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Timaya opens up about first major album deal and breakthrough
Veteran Nigerian dancehall star Timaya has offered fans a rare glimpse into the early struggles and defining moments that shaped his illustrious career.
Speaking on the Afrobeats Intelligence Podcast hosted by Joey Akan, the music icon recounted how his first major break came from a modest deal at Lagos’ Alaba International Market, the hub of Nigeria’s music distribution in the early 2000s.
At a time when he was still finding his feet in the industry, Timaya revealed that his debut studio album, True Story, was sold to a marketer for just ₦500,000 — a figure that might seem insignificant today but was a game-changer for the young artist back then.
The project, powered by street hits such as Timaya, Dem Mama, Ogologoma, and True Story, quickly gained traction, cementing his status as a voice of the streets.
“He gave me ₦7 million for the music videos and bought me a car. He said I was a good market,” Timaya recounted, sharing how the impressed marketer later invested an additional ₦7 million and gifted him a car.
Buoyed by the runaway success of True Story, Timaya’s second studio effort, Gift and Grace, attracted far more attention — and a bigger payday. Initially approached with a ₦10 million offer, he said it was eventually Abu Ventures who outbid the competition with a remarkable ₦24 million deal.
According to Timaya, only top-tier acts like 2Baba, P-Square, and D’banj were commanding such sums at the time.
The breakthrough inspired his famous track I Don Blow, which he described as a declaration of his official arrival in the Nigerian mainstream music scene.
Now nearly 20 years into a career marked by reinvention and consistency, Timaya continues to wield influence as a genre-blending hitmaker. With his distinctive fusion of dancehall, highlife, and hip-hop, he remains a pillar of Nigerian pop culture, delivering club anthems and street bangers that have stood the test of time.