Oluwatosin Ajibade (born 19 July 1991), known popularly as Mr Eazi, is a Nigerian musician, songwriter and entrepreneur. He is the founder of Banku Music, a fusion sound he describes as a blend of Ghanaian highlife and Nigerian chord progressions and patterns.

Mr Eazi moved to Kumasi in 2008 and enrolled at KNUST. He started arranging artists to play at student gatherings. He got interested in music after recording a guest verse on “My Life” which gathered traction and became a popular record at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, KNUST. In July 2013 Mr. Eazi released his debut mixtape About to Blow. He got international recognition after releasing the tune “Skin Tight”, featuring Efya.

His second mixtape, Life Is Eazi, Vol. 1 – Accra To Lagos was released on 10 February 2017. Several sites stated that Mr Eazi secured a record deal with Diplo’s label Mad Decent in March 2018. Mr Eazi has entered into a license contract with Universal Africa, the Universal Music Group’s arm.

Mr. Eazi is a Nigerian singer and songwriter, who was born in Port Harcourt, the capital and largest city of Rivers State, Nigeria. He was raised in an entrepreneurial family.

His mother runs a modest business and his father is a pilot. The latter parent went on to create his own private aviation consulting practice. Mr. Eazi had a short spell with the school choir while he was in primary school in Lagos. He grew up with the music his dad played for the family at breakfast.

Mr. Eazi moved to Ghana to further his studies at 16 years old, studying mechanical engineering at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). Mr. Eazi began making songs while still at KNUST. He featured on the track “My Life” which was a big record at KNUST and had a lot of airplay. Before that, he also founded a party and promotion company, Swagger Entertainment.

He used the opportunity to arrange shows, promote activities at KNUST campus. At the age of 23, he returned to Nigeria and started his own e-commerce platform. He told The Guardian newspaper he had a brief spell with Schlumberger when he returned to Nigeria. He also informed the same newspaper that his businesses included importing soft drinks and distributing food and digging for gold. He also told Highsnobiety that he founded roughly six businesses.

In 2014, Mr. Eazi gave up on being a club promoter when an artist failed to show up for the biggest party he tried to arrange.

In July 2013, Mr. Eazi released his debut 13-track mixtape, About to Blow.

producing two singles “Pipi Dance” and “Bankulize”. The first came out in mid-2012, the second in 2013. Mr Eazi recorded the mixtape alongside producer Klu and it was released inside a week. Mixtape is a “heavily dancehall-leaning SoundCloud playlist,” according to Fader magazine.

Before releasing the mixtape, Mr. Eazi worked with producers including Magnom, Peeweezle, Nshona, Klumonsta, D’Tunes and E-Kelly. He also appeared on Stay Jay’s ‘Baby Lace’ and Lousika’s ‘Knockout’. Mr. Eazi moved to Nigeria in 2014. UK-based Ghanaian producer Juls got hold of some of his tracks and reached out to him. Mr. Eazi’s effort to work with Juls was delayed for quite a while, due to the challenge of finding the audio files of his earlier recordings.

Eventually, Mr. Eazi was able to find his audio files and gave it over to Juls who then built a new beat and designed the artwork for the mixtape’s second single “Bankulize”. It was released in November 2014 and featured vocals from Ghanaian hiplife musician Pappy Kojo. An official remix of “Bankulize” featuring Burna Boy was released in September 2016.

Mr. Eazi debuted the remix a month earlier on Ebro Darden’s Beats 1 radio show. Mr Eazi made his breakthrough in August 2015 with the dancehall-inspired song “Skin Tight”. It has guest vocals by Ghanaian artist Efya and was produced by DJ Juls. Mr Eazi, in an interview with Complex magazine, described the song as a “fusion”. He said he used Ghanaian pidgin on the delivery and Nigerian tunes.

Nigerian record producer Cobhams Asuquo released his own cover of the song in August 2016. DJ Caise created a house remix of the song in September 2016. Terry G and Mr. Eazi released a remix of the song. “Skin Tight” appeared in a commercial for the vodka company Ciroc in April 2017. Mr. Eazi also appeared on Eugy’s 2016 hit single “Dance for Me”.

