Written by Faridah Demola Seriki
You know when you do something really terrible, and your parents threaten to send you back to Nigeria like it’s some sentence? Mine did the opposite.
Ever since I left for New York six years ago, I always looked forward to coming back. I love everything about Lagos. The madness, the bustle of the city, the nightlife – even the overwhelming body odour when you step off the plane into Murutala Mohammed Airport made me happy. Yes, I have completely romanticised the city, but that’s how I’ve always felt. My favourite quote about it would always be, “There is some kind of function in the dysfunction” by architect, Rem Koolhaas.
After graduating in 2013, I decided to stay to pursue my music career because where better to go after the big time than New York City. But when I came back home in December 2014, I realised how much happier I was in Lagos and how much easier the hustle would be since I understood my way around already. New York is great, but being thrown into the jungle and having to start from scratch when my mentality was wired differently was a real struggle.
I went back to New York and decided to move back by December 2015 if I didn’t make any significant progress. God had other plans, and I conveniently got laid off within days of arriving. With no job and no income to keep investing in my music, it started to make even more sense to move back to Lagos. Everything from the Naira-USD inflation, to not getting another job soon enough. It all pointed back home.
Pursuing music is very unconventional and almost never sits well with African parents, so I knew that to make the move fruitful and progressive, I needed to talk to my parents – my dad especially. They always wanted me to move back, but anytime it came up it was so I could come home, get a job, then ‘settle down’ eventually. That was not my plan. After laying it all down for him and reinforcing my intent to pursue music as a career, he was surprisingly supportive and gave me the go ahead.
Fast forward a few months, and here I am. It sounds sugar-coated, but I have never been happier. Everything I was searching for to get self-fulfillment is here. I’m closer to my family; my music is making significant progress; my side job doesn’t deter me from my music; I actually have a social life; and I don’t have to google “where to buy plantain”. Life has never been this good. Besides data finishing like water, I don’t even have a lot of IJGB woes. I’m just living and being the baby girl I was destined to be.