is no longer the artist trying to prove that he belongs in the room. He has become a star in his own right, with a catalogue that has travelled far across continents. His rise has carried him through the highs of global success and the more complicated realities that come with it, giving him plenty to reflect on along the way.

His last album, ‘STUBBORN’ offered a more reflective look at that journey, tracing the experiences, setbacks and persistence that shaped his rise. But there is another side to success which is the freedom to indulge in it. The forthcoming album captures the young star in a period of his career where the rewards are impossible to ignore. finds him embracing the glamour, confidence and freedom that come with his position, allowing himself to fully inhabit the world he has spent years working towards.

It is a fitting title for this particular moment. Victony has spent enough time navigating the road to get here; now, he gets to enjoy the view.

CLASH caught up with Victony to discuss ‘STARLIFE’, the journey from ‘STUBBORN’ to this new chapter, and what it means to finally live in the moment he’s spent years working towards.

I know it’s been hectic as you have been back and forth between London and Toronto. How have you been?

Victony: Really good, really good.

I loved ‘Outlaw’ and ‘Stubborn’. But ‘STARLIFE’ was very interesting to listen to, and it’s very different from the two. It feels more glamorous. I wanted to know, why ‘STARLIFE’? What did it mean to you to name the album that?

Victony: I feel like I’ve really grown as a person and also as an artist. To me, it’s really just about becoming it and being super authentic. ‘STARLIFE’ is freedom. Like, this is the life of a star. That’s something that, over the years, I haven’t really gotten to experience just because I’ve been in one situation or another. Different things have been happening to me personally since the start of my music journey. But now, I’m at this point in my life where I just feel really free, and I can express my life for what it truly is.

You can sense that feeling on the album. It feels like you’re having much more fun. I know you’ve been saying “Swaggalomo” a lot. It’s very prevalent on the album, and it seems to be a big part of this era that you’re in. What does it represent to you? I know the word “swag” is there, but…

Victony: That’s really what it is. Shout-out to Yung6ix. You know, I grew up listening to a lot of rock music and Nigerian rap music like the M.I.s, Ice Prince, Yung6ix. I don’t know why it just came back to me, to be honest. But I remember I really used to like the word as a kid. I thought it was so cool and very authentic. I’ve been recording songs this year, and it just always comes naturally. When we were putting together songs for this project, I realized that I said it in almost every song. It wasn’t even intentional. It was just something that came naturally, and I just let it flow. But, yeah, big shout-out to Yung6ix too.

Speaking of the two amazing singles that you’ve put out, ‘FRE$H’ and ‘SLICK’, what makes you think people are connecting to that sound? They’re both sexy songs.

Victony: I mean, you really don’t know what it is. You don’t know what people would like and not like. But I just stuck to being authentic and just telling people, “This is how I feel.” I think this is the time where I really wanted to just do me, and it seems to be working. Every piece of content that I put out, people are just connecting to the identity.

I know on both tracks, you have Ozedikus on both of them. The synergy between both of you must be amazing for you guys to come back again. What makes you guys work together? What’s that energy like?

Victony: Ozedikus is a very open-minded producer, and someone like me, I really have opinions when it comes to my music. It’s never just a ready-made beat and then I hop on it. From the start of the production, I always have input. Working with somebody like Ozedikus makes it super easy because he just accommodates all my ideas and finds a way to make it work while he stays authentic to his style of production. I really love that about him. I think that’s the greatest thing that makes us connect, just the way we exchange ideas. Every time we’re in the studio, it’s like we’re just bouncing ideas around, and it feels really good to collaborate with that type of producer.

I know you touched a bit on how you’ve lived through different chapters, especially with ‘Outlaw’ and ‘Stubborn’. Thinking back and comparing those projects to where you are right now with ‘STARLIFE’, are there any lessons that you feel like you’ve carried into this new chapter of yours?

Victony: Yeah, I think, you know, looking back on this project, I’m less scared to try stuff. I think that’s the greatest lesson. Because even as experimental as ‘Stubborn’ sounded, I still played it safe by considering what people like and what they don’t like. I strive for excellence which is not a bad thing, but sometimes we lose the plot and try to get it right and forget that we’re supposed to be having fun. Music is art. It’s how you feel about it and how excited you are to put it out. Once that excitement is not there, I don’t think you should keep going until you find the excitement.

We went from a four-track EP to a 15-track album. And that’s because I was just following the lead of my excitement. If I didn’t feel it, I wasn’t going to do it, rather than doing it out of necessity.

This is very interesting. It was supposed to come out as an EP and then changed into an album?

