My first encounter with DaGrin was pretty much not planned because at that phase in my life

My first encounter with DaGrin was pretty much not planned because at that phase in my life, I was chasing a career in music, against the wishes of my parents who spent so much money sending me to a private University with christian values, and because of that, anything about music almost met very strict responses from them, because they felt musicians were drop outs and always engaged in very illicit acts that didn't go well with the values they wanted me to put up, or hold on to. However, that didn't stop me because I kept on with my dreams about music and always left school on permission when I was supposed to head home, but will end up in one studio or the other.

My true main hangout was Banire street, Ojuelegba, which was the home and studio of Dj Stramborella, the Efrebor crooner, and the likes of Uzio and Pastor Gooddy Gooddy always came around from time to time, bursting freestyles and turning people around into fans, it was always lit. I remember when I got to Banire street, and Stramborella asked me if I had a place to sleep that night, and because I had an ego , something I had learnt from watching musical videos, I bluntly told him yes, however that night, I ended up sleeping with the gatemen at Norman Williams estate, Ikoyi, you can imagine what a boy at my age was doing there, after leaving Ojuelegba so late in the night.

Waking up the next day, I called Stramborella and told him I was headed back to school, which was in Mowe, Ogun State at that time, and I will surely return to continue my journey into the music world , because I had this fire burning in me, something no amount of water could ever cool off. I had day dreams , into nights about how I was going to turn to a star, and wanted to do it big, my teen dreams were even more intense than now. 

On another occasion, while I was in the studio in Ayilara street, close to Banire street in Ojuelegba, this time, Mo Dogg, who was a close associate of Stramborella had set up a studio and told me he could make me a star, with hearing that, I took all of my monthly allowance to his studio , and made a demo, I remember on one of the recordings, when we said there was a boy, wizkid who lived not too far from the studio, and had an amazing voice, well, that's another gist entirely. Sadly, all the songs I did with Mo Dogg had very poor mixing and mastering, and so, anytime I took it to a radio station, they always will either turn me back or take a token from me, and later tell me that the song wasn't up to standard, and I needed to work with a known producer who could mix and master.

On one of those radio rounds, I met another artiste, Adol, who went ahead to release a song Orin, he told me that he had been signed by Toni Payne, 9ice's former wife and they had an agreement to work with Ksolo, who was known for producing Timaya back then, so I was really interested because to me, my dream of working with a known producer may had finally come topass, so we set out to Agege Housing Estate, around pen cinema, where K.Solo was producing all the top artistes in Nigeria then, from Banky W, to Muma G and the likes, he had his name on so many hits, not forgetting Timaya, who was his major artiste then. Adol and I had to lie that we were a group, and wanted KSolo to reduce his amount from fifty thousand Naira then, to about thirty thousand naira, an amount that I had to starve for a while month to be able to pay. Even though Ksolo knew it was a facade, he just agreed and told me that I had to become a studio rat as well, i.e someone who sleeps and wakes in the studio , to get the chance to work with him. Well I didn't mind, and true to the name of his record label then, Igberaga records, which meant pride, he was acting to the script perfectly. 

On one occasion, when KSolo was working on his debut album, he had a song, Kamasalo, which he wanted to feature Dagrin on, and everybody was anticipating seeing Dagrin because he represented the rap culture, in a very dynamic way. At around 10 am in the morning, he pulled up in a blue Honda civic, a car his former record label, Satty Records, owned by Satty Ramoni had given him, and at that time, he was based in Magodo - Shangisha, an estate right opposite the government house in Alausa. After DaGrin dropped a bomb verse, I quickly followed him out, and took his phone number because I had never met someone with that dynamic flow, and the look for serious business. With that, I called from time to time, and always was able to hook him up with upcoming artistes who wanted to record with him, he never transfered me to his manager then, Ola Badmus, but was always keen on knowing if I was the one paying , or the artiste, If I was, he will say, don't worry, but for the artiste , he will charge a sum of thirty thousand Naira, and drop a bomb verse. This relationship went on for a while until we met again at Chuddy K's single launch, at a club somewhere in VI. Chuddy K and DaGrin had been signed to Satty Ramoni , and with DaGrin leaving to do this own thing, Chuddy K also got a label, and was managed by Niyi.

