Tems — Digital marketer demoted to personal assistant
As of February 2025, Tems became a two-time Grammy award winner. In 2018, she had a 9-5 as a digital marketer, but she was later demoted. “I got demoted to a personal assistant,” Tems revealed in an interview with YouTuber, Korty EO. “I was bad at the job, but I tried my best though. I just couldn’t believe that was my job.”Seven years after she quit that job, Tems won her second Grammy—the 2025 Best African Music Performance award.
Mayorkun — “right above the help” at a bank
Before Mayorkun became the “Mayor of Lagos” in 2015, he spent a year working at a traditional Nigerian bank. He once thought banking would be his career, but in a 2023 episode of Tea with Tay, he shared, “I didn’t even have a table or chair at work. If we ranked the staff, I was just above the office help. The day someone asked me to buy amala, I started rethinking my entire life.”
iLLBliss — Went from banker to cleaner
This story of iLLBliss is that of a guy who aggressively pursued his music dream during his 9-5 years. With a little cash and a dream, he took the Ifesinachi night bus to Lagos, worked in three banks in four years and rose from a trainee officer to an assistant manager within that period. The frustration after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) liquidated the bank he worked for pushed him to japa to the UK. He juggled recording music and menial jobs like industrial cleaner, tunnel guard and security before Obi Asika met him at the Nottinghill Carnival in 2006. Asika encouraged iLLBliss to come back home and be part of the then-emerging Nigerian music scene.iLLBliss took the advice and started making music again in Nigeria. Look at him now: a Nigerian Hip-Hop OG.
Adekunle Gold — Designed graphics
In case you didn’t know that AG Baby is also the “King of Photoshop,” here’s your chance to fix up. Adekunle Gold made his first song in 2007, but he didn’t blow. To survive, AG capitalised on the Art and Industry Design he studied at Lagos State Polytechnic, working at Jumia and Konga before he became a graphic designer at Olamide’s YBNL. Fun fact: he designed the YBNL logo. In an interview with Premium Times in 2024, he stated, “What I initially had with Olamide was a purely business relationship.”But after he dropped “Sade” independently, his breakthrough song, he grabbed Olamide’s attention with his music and got signed to the same label.
Timaya — Sold plantain
Did you know that Timaya used to sell plantain before music fame? He did and even made a successful album off his personal-themed Plantain Boy album. This is one of the hustles you’d have to pick up while growing up poor in the streets of Bayelsa. If you’re curious about his full story, get familiar with the aforementioned album.
Patoranking — Sold rat poison
While Patoranking collected his Headies’ Next Rated Award in 2014, he reflected on some of the menial jobs he did to survive. “If I tell una say I don sell rat-killer before, una go believe [me]? If I tell una say I don do bricklayer before, una go believe [me]?” he said to the Headies audience that night.
Today, Patoranking is not only credited with hit records but is also highly rated among the Nigerian artists of his generation.
Reminisce — Sold shoes and clothes at Yaba
When Reminisce still rapped purely in English and struggled to get active listeners and was deep in sapa, he said that he stalled his music career and opened a shop at Yaba market to sell sneakers and clothes to UNILAG boys. It took persuasion from 9ice to get him back to music. Reminisce was then featured on 9ice’s “Bachelor’s Life” which launched his second stint in music.
Cheat Ovey - BID VOICE-OVER ON Things are
Before Yinka Ayefele had a life-altering accident in 1997 and became a nationwide Gospel music sensation, he was a radio broadcaster in the late 1980s. He worked with popular broadcasters, including the late Kolawole Olawuyi, whose Things are show featured Ayefele’s voice in its popular show tag, “Ha! Nkan Be.”