Victony: Yeah, it was. This whole thing is very impromptu. Because, going into the other stuff of the year, we didn’t know we were going to be putting out another album. That was just the recipe: a couple of, like, two EPs, and then we drop the album next year. We had all this great music, and I said, “Why not?” I feel like the fans deserve it. They deserve it especially because I’ve been recording all year. I have a lot of songs that never see the light of day. So, yeah, why not?

Very good. And those two EPs, were they songs from two different eras that merged into the album, or what would they have been? I’m very curious.

Victony: To be honest, we didn’t know. We just knew when it had to drop. As we were doing the first EP, we had an idea of what it was going to be like. The second EP was similar as well. But I feel like it’s also good that we started out the year with that plan because it gave us a sense of direction. When we even arrived at an album, we never fully lost the plot. You know, the goal was to give the fans enough music, which two EPs, a mixtape, or an album would have done anyway.

I love that. Going into the collaborations you have,  YKB, Blaqbonez, Fola, Bnxn and Young Jonn. Was there anything you were looking for from these people when you brought them into the album that you felt they brought into the mix? Because the collaborations are really nice.

Victony: Yeah, for sure. There are people who have really strong personalities. When I listen to their music, I think everyone sounds like themselves. I needed that flavour on the album. I was working with YKB, you know, throughout the year. We had a lot of songs together. Star Life just happened to be one of them. And when I listened to ‘STARLIFE’ over and over again, I felt like, “Blaq would complement this.” Once I sent it to him, he was like, “Yo, let’s do this,” the same day I sent it to him. We met in the studio, and that was in Paris. Same with Fola. I wanted him to be on the last album. I wanted to keep exploring that chemistry to know what more we can do. We’ve just been trying to get one, and to me, it happened to be one of them as well.

Same goes for Young Jonn, not to mention AV. He’s family. That’s like my brother. It’s just authentic features, like making music with my friends. That’s what I really wanted to do for this album. It’s just to be free and do music with people that I truly care about and value.

I love asking this. Was there any track that was particularly interesting, maybe in terms of the process? 

Victony: Speaking of all the songs, they’re really interesting because I just got it with all the songs. I had this curiosity to make something fresh. At the end of the day, sonically, they all came together perfectly, but the production process of the songs was very much, “Oh, today, let’s start. Let’s try something new.” With 2Fresh, that was exactly what the producer said. Shout-out to Ben10k. When I met him in the studio, I played him some songs from the album. At the time, I didn’t even know it was going to be an album, but I knew I wanted to make a project out of these songs.

I played it for him and we started talking about songs that we’ve been inspired by and he mentioned FakeMink and how he wanted to try something that had jerk sounds. And then we just started. He laid the drums, I sang the melodies, and we just built it up from there. Same thing with Missing Piece. I met the producer for the first time, and I’m like, “I want to make something R&B. I’ve been on this uptempo vibe.” And, you know, we just kept having that discussion, and he laid the drums.I was like, “I want my voice pitched up. I don’t want my regular voice on this song.” We recorded it in a different octave, and pitched it up. The whole thing was just a very interesting process.

It goes for a lot of the songs on the project, to be honest. Seeing it all come together perfectly into an album is just bliss to me, because people would start an album with a particular theme and the sonics. But with this album, it’s just every song, I wanted to do something new and just challenge myself. And seeing it all come together, it’s a very interesting process.

Was there anything you discovered about yourself while making ‘Star Life’ that you didn’t expect to?

Victony: That’s a good question. I mean, that I really like fun music. I think after I made ‘STARLIFE’ whenever I would go on TikTok or Instagram and hear new music that is just fun, I loved the way I would react to it. I would immediately go to search for the artist. It made me realise how drawn I am to fun stuff. For the longest, I have seen myself as a moody guy. I mean, I do have that side too, but I think ‘STARLIFE’ just exposed me to a whole new feeling that I actually really like.

How do you think the fans are going to take it? I know it’s going to be a very different change from Stubborn, but I know the reception to the two singles has been amazing. 

Victony: The reaction when they listened to it in London and Lagos gave me an idea of how I think they’re going to receive it. From top to bottom, it was vibes and good energy. I’m very positive that they’re really going to like this one.

And finally, when people finish listening to ‘Star Life’, what do you hope they understand about Victony that they might not have understood before?

Victony: I want them to feel the freedom that I felt when I was making this album. I want them to feel the authenticity. That’s what I want them to understand the most, which is that this guy is really just being himself without fear of anything.

‘STARLIFE’ is out now.