Billboard is expanding its Rookie of the Month interview series by highlighting rising stars from more genres like dance and rock. But the new crop of artists emerging out of the African continent have continued making it clearer that their music can exist beyond the borders of “Afrobeats” and should not be broadly and lackadaisically labeled as such. “It has African intonations in it,” Tems said of her genre-bending music during her Women in Music interview last year.

Like Tems, many African artists have discovered one-of-a-kind ways to express themselves that cannot fit into one box while staying true to their roots. And Billboard is dedicating a spotlight to them through our new African Rookie of the Month series, which Odeal and Qing Madi kicked off in January and February, respectively, and Taves is continuing in March.

Taves’ drive to make music that transcends genre and geographical borders and touches people started out with a long one.

The 21-year-old Nigerian artist (real name Toluwanimi Aluko) discovered Aṣa during long road trips with his father from Ibadan, where Taves grew up starting at the age of eight, to his birthplace of Port Harcourt, where his father continued living and working. Inspired by her signature guitar, Taves took up the instrument. And listening to heartfelt lyricists like Ed Sheeran and Khalid “programmed my brain to look for deeper meaning when it comes to songwriting,” he tells Billboard.

While he was studying computer science at the Ibadan International School, he also studied a melting pot of genres while recording his own demos on his phone. “I don’t think I met any conventional Afrobeats artists. Everybody was on something different, whether it be R&B or pop or soul music,” says Taves. “They would still be speaking Yoruba or Pidgin in their songs, but that might have been the only thing that connected it back to Afrobeats. There was a lot of experimentation, and it was very beautiful to see.”

His brother got him into the studio for the first time in 2019, when he dropped his debut EP The Nest: First Day Out, followed by 2020’s 17 and 2021’s 18. Taves later began posting covers of popular Afrobeats tracks like Ayra Starr and CKay’s “Beggie Beggie” and Lojay’s “Moto” that felt more like open verse challenges rather than straight-forward covers. But his buzzworthy rendition of BNXN’s 2022 single “For Days” became a turning point in his career when it caught the attention of the original singer. They met less than a week later, which Taves describes as “one of the coolest moments of my whole life,” and eventually signed to BNXN’s label To Your Ears Entertainment. “He is the best thing that has happened to my ears for a while now. A BREATH OF FRESH AIR,” BNXN posted on X in 2023.

That same year, Taves scored a deal with Atlantic Records UK and a feature on BNXN’s debut studio album Sincerely, Benson. But he says that “a lot of people heard my music for the first time” last spring with “Folake,” an ‘80s synthpop-meets-R&B ballad, with undeniable influence from The Weeknd, that’s since become his biggest hit to date.

“What keeps me alive as a creative is always finding the next thing to try. Because I love trying new things, especially when it comes to genres,” says Taves. “I’m introducing people to a new sound I’m trying to craft. It’s not Afrobeats. It’s not whatever genre it is. It’s a new third thing.”

His EP Are You Listening?, which was released last July, finds Taves fine-tuning his mélange of Afropop, R&B, soul and folk and suave melodies paired with romantic songwriting, while paying homage to Aṣa on the album cover by featuring the vinyl edition of her 2007 self-titled LP. And Taves linked back up with his label boss on the swaggering standout track “CWT” (which stands for “Certified Walking Testimony”), which Wizkid was a fan of.  

Billboard spoke with March’s African Rookie of the Month about signing to BNXN’s label following his viral “For Days” cover, the hardest part about making his latest EP Are You Listening? and being called “the Nigerian Weeknd.”

When did you know music was your calling?

Probably when I was eight or nine years old. There’s this artist that I’ve loved listening to since I was young, Aṣa. She plays the guitar. That’s pretty much her trademark. I taught myself how to play the guitar when I was nine. I didn’t even know I could sing at the time. I just wanted to do anything to be like her. That’s pretty much when I knew that this would be my thing.

How did you discover her music?

My dad and I used to go on really long road trips because he worked far away in another state. He played a lot of old music, and at the time, her music was hot, current. I don’t really remember a lot of the other songs, but the ones that he played from Aṣa are stuck in my brain.

Outside of Aṣa, who are some of your other favorite artists whom you grew up listening to?

Ed Sheeran, Khalid, Passenger. I never really listened to Afrobeats music when I was younger. I don’t have a lot of people I look up to in that space, from that time. I do now. I could say Wizkid, though, ‘cause my siblings used to listen to his music a lot — and it was nice, it was sweet.

What kind of music do you listen to now?

I like country music, because of Post Malone and Shaboozey, [that’s] what I’m on mostly now. Obviously, The Weeknd, pop music. I don’t really listen to conventional rap. I like trap music, though. And obviously Afrobeats.

How did you transition from covering other artists’ songs to singing your own?

There was a point where I was singing their songs in my own way, but then transitioned into writing a verse. It turned into what it would sound like if I was on this song. I used to write songs when I was young, so it was like practice. I just did it for fun. I wasn’t expecting anything to come out of it. It was very easy for me to transition from doing covers of people’s songs to writing and recording my own songs.

