Egertton Is Building His Own Sound, And He’s Doing It His Way

Egertton’s day had barely begun when we spoke.

“My day just picked up like 15 minutes ago when I woke up,” he says with a laugh. “This is the first thing I’m doing today.”

The artist, who splits his time between Lagos and Benin City, carries the influence of both worlds in his music. But it’s Benin; its culture, its history, and its people that he credits with shaping the expressive edge of his sound.

Although he schooled in Lagos, Benin remained a constant presence in his upbringing.

“When I wasn’t in school, I’d always be back in Benin,” he recalls. “Growing up there, a lot of weird things used to happen that I didn’t really understand at the time because of my age. But it was very culture-inclined. My mum always made sure I was around culture.”

Those memories still surface unexpectedly.

“Sometimes I remember things that happened when I was younger and I’m like, ‘That didn’t make sense then.’ But it shaped me.”

For Egertton, the city’s influence is especially visible in the way he approaches expression through music.

“If there’s anything about Benin people, it’s that they express themselves really well,” he says. “So Benin definitely has something to do with how I express myself in music.”

Balancing Fame and the Classroom

Despite his rising visibility, Egertton is still very much a student.

He studies at Afe Babalola University (ABUAD), about six hours away from Lagos, a distance that makes balancing school and music anything but simple.

“Balancing school is crazy, I won’t lie,” he says. “It’s very crazy.”

Yet returning to campus remains important to him.

“There are a lot of people in school who listen to music. Sometimes it’s good to go back and just be a student and live with the people that are listening to you. The bigger I get, the weirder that will probably become, but it’s necessary for me to connect with them and let them see I’m still just a human being like everybody else.”

Egertton officially stepped into the music industry in 2024, releasing his first single on March 1 of that year.

Before that, his creative process was far more solitary.

“Prior to that I was just making music on my phone,” he says. “The first time I even saw a studio was late 2023.”

But once he began performing, things accelerated quickly. Within his first professional year, Egertton had already performed at around 50 shows.

“I’ve done so many shows at this point that I can’t even remember all of them,” he says.

What stands out most to him, however, are the moments that show how far he has come.

“I remember when I used to perform and people would laugh at me on stage, even in school,” he says. “Then I came back to that same stage a year later and everybody was tapped in.”

The difference was striking.

“The first time I performed there, only my guys were hyping me up. A year later the place was bigger and crazier than ever, with people that didn’t even know me personally but knew the music.”

Building a Community Through Universities

Egertton’s connection to student audiences is one reason he’s planning a university tour.

“University students are seekers,” he explains. “They’re hungry. They want to know what’s happening.”

But the tour isn’t just about performing.

“The point isn’t just to go and do shows. It’s about building the community; the skeletton of the fanbase,” he says. “People that don’t know Egertton can come and see the performance, experience the sound, and catch up.”

Even if the crowds start small, that doesn’t bother him.

“It doesn’t have to be thousands of people. I just want people to come to one place, listen to the music, and for the ones that catch it, they take that home.”

Red Nights and Candlelit Studios

Some of Egertton’s creative rituals have become part of his mystique.

Fans often reference “Red Night,” a phrase that circulated online after a clip showed him recording in a dimly lit studio.

The reality is simple.

“When I’m recording music, I prefer when there’s no light,” he says. “I just light candles and put them on the desk. I don’t know why I do it, but it makes me relaxed. It makes me feel connected.”

That environment is a reflection of how his musical habits formed in the first place.

Before entering a professional studio, Egertton spent a full year making music alone in his room.

“I was making two songs every day on my phone,” he says. “It was like a camp for me. I was there every single day doing research, practising, learning about music.”

That process helped him build his own creative environment long before anyone else stepped into it.

“I can record anywhere,” he says. “But I always prefer those one-on-one sessions with just me and my engineer.”

Spiritual Moments and Cultural Roots

For Egertton, some of the most memorable moments in his journey feel almost symbolic.

During the filming of the music video for Obokhian, directed by Santi, who is also from Benin, something unusual happened.

“A bat kept circling us during the shoot,” he says.

The coincidence felt meaningful to him, especially given the song’s cultural context.

“‘Obokhian’ means ‘welcome’ in Benin,” he explains. “So shooting that video with another Benin person felt surreal.”

