Spinall could already see so much promise. Top Boy released ‘Gba Gbe E’ on his debut album, ‘My Story: The Album’, which featured upcoming stars, Niniola and Tekno. Both of them went on to enjoy massive success in their careers.
Spinall says that supporting new artistes feels good in a different way. “You can support, you can feature artistes nobody knows. Like, on my albums in the past. Half of my artistes in the old albums are now the big dawgs today. If you go back and check my first album, when I was making this song with the artiste, they were not on today’s level. I’m not saying that I’m the only one that put them at that level. I feel like they also worked hard to get there. Above that, the fact that I met them when many people in the world didn’t know them is very special to me, and it makes me happy that I told you this boy ‘bad’, now everybody believes this boy ‘bad’.”
But Spinall’s TheCAPMusic was more than just a label. It introduced a new identity; many now refer to him as ‘Top boy’ or ‘The CAP’. As part of his brand, the DJ always wears a native cap on any outfit he has. It’s an ode to his father, who used to wear them to attend parties.
Spinall’s new label and debut album in 2015 was a gateway to a new kind of artiste. After that, he began to produce and write new music. That same year, he became the first African DJ to perform at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. Other supporting acts – Davido, Sarkodie, and R2Bees joined him on stage with host Eddie Kadi.
On October 10, 2016, Spinall released his second album titled ‘TEN’. The album featured Davido, Sauti Sol, Patoranking, Niniola, among others. Its lead single, ‘Ohema’, featuring Mr Eazi, topped charts for weeks, including leading the chart on Soundcity’s ‘Top 10 West Africa’.
He released another album titled ‘Dreams’ on October 8, 2017. It featured guest appearances from Niniola, Wurld, Ycee, Simi, Harrysong, Davido, Wande Coal, and Reekado Banks. The project’s lead singles included ‘Opoju’ featuring Wizkid, ‘Calm Down’ featuring Mr Eazi, and ‘Gimme Luv’ featuring Olamide. It was a great professional year for Spinall. In June 2017, BET Awards announced that he was their official DJ. Later that year, on November 18, 2017, he introduced the first edition of his annual concert, Party Of Your Dreams.
On September 11, 2018, Spinall signed an international deal with Atlantic Records, UK and a publishing deal with Warner Chappell Music UK. In October that year, Spinall under TheCAPMusic independently released his fourth album, ‘Iyanu’. It featured guest appearances from some of the biggest names across Africa, including Wizkid, Kizz Daniel, Davido, Burna Boy, and Tekno. Its lead singles, ‘Nowo’ featuring Wizkid and ‘Baba’ featuring Kizz Daniel, topped charts for months. OkayAfrica refers to ‘Nowo’ as one of the top 15 biggest Nigerian songs of 2018. It also peaked at Number 2 on MTV Base’s ‘Official Naija Top 10 Countdown’ show. On the other hand, ‘Baba’ featuring Kizz Daniel made it to MTV Base’s Top 20 Hottest Naija tracks of 2018.
Spinall says he releases albums yearly because it’s like telling a story or writing a book. But he failed to put out an album in 2019, even though it was one of the best years in his career. He says, “I was trying to put together an album to document the music that I’m making. Every year I’ve always put out an album, but in 2019, we didn’t put out an album. That was because I wasn’t so proud of some of the records I’d made, and I needed time to be able to make records that hit the soul.”
New album aside, Spinall had an incredible year, becoming the first Nigerian DJ to perform at the Glastonbury Festival on June 29, 2019. Earlier that year, in April, he became the first Nigerian DJ to headline a show at XOYO, London. On September 16, he appeared on Beyonce’s hour-long documentary special, ‘Beyoncé Presents: Making The Gift’. During the doc-special, he spoke about the album, ‘The Lion King: The Gift’, which was the basis of the documentary.
Spinall was among the 2300 music executive inductees into the Recording Academy’s 2020 class in July 2020. He was inducted alongside Bankulli, Lil Nas X, Gunna, Victoria Monét, and Juls, ahead of the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards. Later that year, he made a comeback with his annual album releases.
He put out his fifth studio album, ‘Grace,’ a 15-track project featuring Kranium, Omah Lay, R2Bees, Niniola, Wurld, and more, to critical acclaim on December 11, 2020. Its lead singles, ‘Dis Love’ featuring Tiwa Savage and Wizkid, and ‘Sere’ featuring Fireboy, received much airplay. ‘Sere’, released in December 2020, has received over 4.42 million plays on Audiomack and 2 million views on YouTube.
The Future; The Legacy
On December 31, 2020, he made the birth of his first child, Mofetoluwa, public for the first time after the baby arrived in 2019. He said on Instagram, “Special Year!!! I’m truly blessed. I have been soaking it in all year!!! God has been so good. I’m delighted to have you in my life, Mofetoluwa #1.”
Since Spinall began his career, he has broken more records than any other Nigerian DJ since the 2010s. He has opened more doors and pushed Nigerian music to more markets than anyone in his category. However, popular event host and one of Spinall’s buddies, Jimmy, says the DJ cannot finish his journey without leading a big record label.
He says, “Spinall has broken a lot of records in terms of DJing and music-making. I think the next step for him is to metamorphose into the executive arm of music-making. I’m talking about either owning his record label or becoming a top dog at some music establishment. I don’t see too far soon that you hear DJ Spinall – President of one record label or the other. Or he is taking his record label to the next level. I see him morphing into a music exec having done so much in terms of practising making music itself.”
Spinall isn’t quite sure what’s next, even though he knows it has to be music. But, he says, “As we grow, we see some of the things we could do better and learn better. It’s exciting for me too because I don’t know what the future holds, but I know for a fact that I have a few talents in different areas – all in music, though.”
Whatever that future may be, Spinall wants people to remember him when he’s old and retired as that guy that produced a song that helped them through a moment.
I just want people to look back and playback a record, and it reminds them of a moment in time in their lives. Music speaks to all of us differently. I want them to listen and say, ‘oh! This song helped me when I was going through heartbreak, or this song was my go-to when I was going to the club, or when this song comes up, it changes my mood. God bless Spinall’. I want to make records that, whether they win awards or not, once you listen, you can just feel like ‘this is a nice song’. That’s enough for me.”
