‘I slept in hotel kitchen for months’ — TI Blaze recalls struggles before meeting Olamide
TI Blaze, the fast-rising Nigerian singer, has recalled his struggles before meeting Olamide, the rapper, who he said helped his career.
The musician, in the latest edition of ‘Echo Room’, a podcast anchored by Quincy Jones, narrated how he slept in a hotel kitchen for nine months.
TI Blaze, born Akintunde Timileyin, said he left his parents’ house to look for new opportunities.
“I was on the street for like one year without seeing my parents. I went away from home. I was just on street just roughing things. I was sleeping at one hotel kitchen for like eight months or nine months before I got to meet Badoo (Olamide),” he said.
“I feel like I already got to a stage where I don’t need to ask my parents for anything anymore. So I just left home. They didn’t even want me to leave at that time. I left in 2020, so I was 20 that time.
“I went to one hood like that. So I made new friends. Those ones too they were sleeping at that hotel too. So we were just there by 4am, we would just hit the street again. So when it is around 10 pm, we go to beg the gateman to let us inside. So we’ll just sneak inside.
The singer revealed that Olamide helped him to gain popularity when he featured on ‘Sometimes’ remix.
“December 31st (2021) Badoo posted that song artwork on his IG story. I wasn’t online that day. But people were just calling like Bro check your IG. I just checked it and noticed that Badoo (Olamide) posted the artwork on his IG story and put the love emoji there. I went to text him in his DM and I was going wild saying bro please help me, help my life,” Blaze said.
“He now replied that I should come to his place the next day. I went there. The producer was already there so we just went in and did the recording. I was even asking him that when can we drop the song or something like that? Badoo was like are you guys joking? We are dropping this song tomorrow. That was how I moved from 1 million streams on Audiomack to 40 million streams.”
Blaze released his debut album in 2022, titled ‘EL Major’.