The setting made the moment even more powerful.

“I was shooting the video with a real masquerade. Not some fake stuff, a real masquerade.”

For someone raised in Benin, where bats are commonly seen around the palace area, the experience felt almost spiritual.

“It made me feel like someone was watching, like they were seeing what I’m trying to do with my culture.”

Afro-Rage, Spirituality, and the Energy of Expression

If Egertton’s music feels different from most of what currently defines Afrobeats, that difference is intentional.

He often describes his sound as a fusion of Afro-rage, spirituality, and Afrobeats,  a combination that reflects both his musical influences and his emotional approach to art.

For him, Afro-rage is less about genre and more about energy.

“Afro-rage is a feeling,” he explains. “It’s about being able to express yourself in the most energetic way possible.”

While traditional Afrobeats has long been associated with rhythm and groove, Egertton believes there is another layer of emotion that artists are beginning to explore.

“Afrobeats has always been about rhythm,” he says. “But Afro-rage is about the energy. It’s about the rage in you, that feeling of wanting to burst out and express something deeper.”

He sees that intensity as both personal and collective.

“I feel like we’ve been suppressed for a long time,” he adds. “So it’s just another way for people to express themselves.”

That emotional openness ties closely to the spiritual ideas that also shape his music.

“Art is human,” Egertton says. “That’s one thing I really believe in.”

He often frames creativity through a spiritual lens, describing artistic creation as something deeply personal, a direct connection between the creator and what they bring into existence.

“The biggest example of a creator is God,” he explains. “God created us directly through His word and His hands. There was no dilution in that process. It was a one-on-one interaction with what He was creating.”

For Egertton, that same direct connection is essential to art.

“There has to be a feel to it. There has to be a flow to it.”

While listeners often label his music as Afro-rage,  especially following the release of Karnage — Egertton himself doesn’t see his sound as something confined to a single category.

“I don’t feel like I make just one type of music,” he says. “There are a lot of things you can call it.”

Part of that flexibility comes from the range of sounds he grew up listening to. Alongside Afrobeats, he also draws inspiration from rock and other high-energy genres.

“I listen to rage music, I listen to rock,” he says. “Personally, I just like to get turnt.”

That intensity shapes the emotional tone of his music.

“Rage is one of the strongest emotions,” he explains. “Rage and pain are even stronger than love sometimes. And it’s very easy for people to connect to that.”

At its core, the sound he’s building is meant to be felt as much as it is heard.

“I want my people to feel the music too,” he says.

Songs That Define the Sound

Ask Egertton which songs best introduce someone to his music, and he pauses before selecting a few key tracks.

“I’ll give five,” he says. “Dawn, Rage, Diamonds, Issokay, and Sunmomi.”

Each one represents a different side of his sound.

“Dawn was my first song,” he says. “Rage is for people who like to get turnt.”

Others reveal a more reflective side of his artistry.

“Diamonds is very personal and self-reflective,” he explains. “But you can still get turnt listening to it. That’s the one I perform when I want to go crazy and everybody goes crazy with me.”

Then there are the songs built purely around feeling.

“Issokay is one people always connect with,” he says. “And Sunmomi is just vibes — feel-good vibes.”

Like much of Egertton’s music, each track captures a different emotional state.

“Any Eger song,” he adds, “you have to connect with it on a deeper level to really understand it.”

Turning Controversy into Music

One song in particular; Oh Benita, holds a special place in Egertton’s journey.

Interestingly, the track came together almost instantly.

“That song took like five minutes,” he says. “I made it in school. I freestyled it.”

But the story behind it runs deeper.

After the release of Karnage, Egertton says he began hearing a wave of rumours and assumptions about himself circulating online.

“I was hearing a lot of crazy things about myself,” he recalls. “People saying I sold my soul and all kinds of stuff.”

Because he tends to keep his personal circle small, the sudden narratives about him felt strange.

“I realised that apart from my team and my close friends, most people didn’t actually know me,” he says. “People were just creating their own perceptions.”

That realisation became the foundation for Oh Benita.

“I was basically asking: what do you think of me?” he explains. “What do you think of Eger?”

Framed as a conversation with a character named Benita, the song explores the way public perception can distort a person’s identity.

