The Spotlight is Imminent for Lord Afrixana

The three-time Grammy-nominated artist overcame political and immigration obstacles growing up.

Photo courtesy of The Chamber Group

Nana O. Afriyie is a storyteller. Better known as Lord Afrixana, the three-time Grammy-nominated artist overcame various obstacles to get where he deserved to be today. Born in Ghana and raised in Massachusetts, the contemporary hip-hop, R&B, and afrobeats artist made space for himself in the music industry as a DACA recipient who fought for political and immigration rights. In October, he dropped his EP, GHANA MUST GO. But this isn’t the genesis of his career; he co-wrote two songs with Beyoncé for The Lion King: The Gift soundtrack, on the season two soundtrack of the Epix series Godfather of Harlem alongside DDG with “No Favors,” and collaborated with Pharrell Williams, Bebe Rexha, and Tiwa Savage. 1202 MAGAZINE discussed Lord Afrixana’s strong musical and cultural presence and what’s next for the multi-talented artist.

I want to start with your EP, GHANA MUST GO. What was the inspiration behind the beats, and the lyrics, and how you made it?

GHANA MUST GO was very intentional. If you just go through the track list with records like “No Dey Tire,” it was very intentional. I wanted to make a record that was aggressive and could punch people in the mouth to get their attention off the rip. I definitely wanted to make a record that was very independent and driven. I wanted to do the equivalent sound, but more with an American kind of twist to it with “Not For Nothing”. “Not For Nothing” is kind of like my dedication to hip-hop. And a lot of the records that I used to hear on my video games came up only when I played 2k and Madden and stuff like that, so I definitely wanted to do a record that was reminiscent of that. When I jumped into records like “Pillow” and “Parachute,” I wanted to make records that, on the surface, may have seemed very radio-friendly, but when you peel back the layers, they had some depth to it. So, with “Pillow,” I wanted to make a record that would have people really just in their feels a little bit and make a record that really tugged on the emotional heartstrings of people. I wanted to do a record that made people and women particularly feel special. I feel like in the world that we live in today. We don't have a lot of opportunities to make people feel loved and special. So I wanted to make a record that really leaned in on that. And “Parachute” is just a record that allows me to play into my artistic side as a writer in terms of playing around with metaphors and playing around with punchlines, and similes and being able to create a record off of the idea of jumping out of an airplane.

What was your creative process when you were making each song and the project overall? Did you sit down and write multiple songs a day, or was it a slow-cook process? 

I think I'm always in the process of creation. So for me it's always like, okay, what records fit this batch or fit this brief type thing? I never really go into projects with the intention of making an overall cohesive and everything must sound the same. I’d rather just make records as they feel and just see how the stories kind of fit together. For GHANA MUST GO, I feel it was a little more concise than that. I think we were very intentional about particular records that we wanted to have on it. When it came to just filling the gaps in the empty spaces, it was a lot easier to do because a lot of those records had been completed already. With my process, a lot of the time, I couldn't start from anything from a beat or just start with lyrics, and sometimes I just record acapella to a metronome because, to me, it's more about just getting the idea down the way that I see it in my head and then building around it. So sometimes I'll have a beat, sometimes I won't. Sometimes I'll have a chorus, sometimes I won't. It's just wherever the song kind of takes me or starts me from, and I kind of let God decide everything else. 

When it comes to a beat, do you ever create your own, or is it more co-producing?

I create my own, and then I also let other producers have their way because, at the end of the day, I feel like producing may not be my first love. Because of the fact that I enjoy music so much, it's another way for me to be creative and for me to speak in the language of creativity. I love producing. But I always try to tell people I'm a writer first before a producer. I love collaborating for that reason. I know there are people out there that have been producing much longer than me and take it much more seriously than I do and for that, I like to allow people to be the best of what they are. Instead of feeling like I need to control everything, I try to step back and allow people who are good at what they do to be good at what they do. 

How does your culture inspire the sounds you make?

