“Who say? Who say? Ebelebe no be starboy!” As it turns out, Victony singing those words on V.S Freestyle off his largely unexpected November 2025 Very Stubborn EP was a preview of what was to come. Two years on from his remarkable debut album, Stubborn, the falsetto knight is back with a new LP, STARLIFE. You’d think the year couldn’t get more exciting for Nigerian music until you realise this isn’t even all that’s in store for August. As such, praises to whichever deity oversees Afropop in our cultural pantheons—assuming of course that it’s not Fela and a bunch of other folks frowning down.
As a frontman for the 2020s class, a generation that perfected the hybridisation of mainstream pop sensibilities and Alté embellishments, Victony’s projects have served as totem poles for the genre, showcasing his growth from his melodic rap, The Outlaw King (2016) Soundcloud days to the better rounded Outlaw EP six years later, as a champion of midtempo Afropop. With his sophomore album, the singer is on his way to extending his legacy, a decade into making music.
In conversation with Culture Custodian, Victony expounds on the creative process behind STARLIFE, the surprising decision to release a full-length project, Afrobeats’ current state, exploring new sounds with Ozedikus, and his legacy a decade from now.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
The album title, STARLIFE, is intriguing for multiple reasons. Walk us through its conceptualisation.
To be honest, it came from the title track of the album, STARLIFE. But every time I sit back and reflect on the title, I think it represents growth. The difference between the Stubborn era and the STARLIFE era is me stepping into being Victony for real. This project was an exercise in freedom, it’s about experiencing my life for what it is without any distractions, fear, or limitations. So it’s just being a star for real, being my authentic self.
Your last project is barely a year old and yet here’s a fresh album. Had it been in the works prior?
Coming into this year, the plan was to put out a couple of EPs. But I kept recording, and it made me realise that I wanted all these songs to come out. I couldn’t keep them from the fans anymore. So yes, it was very unplanned.
I literally decided to make it an album in late June/early July. So it’s a pretty recent decision to turn it into an album. It’s been me recording songs and being excited about them. I wanted to put them out.
Is there a specific moment—recording session, tour stop, etc—you can pinpoint as the beginning of the STARLIFE era?
As far as I’m concerned, it started at the top of the year. I told myself at the beginning of this year that everything was going to be different for me. I wanted to have fun, and once I made that decision, everything followed, from the music I was making to my creativity and personal life. That’s when the change happened. So it’s less about the album and more about that time in my life when I made that switch.
Did you anticipate that the singles FRE$H and SLICK, and even the snippet for FYNE, would enjoy such success and virality?
No, to be honest, I didn’t know. We were just having fun, really, so you never know what people will like.
You have a relatively active social media presence. So surely, you’ve seen the comments about you interpolating Drake’s In My Feelings on SLICK. Or about the song being too short.
For the Drake one, whoever said that was reaching, to be honest. I guess I see why you would say that, but no [it’s not an interpolation]. I see the similarity, but no.
From the D&B instrumentals and Orezi sample on FYNE to the stellar production on SLICK down to the visuals for both, walk us through the creative process with Ozedikus and everyone else.
Working with Ozedikus has been fun. He is super collaborative, our sessions are usually just us bouncing ideas around. I remember the session for SLICK. We didn’t even know it would turn into what it did when we started, because it was a completely different beat. We tore the beat down, started working on it, I did the reference, and called the girls. So it’s always us doing something and then realizing that’s what it could be. For instance, the direction for the FYNE video. After we did SLICK, we knew this was something we could execute. So it’s just taking it one step at a time, having fun and moving, now we’re here with an album.
Would it be right to assume that a chunk of the project constitutes heavy experimentation?
If that’s how you perceive it, right? Yes, experimentation. But there’s a direction with the sonics, especially among a couple songs like FYNE, SLICK, and TOO LIT. There’s a particular production style that went forward with these records. Or, like, STARLIFE itself, WHO THIS, FRE$H, and PINO. After I made FRESH, I linked up with Blaise to make PINO, and FRE$H is like your reference. So yes, we experimented, but we were still working around the same sonics and the same theme as well.
Your career has been defined by personal records like Pray and Kolomental, following the 2021 incident. And even on your debut album, intimate records like Tiny Apartment and Street Affair. How do you go about writing such songs?
It’s about using music as a means of expressing yourself. When I hear myself on records like that, it’s because that’s how I truly feel. I remember making Glory at the end of 2024, and that was just me thinking about everything that happened with the album and preparing for my Bonfire show. That’s when I made the record.
But on this album, with songs like TYPO and TOO LIT, it’s about how I am feeling right now. The energy might be different, but when you strip it down to the core of the song, it’s similar to these records. But it might not feel familiar just because the energy is different now. It’s not moody, it’s uplifting, which is where I am, truly. So, listen to TYPO closing out the album. It’s me saying, “Whatever, I’m still him!”
Speaking of flavour, in the past year there’s been a conversation about how Afropop or Afrobeats has become more diverse, with more sounds, with the rise of scenes like indie pop and even the UG wave. However, many argue that the mainstream has mostly been in stasis. Is this a sentiment you buy into? If not, what do you think the actual conversation should be?
I think everybody’s just doing what they like. I really haven’t paid attention to the conversation or what it is, to be honest. But I do see a lot of new school artists coming up and doing their thing, which is inspiring. In terms of the mainstream, Afrobeats has always been about the listeners, and good listeners have the right to say what they want. But I think people are really just doing what they like to do. If it’s appealing or not, it’s not up to them.
The industry has gotten so diverse. At the same time it also feels like we’re recycling the same conversations: contracts, songwriting and all that—
It’s a growing industry, so we’re all being educated. Personally, over the last one year, I’ve learned a lot. This is an industry where we don’t have enough execs. We don’t have enough A&Rs, producers, or studios. So if everybody’s complaining about the same thing, I think people need to look into these things more. We don’t even go through artist development, now it’s come to a point where technology is advanced and everybody is exposed to the Western world and seeing how they are moving. Sometimes it’s the comparisons: some artists have more resources, while others don’t, or haven’t been able to properly manage their resources due to lack of knowledge and not being properly developed.
But from the listeners perspective, it boils down to how the industry is not moving forward. But they don’t see all the moving parts. We don’t have enough music execs that are astute, and we don’t have enough people developing the infrastructure around the artists. But the industry will fix itself because I see young people who are passionate about it, and I’m very positive that in the next four or five years, we’ll look back on this time as a step back that helped us figure out a new direction that’s best.
Any new school artists, in particular, you’re listening to right now?
I listen to a lot of them, actually. I listen to Abefe, Zaylevelten, Txmmyily, Igwe Aka, and NO 11, and other new artists.
It’s been two years since Stubborn. Very Stubborn will be a year in a matter of months. By August 21st, STARLIFE will be on the list for the future. A decade from now, what’s one thing you’d like people to say about this album?
The freedom that I used to put the project together, I want them to feel it. I hope it inspires them to take risks like this.
How do you think 2020 Victony, all pink-haired and Tredax-repping, feels about 2026 Victony?
He will be proud. This is everything we’ve been working towards since that time. Just doing something that would reference only me. No one else could have made this album, and I don’t think anyone else could have made this album. It’s so Victony. That has really been my goal from the jump, to give my flavour. So, yes, he’ll definitely be proud.
Let’s conclude with this scenario: You’re closing out the Bonfire Experience in December. What song from STARLIFE would be your curtain closer?
It’d probably be TYPO. I like the way it closes out the project, and I would like it to close out the show. The message in TYPO is very positive. It’s saying we’re still here. We’re still going to be running this p.
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