“The concept was simple,” he says. “What do you think about me?”

Despite facing backlash when it first dropped, the track eventually resonated with listeners.

“A lot of people started tapping in after that,” he says.

Chaos, Setbacks, and Rebuilding Karnage

The making of Karnage was far from smooth. At the time, Egertton was still balancing music with university life, often recording songs while preparing for exams.

That period produced one of the more chaotic moments in the project’s creation.

While juggling school and recording sessions, Egertton had stored all the songs for the project on an external hard drive after his laptop began running out of space. But one day, after finishing a particularly exhausting exam, he realised the drive had vanished.

“One day I just couldn’t find the hard drive anymore,” he recalls. “Up till today, it’s still nowhere to be found.”

For most artists, losing an entire project would have meant starting over months later, or abandoning the work altogether. Egertton chose a different response.

“From the moment I realised it was gone, I started recording the project again that same night,” he says.

Even though the loss was frustrating for both him and his team, he decided to treat it as an opportunity.

“A lot of people around me were sad about it,” he explains. “But I just felt like it meant one thing; that I could make the project even better.”

Building a Community Through Universities

Egertton’s connection to student audiences is one reason he’s planning a university tour.

“University students are seekers,” he explains. “They’re hungry. They want to know what’s happening.”

But the tour isn’t just about performing.

“The point isn’t just to go and do shows. It’s about building the community; the skeletton of the fanbase,” he says. “People that don’t know Egertton can come and see the performance, experience the sound, and catch up.”

Even if the crowds start small, that doesn’t bother him.

“It doesn’t have to be thousands of people. I just want people to come to one place, listen to the music, and for the ones that catch it, they take that home.”

Looking Five Years Ahead

When asked where he sees himself in five years, Egertton pauses before answering. Rather than predicting where other artists might be, he focuses on something broader, the direction of the music itself.

“I can’t really speak for everybody,” he says. “Everybody has their own journey. At the end of the day, it just depends on how focused and how hungry you are.”

His own ambition is less about personal success and more about reshaping the sound emerging from his generation of artists.

“Five years from now, I want to reshape the music that comes out from where we’re from,” he explains.

For years, African artists have worked to push Afrobeats onto the global stage. According to Egertton, that effort has already succeeded.

“We spent a lot of time trying to push Afrobeats to the world, trying to get validation and show people that this type of music exists,” he says. “And honestly, we’ve done that.”

He acknowledges the role of the pioneers who made that global expansion possible.

“You have to thank the people who did it first,” he adds. “That kind of work is not easy.”

But now that the sound has reached global recognition, he believes the next step is a shift in mindset.

“I feel like we’re at a point now where we don’t need that validation anymore,” he says. “Now we should start making music for ourselves.”

For Egertton, authenticity is what ultimately makes music travel beyond borders.

“When Africans connect with the music genuinely, people in the West will still find it,” he explains. “They’ll understand why the music feels the way it does.”

That philosophy shapes the way he approaches his own sound. Rather than trying to fit into existing industry expectations, he focuses on creating music that reflects his identity.

“I’m not making music to please anybody in the United States or anywhere else,” he says. “I’m making music to represent myself.”

While his work still draws from African rhythms and languages, he believes experimentation is essential.

“Yes, I’m African. I’m speaking pidgin and everything,” he says. “But there’s a lot of blending happening in the music.”

Ultimately, his goal is to become what he describes as “a breath of fresh air” within the wider music space.

“I’ve been listening to the same type of music for a long time,” he says. “It’s not bad, but there needs to be elevation.”

That desire to expand the sonic landscape is what drives his long-term vision.

“A lot of people say they want to make something new,” he continues. “But for me, it’s not just about doing it on an underground level. I’m thinking on a global scale.”

His approach is simple: remain rooted in identity while pushing creative boundaries.

“You don’t have to Westernise your sound or polish it just to sell it,” he says. “Just be original.”

The artists he points to as inspiration share a similar sense of individuality.

“You see the way fellow Benin boys are doing their thing,” he says. “Nobody sounds like Rema. Nobody sounds like Shallipopi. Nobody sounds like Zerry or Famous.”

Each artist has carved out a lane entirely their own.

“That’s what I want too,” he says. “Just my own sound, pushing it to the max.”