The song was included in the Guardian newspaper’s selection of the 10 biggest African tracks of 2016. Vertex and Gabriella Kingsley directed the music video for “Dance for Me” Clash’s Robin Murray called the song a “salute to their joint Ghanaian heritage”. R&B-inspired single Anointing, featuring rap vocals from Ghanaian rapper Sarkodie, was released on 17 June 2016. Mr Eazi originally teased intentions for the single in May 2016.

The Vodafone-sponsored Ghana Music Awards organisers in February 2016 decided not to nominate Mr. Eazi in any of its Ghanaian-only categories. Charterhouse’s spokesman, George Quaye, has said Mr. Eazi was disqualified because of his nationality. Mr Eazi was only qualified to compete in the African Artiste of the Year category, Quaye said.

But he failed to get a nomination in the said category since the organisers felt he is not as big as the other nominees. In a tweet dated 11 January 2017, Mr. Eazi wrote, “Ghanaian music is very influential on Nigerian music of today. The tweet got him heavily roasted and trended nationwide in Ghana & Nigeria.

Mr. Eazi apologized to Nigerians on January 12th, 2017 for the words he made. After his performance at the 2016 Ghana Music Awards, Wizkid announced that he signed Mr. Eazi to his imprint Starboy Entertainment. But Mr Eazi told Star FM Ghana in July 2017 that he is not signed to Starboy officially.

He informed Star FM Ghana that he is in business just with the imprint. Mr Eazi released his second mixtape, Life Is Eazi, Vol. 1 – Accra To Lagos on 10 February 2017. The mixtape was initially set to be released on February 11, 2017. It debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard World Albums chart. The mixtape includes 14 tracks and three additional tracks. The mixtape features guest musicians like Tekno, Olamide, Phyno, Mugeez, Medikal, DJ Cuppy, Falz and Big Lean.

Its production was handled by Maleek Berry, Masterkraft, Legendury Beatz and Young John. Mr. Eazi stated on Instagram that he had sold 200,000 pre-order copies of the mixtape. The mixtape is a dedication to the two cities that shaped the development of his style, he told Julie Adenuga on her Beats 1 radio show.

The mixtape’s lead track “Leg Over” was produced by E-Kelly, and released on December 2, 2016.

The music video for “Leg Over” has guest cameos from comedian Eddie Kadi, Maleek Berry and Wizkid. The song is about being taken advantage of in a relationship,” Mr. Eazi told Lawrence Burney of Noisey.com. He also added that the music was leaked and was not supposed to be a hit. “Leg Over” was released in December 2016, and led to many dancing videos. The track was described as “gentle and minimalist” by critic and editor Gabriel Myers Hansen in a review on the Music In Africa website.

It’s “freshened by delicate string and percussion placements that recall highlife from decades ago,” added Hansen. Mr Eazi released “Tilapia”, the second song off the mixtape, on February 1, 2017. It has vocals from Ghanaian hip-hop act Medikal. On March 1, 2017, Mr Eazi released the music video for “In The Morning” directed by Sesan. Big Lean, a rapper from Toronto, is featured on the song.

On 1 April 2017, Mr. Eazi released the music video for “Fight” with extra vocals from DJ Cuppy, directed by Teekay. On 7 April 2017, Mr. Eazi released the music video for “Business” which featured vocals from Mugeez of R2Bees.

It was revealed in January 2019 that Mr Eazi will perform at the 2019 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

Mr Eazi started emPawa Africa, a talent incubation program designed to foster and encourage upcoming musicians in Africa in August 2019. The first edition will enroll 30 musicians who will be given grant and mentorship to grow up their music careers. YouTube Music is also supporting the effort.

Mr. Eazi is the creator of Banku music, a sound “defined by percolating rhythms and laid-back vocal delivered in Ghanaian Pidgin English”.

Mr. Eazi’s work is mainly in the Afrobeats genre, a modern West African musical style that mixes global pop, highlife and hip-hop. Mr. Eazi’s music has been dubbed as having an R&B-like feel akin to the likes of Beres Hammond and Gregory Isaacs.

Lawrence Burney of Noisey.com says Mr. Eazi’s deep voice gives ballad-like elements to dance-forward music.

Temi Otedola, daughter of Nigerian millionaire Femi Otedola and sister of DJ Cuppy, is reportedly dating Mr. Eazi.