Keshinro Ololade (born 17 March 1995), known professionally as Lil Kesh, is a Nigerian rapper, singer and songwriter. He rose to the limelight after releasing the hit single "Shoki".[1][2]
Early life and education
Ololade was born and raised in Bariga, an area in Lagos State. He attended Stockbridge College for his primary and secondary education, and then proceeded to the University of Lagos, where he studied Linguistics. Later, he moved on to the National Open University and studied Mass Communication online.[3]
Career
He began, his musical career in 2012 which was when he started rapping among his colleagues in Bariga. Shortly after, he released "Lyrically", a debut single which went viral within Nigerian universities. Lil Kesh signed a contract with Yahoo Boy No Laptop Nation popularly, known as YBNL Nation (YBNL) is an independent record label founded by Olamide Adedeji in 2012. Under this label, Kesh dropped a series of hit singles like Shoki, Efejoku, Gbese, e.t.c and released his debut studio album, "YAGI". Subsequently in 2014, Lil Kesh released a hit single "Shoki". Shoki topped several musical charts and brought him to the limelight. As a result of this musical production, he was nominated for several awards and won two. In 2015, he was nominated for Best New Act at the 2015 Nigeria Entertainment Awards as a recording artist affiliated with YBNL Nation. In 2016, after the expiration of his contract with YBNL, Lil Kesh established his own record label YAGI Records (an acronym for "Young And Getting It") and is managed by Massive Management team, a marketing and event management company. On 17 March 2016. Lil Kesh released, his debut studio album Young And Getting It (Y.A.G.I) through YBNL Nation which was produced by Young John, and Pheelz. Vocals were from Phyno, Ycee, Wale, Patoranking, Adekunle Gold, Davido, Viktoh, Olamide and Chinko Ekun. It incorporates hip hop and rap genre. It has four singles – Lyrically (2014), Efejoku (2015), Is it because I love You (2015), and Ibile (2016).
Artistry
The versatility and musical style of Lil Kesh is similar to that of Olamide, who raps and sings in his local dialect.[4][5] However, he was criticized for using too much profanity and for failing to find the right balance in his songs' lyrics.[6] In an interview with Naij, he said, "they are singles not an album, I know the kind of market am directing my songs to, I am from the streets, I know what the people from the street want to listen to...they should wait for my album that is expected to drop towards the end of the year. I have very positive songs".[7]