Where that path leads, he says, is ultimately out of his hands.

“And then God decides where it goes.”

Collaboration, Connection, and Creative Chemistry

Despite his strong sense of artistic identity, Egertton is not opposed to collaboration. In fact, he says working with other artists often brings out unexpected creative energy.

“I actually like features,” he says.

But his philosophy around collaborations differs from the competitive mindset that often surrounds them.

“A lot of artists go into a collaboration thinking they have to outshine the other person,” he explains. “Like their verse has to be harder.”

Egertton sees it differently.

“For me, it’s about how the whole song comes together.”

He compares it to a football match.

“I might be the striker, but the other artist is also a striker,” he says with a laugh. “Maybe I dribble everyone and cross the ball for him to score a bicycle kick.”

The goal, in his view, is not individual dominance but collective impact.

“That’s why when you hear some of my collaborations, you can actually feel the connection,” he says.

Because of that approach, he believes he could create compelling music with a wide range of artists.

“If I go into the studio with someone like Rema, I know it would be crazy,” he says. “Same with Shallipopi or a lot of other artists.”

The result might not sound like anything he has made before — but that unpredictability is exactly what excites him.

“It’s all going to be different types of music,” he says. “But it’s still going to be hard.”

The Devotion Behind the Music

Despite the attention surrounding his work, Egertton believes many listeners still misunderstand one thing about him: the intensity of his commitment to his craft.

“I’m actually a very weird person,” he says with a smile.

The “weirdness,” he explains, comes from the extreme level of devotion he has to creativity.

“I feel like I’ve sold my soul to my art,” he says.

For Egertton, making music is not simply a career choice, it’s a daily compulsion.

“When I wake up in the morning, I’m already excited about what I’m going to create that day,” he says.

Even during the interview, he admits his mind is already drifting back toward the studio.

“After this, I already feel like making music,” he says. “I’m probably heading to the studio next.”

That routine is relentless.

“I’m in the studio at least six times every week,” he explains. “Sometimes I’m making 15 or 20 songs in a week.”

The sheer volume of work means he already has multiple unreleased projects stored away.

“I’ve probably made enough music for like five albums already,” he says.

Yet despite that productivity, he is careful about how and when he releases music.

Looking back, he admits that dropping Karnage when he did may not have been the most strategic move.

“I knew it wasn’t the smartest decision,” he says. “I was still very new, and I didn’t have the resources to promote a full project like that.”

But he made the decision anyway.

“I just felt like the project needed to exist,” he explains.

For Egertton, the long-term vision matters more than short-term calculations.

“People can always go back and rediscover it later,” he says.

At the heart of everything is a simple motivation: curiosity about what he might create next.

“When I wake up, I’m already anticipating the kind of song I’ll make that day,” he says.

That anticipation; the constant urge to push beyond the previous idea, is what keeps him moving forward.

“People say they love their craft,” he says. “But there are levels to it.”

For Egertton, devotion means thinking about music constantly, exploring new sounds, imagining new ideas, and returning to the studio again and again.

“You can’t hide that kind of passion,” he says.

And for him, that passion is the foundation of everything that comes next.

Egertton Breaks Down His Self-Titled Album

Currently Egertton has shifted fully into what he calls “album mode,” working toward a new body of work that digs deeper into who he is as both an artist and a person.

His self-titled upcoming project, Egertton, will be his most personal release yet.

“This one is about people actually knowing me,” he says. “A lot of people might listen to the music, but they still don’t know me. Karnage might have given you an idea, but this project is about understanding who Egertton really is.”

Like his previous work, the album will not follow a single sonic direction. Instead, he sees the project as a constantly evolving musical experience.

“I don’t want one sound on a project,” he explains. “I don’t even want two sounds. Every song should feel different so that people can find the one that connects with them.”

That unpredictability is intentional.

“No song is going to sound alike,” he says. “It’s all music, but there are different elements that produce the music.”

The pace of his creativity suggests the project has been anything but slow in the making. Since Karnage dropped, Egertton says he has already recorded enough material for several unreleased bodies of work.

“I’ve worked on like five different projects that are not out yet,” he reveals.

For now, the focus remains on preparing the self-titled album for release.

“I can’t speak on the exact date yet,” he says. “But it’s coming.”