My album is high ‘standard’ —Reekado Banks

Mavin Records artiste, Reekado Banks, is set to drop his debut album soon and it is sure that his fans can’t wait. In a recent chat with HipTV, he revealed that his debut album”is going to be the best album so far this year or even in the last ten years”. He added that it will probably also be the best album we’ll hear in the next ten years. The singer’s yet-to-be-titled album has been scheduled for an August release.

 Artiste Profile

Full name:    Ayoleyi Hanniel Solomon

Date of birth:  6 December 1993

Reekado Banks, is a Nigerian singer, rapper and songwriter who came into limelight in 2014 after being signed to Mavin Records . He went by the stage name ‘Spicy’ prior to his record deal with the aforementioned label. He was declared the winner of Next Rated award at The Headies 2015. He has many hit songs to his name and has been featured in several collaborations.

Reekado Banks is the last child from a musical family. His father was a singer while his mother, a dancer. Moreover, his elder brother is a producer and his elder sister, a gospel singer. He grew up in a disciplinarian setting due to both of his parents are pastors. He graduated secondary school at the age of 14, and started recording his first set of songs in 2008. His elder brother produced all of his earlier songs and tutored him on the rudiments of singing, writing and producing. He derived the stage name ‘Reekado Banks’ by combining the meanings of the two names; the former part of his stage name translates to “strong ruler”, while the latter part loosely translates to “wealth”. In 2014, Reekado Banks graduated from the University of Lagos with a degree in History and Strategic Study. He has cited Don Jazzy, 2face Idibia, DJ Jimmy Jatt, Olamide and M.I as his key musical inspirations.

In an interview, Reekado once said that during his university days, a lecturer had told him he would never achieve his dreams after preventing him from retaking a test he missed. His breakthrough came during a Mavin Records audition where he was chosen out of over 5,000 hopefuls. The dreadlocked act, now popular for his ballad ‘Katapot’, ‘Corner’, ‘Standard’, among others, credited this triumph to God. In his words, “There is no amount of sacrifice that was enough to get me something this big.”

He also stated that he had once resorted to hawking blenders in traffic and working as a manual labourer at a construction site, in a bid to earn some money to use for his recordings after he told his parents about his intention to pursue a career in music.

His record deal with Mavin Records came as a result of his brother submitting some of his songs to the label in an online talent search. Reekado Banks got signed to Mavin Records after his entries were selected from over 5000 entries.

Reekado Banks premiered the single “Turn It Up” on 21 February 2014, which happened to be the same day he got signed to Mavin Records; the song featured Tiwa Savage and was released as his first official single under Mavin Records. Reekado Banks was featured alongside label mates Don Jazzy, Korede Bello, Tiwa Savage, Di’Ja, Dr SID and D’Prince on the critical acclaim song ‘Dorobucci’, which was released on 1 May 2014. Reekado Banks has also worked with his label mates to release the collaborative singles ‘Adaobi’, ‘Arise’ and ‘Looku Looku’. On 13 February 2015, Reekado Banks released the Don Jazzy produced song ‘Katapot’. He also has many other widely accepted songs like ‘Corner’, and more recently, ‘Standard’.

A graduate of the University of Lagos, Reekado Banks won the Headies 2015 Next Rated Award ahead of colleagues like Lil Kesh, Kiss Daniel, Korede Bello and Cynthia Morgan. Since the announcement of his debut album, fans have been waiting with bated breath for Reekado’s ‘album of the decade’.