I saw DaGrin and gave him my demo, from KSolo which had Ksolo and Klever Jay on it, and he went immediately to play the car, coming back to tell me he loved it and wanted me to do more songs as well, I was motivated and kept moving with the flow. One day, I listened to a song, which had someone that was sounding like 9ice and found out his name was Isolate, I was curious, and wanted to work with him too, then I decided to head to Ejigbo, to meet him, and I found out that Isolate was living with Gino, who was Sossicks elder bro, and Sossick or Sos, as he is fondly called was producing DaGrins second album, CEO, many don't know DaGrin had dropped an album before that. 

While I was waiting for Isolate, I listened to Pon Pon Pon, a monster classic DaGrin made with sossick and I was marveled, DaGrin told me he's been at Ejigbo for weeks and sossick kept giving him beats back to back, something that made him stay back and not want to live. However, as I was still in school, I had to leave especially when Gino advised me to finish school first before coming into entertainment because I couldn't waste the opportunity with that, I kept mute and waited till final year before continuing my pursuit into the music world.

After getting to Kennis music studio, and telling them I wanted to perform in their Easter fiesta, I was given a slot and told to come early enough to bar beach, so I get a chance to perform, at this time, I stopped speaking to DaGrin unless we met sometimes at his house somewhere in Ojuelegba , kicking freestyles and me having to run back to school to avoid trouble. Well, I finally had the chance to showcase my skill on the big stage, but that was only an illusion because when they told me to open, I said I wanted to wait for more people , and I lost the chance because alot of artistes had come back stage and needed to perform too. What I was able to pick from that day was Maye Hunta's contact, the Ekeatte crooner who just returned from S.A and had his South African manager with him, after his performance, U went to meet him and took his number.

I opened correspondence with Maye and asked him if he needed someone on his crew to support on stage, he told me to meet him at ID Cabassa studio, somewhere in Yaba, for a quick audition, I went there and was able to impress ID Cabassa, 2Phat, Maye and everyone at the coded tunes studio, and with this , I had the opportunity to climb the biggest stages in Nigeria and outside Nigeria because the song was really big then.

Back to DaGrin, we kept chatting via facebook and on one occasion he told me his blue civic had a major accident in Festac and it was written off, he also said he was going to church for prayers because he felt that it wasn't natural. I advised him to keep praying to keep his head up, and that when we met during events , we will catch up and all of that. This happened over and over again, as we kept meeting in events , watching him rise to the top of the game, at a point, Tilla Man, an artiste from the UK began to hype DaGrin on stage, and ever time Da Grin climbed the stage, the energy was amazing, I mean , everybody would sing the whole song, with out a play back from the DJ, it was all acapella. 

 

DaGrin's energy was potent and it made everybody look forward to listening to him, and on the streets, his album was the only one selling as other top artistes could not match up with the attention DaGrins album was getting. We met lastly at a beatfm show , at Getz Arena, some where on the Island, and he looked really exhausted and told he he loved what I was wearing and I had to give him after the event , we shared a laugh, then We tool pictures and talked about linking up in Ojuelegba later that week. At that time, he always used to hang out with Frenzy, another producer then, and told me the guys there had good vibes, that I could come around anytime I wanted to. While I was making plans to head there that week, I heard about his accident, I called Ola Badmus and he told me DaGrin was getting better, and was able to take some beverages brought to him by a popular OAP then, sadly, I saw on the news that he didn't make it and I spent days in my room crying, what baffled me most was the fact that so many people assumed that he sold his soul, because of his song, If I die, something he recorded right before his death, but people really don't understand that its a rappers thing, sometimes, your emotions are put into a song, and it could just happen, not because you get involved in diabolic stuff, but words are heavy, so in my opinion Da Grin never sold his soul for fame, he worked all the way up, dropping an album before CEO and his memory lives on.