Patoranking: Celebrate me now - not when I'm dead

Typically, Patoranking’s new song, Celebrate Me, has a catchy tune and I find myself humming along to it, as well as moving to the groove.

But when we talk, I find Patoranking in serious mood.

“I tweeted recently, ‘Why buy an expensive casket when you could have given the person the money when he or she was alive? It makes no sense.'

“Celebrate Me is all about that - celebrate me while I am alive, don’t wait till I’m dead. Give people their flowers, you don’t have to wait for them to be in a problem before you show up for them.”

The Nigerian singer has always been a very conscious artist - many of his songs have messages. He puts this down to his upbringing in the ghetto.

“I think the Jamaicans say, ‘Every day you wake up above ground is a blessing.' It’s that state of mind where you wake up every day and you say. ‘Oh God, thank you Lord.

"The times we are in, I think it’s very important that we tell people that we are all we’ve got. Let’s celebrate ourselves. It’s much more than music, it’s like sensitising the people.

"And you know, I don’t know if it’s a black man problem, but it’s hard for an African man to look at his brother and say ‘I love you.’”

Patoranking is one of Africa’s most successful artists, known for dancehall, but always reinventing his sound and drawing on Afrobeats and Amapiano vibes too.

His artful blending of Jamaican patois and pidgin hits the spot for fans at home in Nigeria, but also in Jamaica, where he is celebrated like a son of the soil.

He’s working on a new album at the moment, but wouldn’t be drawn on what we can expect.

“Afroboss, you know I like surprising, you have to wait till the listening party two or three days before we drop!”