Global music superstar and business visionary Mr. Eazi has released the first single Legalize off his forthcoming debut album. Produced by an international team of Michael Brun (Haiti/USA), E Kelly (Nigeria), and Nonso Amadi (Nigeria/Canada), Legalize is one of his most personal tracks yet.
Out today, the new single celebrates Eazi’s love for his fiancée, Nigerian fashion blogger, podcaster, and actress Temi Otedola. While the track began as a way to express his feelings towards Temi, it was only after Mr. Eazi listened to an early demo that he realized what he was actually saying to her and himself with his lyrics. The two got engaged in April. Mr. Eazi proposed while shooting the accompanying visuals in Venice, Italy. On the new single and choosing the music video set as the perfect venue to propose, he says,
“I started the song in Michael Brun’s house on some edibles, freestyling. Later, I went to London and listened to what I’d recorded, and realized what the song was about. I’ve been thinking of asking Temi to marry me for a long time, so I guess it was in my subconscious. I knew it would stand as a totem we always will look back on. No one on set knew what was going to happen.”
Directed by Italy’s Federico Mazzarisi, the visuals match the raw emotions that Eazi lays bare in Legalize. The city’s famously romantic canals, bridges, and architectural gems form the backdrop of the luxe video. Notable landmarks used in the making of the clip include the Ca’ Sagredo Hotel and the Punta Della Dogana and Palazzo Grimani museums.
Mr. Eazi also uses Benin’s Patricorel whose painting by the same name simultaneously captures the intimacy of love, submission, vulnerability, and the finality of death. The artwork was created at an intimate, invite-only event in Lagos where he performed Legalize for the first time while Patricorel painted atop a black canvas. The collaboration was documented in a short film by Demola Falomo which debuted earlier this week.
Legalize is the first single off his as-yet-untitled debut album — a project that’s nearly a decade in the making — as a collection of art pieces. This will be his first full-length body of work as Mr. Eazi considers his earlier full-length projects, Life is Eazi, Vol. 1: From Accra to Lagos and Life is Eazi, Vol. 2: From Lagos to London as mixtapes.
Each single from the album will be represented visually by uniquely commissioned pieces from different African contemporary artists. These pieces will be tokenized and shared with the public through specially curated metaverse and physical events. Eazi elaborates on his plans in a new article for Art News.