Ayo Maff is a fast-rising artiste who released a song featuring Fireboy, titled “Dealer”. He has also released more like “7 Days”, “Jama Jama”, “Street Anthem” and “Another Day”. These songs have been on people's constant replay playlists, making numbers, this past month.
As of now, “Dealer”, featuring Fireboy, is certified platinum, has over 15.3m on-demand streams and has sold 100,000+ units. “Dealer” is spending 7 weeks on the official singles chart and 4 weeks in the top 10 of the Official Nigeria Top 100 Chart. “7 Days”, on the other hand, has 3.52m on-demand streams.
These outstanding numbers have earned Ayotunde Oyefeso of OCEANSTREET CREATIVE LIMITED, a management company the Executive of the Week badge. Ayotunde Oyefeso is Ayo Maff’s manager and he speaks with TurnTable Charts about his journey into artiste management, how he discovered Ayo Maff’s tenacity and started working with him. He also talks about the collaboration with Fireboy and future plans for the artiste.
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TTC: Can you tell us about yourself? Your full name? How long have you been in the music industry and what made you venture into artiste management?
AYOTUNDE: I’m Ayotunde Oyefeso, I’m a filmmaker and a talent manager. I’ve always been in the music business but in the visual side of things as the cast director and company manager with a video production company. Being part of that environment somewhat exposed me to the possibilities that abound in the field. The different artistes I came across showed me the value of an artiste having the right persons around him and the key importance of having a team. A little over two years ago we birthed OCEANSTREET CREATIVE LIMITED which is our management company with the aim of providing proper artiste management and development.
TTC: Do you mind sharing your first encounter with Ayo Maff? What has it been like working with him?
AYOTUNDE: Like I said I was first on the visual side of the music business and you have a lot of striving and upcoming acts around at times when we shoot. Ayo was one at a time. He knew someone on our set who he would always follow when we had shoots, but then one thing that stood out to us at the time was the fact that he wasn’t just coming on set looking for a chance to be around the big names or anything like that. He would come with many change of clothes and take advantage of the location we are shooting at to make multiple content. For an artiste at his level and genre, we found it fascinating that he understood the importance of visuals and that he was putting in work to get himself seen and heard. On listening, we heard the talent was there, the music was awesome. We had a good synergy and agreed to work together and the rest they say is history.
TTC: “Dealer” is a hit single spending its 4th consecutive week in the Top 10 on the Official Nigeria Top 100 chart. How does this accomplishment feel for you and the team?
AYOTUNDE: Honestly, it’s been humbling. We are especially grateful to be where we are with how good the song is doing. Also grateful to Fireboy who obliged us with the collaboration and the fans who are just eating it up and sharing it with their friends and friends’ friends. But more than anything it is a wake-up call for us as much as it is a pat on our backs that good work may have been done but there’s more to do. We’ve always known the capacity of the talent that’s Ayo Maff but now more than us, a lot of people know that too. So now the work starts, what we do from here onwards is our next task.
TTC: How did the Collaboration with Ayo Maff and Fireboy DML on “Dealer” come about?
AYOTUNDE: This story has different versions depending on who’s telling the story. How it was for Ayo differs from how it was for Fireboy and is completely different from how I got to know about it. I just know Ayo let me know Fireboy invited him over and afterward he said Fireboy might be giving him a verse. Not too long after that, I heard the song I knew before but this time with a Fireboy verse. We always knew the song was good but once we got that Fireboy’s verse, we knew there was no other move but to put it out. God bless Fireboy for how supportive and encouraging he has been from the recording of the song to date.
TTC: Ayo Maff is a fast-rising emerging artiste. What major challenges do you and your team have managing a rising star in the music industry?
AYOTUNDE: Being overvalued in the eyes of the public yet underpriced in reality. Once you seem to gather a little buzz, a few people start to place you on pedestals you may not be close to yet. Meanwhile, in real life, you’re still just barely getting by. Then, there’s the challenge of sieving through people who come at you once the attention is up to make sure you’re aligning with those who catch the vision and understand what the journey is. It’s not enough that you have people with you, what roles do they play? What's their relevance being there? So we try to make sure we don’t get carried away by the attention and do well to stay aligned with the vision.
TTC: What should we be expecting from Ayo Maff in the future? Another hit, an EP, or maybe even an album?
AYOTUNDE: Expect it all. If you follow him closely or listen to his last freestyle, he made it known that an EP is on the way. It’s coming sooner than you think.