I was born in Kumasi, Ghana and I immigrated to America when I was about four years old through Monrovia when the Liberian Civil War broke out in the early 90s. We first immigrated to Greensboro, North Carolina, in the South. A bunch of my father's family moved to Massachusetts for better jobs and better schooling opportunities for their children, so we all ended up moving to a city called Worcester in central Massachusetts. And that’s where I grew up. That’s where I cut my teeth, learned how to drive, fight, kiss, all of it. For me, it was one of those places that was really unique because Worcester, Massachusetts, has the highest population of Ghanaians in the United States per square mile. It’s a really interesting place to grow up, especially being a Ghanaian. And it's interesting, even though my travels as of lately, anytime I go around to different states and stuff and I tell another Ghanaian I'm from Massachusetts, they're like, where, Worcester? And I'm just like, wow, people really know us for being very Ghanaian. So again, it allowed me to have a very unique upbringing. And the fact that I was surrounded by African churches, African restaurants, African grocery stores, African baby showers, African funerals, everything. So, it never really occurred to me that I wasn't getting a genuine African experience because I technically was. I always ask people what do you consider culture? Is it not the celebrations of birthdays and weddings and things like that? And if it is, then I've had more of a Ghanaian upbringing than a lot of people that I know. Then, I jumped into music in my teenage years. I really caught the bug early, just jumping into rap and hip-hop, got into spoken word a little bit and that really kind of just grounded me in everything that I needed to know that I wanted to do. I always knew I wanted to be a writer. I always knew that words were going to be the weapon of choice for me. So now that I'm a songwriter, it kind of makes sense and it makes sense to everybody else around me. They're like, yeah, that's it. That's probably what you're supposed to do. That was pretty much before music, and once I got into it professionally, it took off from there. 

Was your family supportive of that career decision?

It took a little bit of convincing. I wouldn't say it took as much convincing as it may for other people, but I feel like the reason was that my parents really saw my gift of writing very early. When I was in elementary school, I was the 11 year old making the graduation speech. So they already knew that writing was kind of my bag. When I went to high school and I was doing visual arts and all this other stuff, I always kind of kept on writing music, writing stories, writing plays, and writing scripts and things like that. When I came to them and was like, hey, I really want to jump into this music thing. Their only requirement was that I finish school so I had something to fall back on. With them I applaud them for having the foresight to be like we're not going to stop you from doing it because we know you're good at it, but at the same time, you should make sure that you take care of what you need to take care of. So, when all else fails, hell breaks loose you got a plan B.

Photo courtesy of The Chamber Group

You've also contributed to a lot of notable work for a lot of notable artists like Beyoncé, The Lion King, and Pharrell. Could you talk about some of those contributions and what they mean to you?

It’s interesting for me because, as a songwriter, you always pray to God that every song that you write is going to be the one, and you never know which one is going to be the one. So to get those kinds of stamps of approval from artists like Beyoncé, Pharrell, Akon, Bebe Rexha, and everyone across the board, it really just became something that just let me know I was on the right path. The opportunity to work with Beyoncé specifically was really one of those things that changed my perspective in terms of how I wanted to approach being an artist. I think there was a lot of discipline that I wasn't aware of that it takes to become an artist. And I think being able to see her, her company, and her team in real-time and see how they work, see the work ethic that they put in. It definitely puts in perspective what needs to be had and what type of approach I need to take in order to be a successful artist with longevity. I definitely thank God for that opportunity. I think the reason I was there was to really just see it face to face. And looking back on it now, I get it. I understand.

Has a lot changed in your career since you've made those contributions?

Yeah, I think being able to use the name Beyoncé in a room is different from any other name. There are few names that kind of open doors like hers does. I feel like it's because her group is so tight-knit, and not everybody is allowed inside. So, when you're one of those people that get inside the castle, everyone's like, what does she look like? Does she smell like roses? So it was one of those things that I didn't realize how powerful the name was until I was able to use it. So when I was able to use this and say, hey, I did this, you could watch the video, and hear the songs and see it, it was like, oh, no, this is different. 

You're also headlining your first New York show. What are you most excited about? Have you ever performed in New York? 

I have performed in New York, but not in this capacity. So the shows in New York and LA got postponed, but we're going to be coming back around and doing those shows. But the thing that I feel like I'm most excited about is to introduce people to songs that aren't on the EP and to be able to introduce people to songs that kind of tied the entire story together and to be able to tell the story of me as an artist and me as a person in a more holistic way than just four songs. And I think that will be one of those things that will allow me to really dip into my bag as far as storytelling and letting people understand why certain songs are the way they are, why the lyrics are the way they are, why the tempos and music and everything feel the way it feels. And I think that's really important for an artist like myself who isn't looking for the quick burn, the quick flip in terms of music. I plan on being here for a while and in order to do that, it takes a little while. I feel like it's very imperative for me to share my story in a way that people can feel connected to it and people can feel endeared by it. I feel like if I'm able to do that on a bigger scale and more often, then I don't see why I can’t break through.

Are these unreleased songs, old songs, or are they new songs that you wrote after the EP?

I write in batches. I really don't remember when I wrote some songs. I just know that this batch of five happened during this time. This batch of 10 happened this time. A lot of these records were written fairly around the same time, so the EP and everything kind of was just written around the same time. But luckily for me, a lot of the records that I was writing were very much so in a very particular space. It was kind of like post-Beyoncé, pre-covid and covid allowed me to kind of really just sit down and hone in on the sound and hone in on what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it. I would say the covid years were the time when I was really working on these records.

