Since releasing his debut single in 2018 Abuja-based musician Juiciy ML has been steadily making his way up the charts in his native Nigeria and throughout Africa. Now, hot on the heels of the likes of Omah lay and Rema, he’s got his sights set on the rest of the world, and he knows exactly how to get there. Writer Vincent Desmond spends a day with the rising star in Abuja and finds out why, despite his growing success, Juiciy ML will never abandon the place that he calls home.
Photography by Stephen Tayo.
As my Uber pulls into wuse, the maze of streets in Abuja that once housed REMA, one of Nigeria’s greatest artists, “Favours”, the lead single from Juiciy ML playing from a barbershop. I’d heard the same song just a few minutes before that, when it was played on the radio as they counted down through the top 10 on the weekly chart. That is how ubiquitous 19-year-old Juiciy ML has become in Abuja .
Moments later when I meet the singer in his hotel room, he is all cautious smiles. “I just dey wake,” he tells me, moving around the room surprisingly full of energy for someone who had had just a few hours of sleep. “I couldn’t sleep at home today, I just needed to think so I came here.” Here is a little nondescript hotel in the heart of Wuse, a few streets away from Juiciy ML’s house.
Juiciy ML’s government name is “Ozigis R Abdulamlik” but he’s quick to tell me that Juiciy ML the name that is now garnering him so much attention – is actually one of his middle names. “I’m the first grandchild, so they bombarded me with names,” he says, laughing. “I was using so many whack names in secondary school, and I knew they were whack but I had to have a nickname. One day, I checked the list of my names and I saw ‘Juiciy’ and thought, ‘this one is really rare.’ And rarity is at the core of who I am as an artist.”
Juiciy ML has been singing since he was 10 but he didn’t gain mainstream attention until 2018. At the time he had dropped out of university and, due to a lack of financial support, had all but given up on achieving his musical dreams. To make ends meet he began working at a cyber cafe. Juiciy ML calls this period “the darkest of all times.” But the scales tipped in his favor after his friend, local rapper Vikta called him and asked him to feature on a song that he was working on called Mamiwota. Juiciy ML unenthusiastically agreed. Hours after the song was released, he found himself trending on Twitter.
“I had to go open a Twitter account in the cyber cafe just to see all these people asking ‘who is Juiciy ML?’ he says. “Even the artists I had been DMing on Instagram [were talking about me].” Juiciy ML took it as a sign and returned to music with a force. He started releasing new tracks and among them was Causing Trouble, a collaboration with DJ Freezy which went on to become a hit.