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Cover Star Interview
Nigerian rapper and singer Zlatan joins Nandi Madida via FaceTime on Apple Music 1 to talk about his latest single “Pay Day”. He also discusses the meaning of ‘Symbol of Hope’, getting into music, and Zanku.
This Week’s Hottest New Tracks
Nandi Madida shares the hottest new African tracks of the moment. This week’s selection includes new tracks from Tyla, Ciza, AratheJay feat. Stonebwoy, Zee Nxumalo & Mthunzi, Shallipopi & Gunna, and Del B, Reekado Banks & Hotkeed.
Tune in and listen to the full episode this Friday, October 24th at 9a Lagos/London / 10a Johannesburg/Paris / 1a LA / 4a NYC on Apple Music 1 at apple.co/_AfricaNow and broadcast on YFM Accra every Sunday at 2pm, YFM Kumasi on Saturdays at 3pm and YFM Takoradi on Saturdays at 6pm.
Zlatan tells Apple Music about the meaning of ‘Symbol of Hope’
I used to actually listen to music before I knew I was going to make music. I was already a fan of so many artists. I loved listening to music. It was when I was tracing it back that I now realized how much I actually loved listening to music then. They were like my symbols. I saw them as a symbol. I saw their life changed from nothing to something. I’ve known some artists now in Nigeria for 20 years, and I’ve watched them evolve. They were like my own symbol. Now, to me, where I’m from is really not so smooth like that for creatives and all. So, for me, actually doing it to this level, I always like to connect back to the people in the hood and connect to people that are actually doing different things in different fields. Be it a graphic designer, be it a student, be it a doctor, a nurse, there’s someone you’re looking up to, that’s your symbol of hope. And looking at myself right now, looking at the amount of DMs I get, looking at how much impact my music has made some people not give up, so I just decided to just start to … it’s just me saying, “If you can look at me, look at me as a sign that you can not to give up, and I’m a symbol of hope to you, and you can as well be a symbol of hope to someone else.”
Zlatan tells Apple Music about getting into music
I was supposed to go to university in 2011/12, but I didn’t have my complete papers. I failed mathematics and accounting, so I couldn’t go to school that year. But like you said, I used to be a church boy. I used to be in choir in church. My dad is a pastor, so I played drums in church. I know a little bit about music from church, but I never knew that I would have or ever become an artist, never striked into my head, never for once. So when I failed my examination and I couldn’t go to school, I started going to the studio. One of my friends just came back home from housing one day, and he played this song. And I knew him very well. I knew him from church. I knew that he has never made music before. And I was like, “Well, if he can make music, then everyone can make music.” We went to the studio, and then for the first time, I went on the microphone. It was so funny. And then I came back home. To me, the song was rubbish. It wasn’t making sense. It was my first time. When I went back home and I played it for all my siblings, and they started making me feel like Jay-Z that day, and told me, “Oh, you’re an artist now. How did you record the song?” Because they didn’t know what the recording process was. And that was how everyone gassed me up. And then, I just started following my friend to the studio from there because I had to sit out one year before going back to school. And I didn’t have up to three songs. I was just taking it like it was a joke, where I was, at the same time, because they were gassing me up in the hood. I was liking it. I was loving the way people were carrying me, who is an artist now. So I went back to school one year after, and then my first semester in school, the rap competition came up, just cutting the long story short. And then, I didn’t believe that anybody can actually win a car off music, off the kind of music I make. I didn’t even have up to five tracks. The songs were not mixed and mastered. They were just pre-recorded songs. I don’t know, but that was the moment I started enjoying the rap. I started enjoying the rap then. So I was writing every day, every night. I was getting into it. I was getting into it. So, the competition just came up when I was trying to get into this rap game. And then, to cut the story short, out of 140 candidates, I won the car. I won the car when I was 19 years old. Yeah, I was so amazed. This was my first semester in school. I’ve not even attended the first examination in the school. This was just three weeks into the school. 
Zlatan tells Apple Music about Zanku
Yeah, that’s Africa. That’s Nigeria, Africa, to the world. That’s amazing that I could create something. And then, the most interesting thing for me was when I was about to create that dance, something just struck into my head, so I attached my name. The zanku means Zlatan. I beg no killers. That’s the full meaning, yeah. There’s no way you want to mention Zanku across the world that you want to take you away from … it has my name attached to it, so it’s so good to see there’s so many dances that you understand have emerged from Nigeria, Africa, to the world. So when I was growing up, I always wanted to have my own dance moves that I’m going to have a song for. It was just in my head, and it happened. And it happened globally. Zanku went viral. The legwork dance across the world was … everyone’s face is there until now in Nigeria right now, this is still the legwork. It’s still from the legwork.
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