When you're writing these songs in batches of five or ten, are they usually cohesive based on one experience, or is it kind of like a creative burst that you go through?

Creative burst. I remember my high school art teacher told me, and I kind of used it ever since, she said when you work, you work like a house on fire, but when you don't work, you work like you're the laziest man on earth. What she was telling me and teaching me was that I work in spurts. And when I realized that, I really have these moments where I'm super hyper-creative, and then I have burnout months. So what I try to do is during my hyper-creative moments, I make everything I can. I paint, I draw, and I do everything creative I possibly can. When I have burnout, I watch TV and read books. I even did the same approach in college, and a lot of my classmates used to get annoyed by it because I would literally ask for the syllabus, I would ask for all my assignments ahead of time, and I would do all my work in the first two months, and then I would chill for the last two months. And people would be like, why do you have no backpack? And I'm just like, I already did all my work because when I get there, I have so much energy. I grew up thinking that ADHD was a weakness. And now that I'm older, I kind of see it in a different light. It's kind of a superpower because the human brain isn't designed to necessarily focus on a bunch of things at once. What I like to do with my ADHD is to start ideas. That's the best time for me to start ideas like, all right, cool, I'm gonna start this painting, and I'm gonna put it down. I'm gonna start this song, and I'm gonna put it down. When I get to the place where I'm calming down a little bit, I'm like, alright, let me finish stuff because I already know where my mind was when I started it. But it's not as bad for me now, especially with music. I'll start an idea, and I'll just leave it. But then I'll come back to it like two months later, and I'll be like, oh, I love this. I actually know where to take it. Sometimes you need the separation from the art, from the creative, because you need to be able to see with clear eyes. Because it's really hard to see the trees when you're in the water. I've learned to wait till I get to dry land before finishing. 

What can people expect from you in the future of you and your music?

As far as me in the music, I really want to find really creative ways to show the music. I think there are a lot of stories within the music that need to be told, and I really want to try to lean on more of my directorial kind of angst and filmmaking abilities to really focus on what these stories are and what they mean to me and kind of like really give people the ideas and the understanding of why my life is the way it is, why I live the way I do, why I act the way I act because it's really important for people to understand why these records are the soundtrack of my existence. It's going to be really interesting. It'll be really fun, and I really want to make sure that my audience understands that. I want it to be an interactive experience. I want people to hear these records and tell me what they think, tell me what they see, tell me what visuals they expect. I want to carry those things out because I feel like that's part of the fun. Part of the fun of creativity is collaboration. 

Do you get a lot of your inspiration from other people's feedback? 

I get it from other people's lives. A lot of my inspiration is very much still a people watcher.  I'm the kid who goes to New York, puts on headphones, and walks 13 blocks because I just like staring at people. I'm making up their life stories. It has nothing to do with what I'm thinking, but I have a whole story for you in the back of my mind. I'm like, oh, that's the lady with the white dog, so she must live over here, and she must have two kids. And I like that because it allows me to always exercise that imagination. I'm always forever trying to exercise my imagination by just seeing people. And what I do a lot, that one songwriter taught me, is listen for the songs in everyday conversation, meaning I might hear people talking on the bus, and some girl will just say a line, and I'm like, oh, that's a bar. I’m literally in my little notebook, and I'm just going about my business, and people don't realize I have a notepad of song ideas that come from me walking the streets and just being present, seeing people, listening to people, and hearing the songs in everyday life. And I think there's something very powerful about being able to see that, to hear that, and to kind of be present in that. I feel like I really believe there's a real connection between God's creation and human beings if you just listen. New York is an interesting place, and I've always loved it because it's such a petri dish of things to see. LA is similar to that, but New York is so much more concentrated. And it's 24 hours a day. You can literally wake up at four o'clock in the morning and walk down Manhattan and be like, oh my god, people are still awake. It's always been one of my favorite cities to be in.

What are some things that you want to achieve personally or career-wise in the next few years? 

I want to travel more. I want to work with more creators around the world. I definitely want to do more shows. I really want to get into acting and film. I think that there are stories that need to be told that aren't being told, and I think I have a unique voice in that. And I want to be able to tell those stories. I also like, I really want to get into the art world a little bit more, hit museums,  present artwork, and gallery showings and things like that. I really want to take my time to expose myself to all levels of art, whether that be theater, visual arts, film, and television. I really want to get in my artistic bag a lot deeper than I've been able to just make music. I want to basically show everybody in 2024 that I am a very multifaceted creative. At some point, I want to be my own creative house, so I want to be able to control as much of the narrative and the pictures as I possibly can.