Mr Eazi Shares 'Legalize' From Forthcoming Debut Album

Global music superstar and business visionary Mr Eazi has shared ‘Legalize' the first single from his forthcoming album, and one of his most personal tracks to date.

Produced by an international team of Michael Brun (Haiti/USA), E Kelly (Nigeria) and Nonso Amadi (Nigeria/Canada), ‘Legalize’ and its accompanying video, celebrate Eazi’s love for his fiancée, the Nigerian actress Temi Otedola. The couple were engaged in April when Mr Eazi proposed while shooting the video in Venice, Italy.

“Legalize” features an array of afrobeats staples in its instrumentation; through the careful deployment of signature drum and kick patterns alongside colourful percussion. The standout element of the backdrop lies in the usage of the strings in the bridge which reinforce the emotional sombre tone set for the track in the very beginning ; through soft coos and the harsh picking of an acoustic guitar. The subject matter of “Legalize” tends itself to the emotionally captivating melody present within the song, as Mr Eazi discusses his unrelenting desire to make his current girlfriend his future wife. Throughout the track he speaks on the refuting of playboy adjacent lifestyles, alongside his lifelong search for the partner he eventually went on to find. The candour and sheer frank nature of his lyricism highlights a real honesty in the love he has to share, and the desperation he has in securing its lifetime attainment.

Mr Eazi also said the following about the song “I started the song in Michael Brun’s house on some edibles, freestyling,” Eazi says. “Later, I went to London and listened to what I’d recorded, and realized what the song was about. I’ve been thinking of asking Temi to marry me for a long time, so I guess it was in my subconscious.”

For ‘Legalize’, Eazi tapped Benin’s Patricorel, whose painting by the same name simultaneously captures the intimacy of love, submission, vulnerability and the finality of death. The artwork was created at an intimate, invite-only event in Lagos at which Eazi also performed ‘Legalize’ for the first time while Patricorel painted atop a black canvas. The collaboration was documented in a short film by Demola Falomo which debuted earlier this week.

“What struck me was the fact that he represents love with his pieces, but he draws with skeletons,” Mr Eazi says of Patricorel. “I think skeletons are our most human, naked form.”