You signed to BNXN’s label To Your Ears Entertainment after you covered his song “For Days” in 2022. How did you two initially connect, and what is your working relationship like with him?

I posted the cover on a Sunday night, and then we met five days after. I was really excited to meet him because I was the biggest fan, and he wanted to meet me because he had plans for me after seeing that cover. That was one of the coolest moments of my whole life. He’s like my big brother, he’s still my OG.

What’s the best piece of advice he’s given you?

I wasn’t used to hate on the internet, and I didn’t know how to handle it. I saw a comment that came out of nowhere, somebody that wanted to ruin my day — or if they were having a bad day, they wanted everybody to have a bad day. I sent it to [BNXN] and was like, “I don’t understand what I did for this person to say this to me.”

He first asked me how it made me feel, and I told him I was confused and kind of upset. Then he told me, “These people that are talking about you online, they only work with what you’re giving them. I don’t think there’s any situation where any artist gives 100% of themselves for the whole world to see. They don’t know you. They’re just going off of what they’re seeing, and the additional hate that they have in their hearts.” That’s how he takes it, and why he never lets it bother him. That really helped me, because now anytime I see negative comments, it’s funny.

Your 2023 single “Eleyele” caught the attention of Atlantic Records UK, where you eventually signed. Why was that the right decision for you?

It was the right decision for me because as much as I love where I’m from, and I’m always going to rep where I’m from, at the time and even up until now, our interests aligned. Everybody was of the opinion that we needed to take what we were doing here, what I was making and what the whole team was doing, and take it out into the world. It couldn’t just be confined to where we are. Nigeria is a very beautiful place, and I love Nigeria, but I wanted more than that. And they wanted more for me as well after hearing my music. It just worked.

Take me back through the making of your latest EP Are You Listening?

I started working on it December of 2023. The name Are You Listening? came from my stylist Fadil, he’s part of my creative team. We were bouncing ideas back and forth and then he just said it. At the time, it didn’t really stick in my head, but I was writing down everything that was being said. When I got back home and was going over [my notes], it’s the one that jumped off the screen for me. It represented everything that I was trying to say with the project.

Song selection was the hardest part. I knew what I wanted the theme of the project to be, so making music in that direction was not really an issue. There was a lot of back-and-forth when it came to recording and the mixes. But [with] the song selection, there were many clashing views about what would work and what wouldn’t work. But we all were satisfied with the final product that came out. That was one of the most interesting processes of my life, because I’ve put projects together before, but I’ve never had any outside opinions because I was independent for the longest time. There are more people that have more experience than I have that are giving me input, so it helps me make an informed decision.

I read in your Deeds Magazine interview that the project was originally titled Homecoming and set to be released in February 2023. What happened? Did you scrap that project and make Are You Listening? from scratch? Or was it a redirection of the project you had already been working on?

I scrapped that project because none of the songs that were supposed to be on that Homecoming project ended up on Are You Listening? And Are You Listening? had more songs than I had originally planned for Homecoming. It just wasn’t the right time. In the moment, I had issues with patience. I just wanted [Homecoming] done and out. I felt like I had a lot of stuff to prove, so I just wanted to rush through it.

But it didn’t work out; there was always some obstacle. “Eleyele” was supposed to be on that project, but that was the only song that dropped off the project. All the other ones are still on my phone. They haven’t dropped. I had to hold off for more opportunities to find me before I finally took that step. I’ve grown a lot since then.

In the Apple Music description of the EP, you said you “listened to The Weeknd a lot” when you were making your 2024 hit “Folake.” What inspires you the most about his music? Is it true that people call you “the Nigerian Weeknd”?

They do. I don’t really get that, to be honest. I don’t hear it. It might be the instrumental of “Folake” that makes people say that, that might be the only similarity in my music and his that people hear. There are other things that I’ve taken from The Weeknd for inspiration, like songwriting. I love the way he writes his songs. There’s nobody that does it like that.

At the time, I was listening to a lot of his music, and the thing with me is if I’m listening to a certain genre of music, I love taking my time to digest it and texting my producer, “Yo, I heard this song and it’s so cool. You should listen to this album, that album, and then we should get in the studio and see if we can do something in that direction.” I was having fun, and that’s how that song came about.

You also wrote that “Apology” “is one of the only songs where I’ve been able to put what happened in a certain situation down exactly as it happened, and the way it made me feel.” How were you able to open up in “Apology” in a way you hadn’t really with most of your songs?

The session I did I originally did not want to do because I was in Ghana for a Warner Music writing camp. I had just come from doing sessions all day, so I was pretty exhausted. My manager invited this producer Saszy [Afroshii] [because] he wanted us to work together. I was like, “Man, I’m tired. I just want to fall asleep.” She still pulled up anyway, so I was like, “Alright, cool. Let’s do it. We can put some ideas down.” I wasn’t prepared and I was super exhausted, so all my barriers that I normally have up were down when it comes to saying things a certain way.

On “Apology,” I’m saying it exactly how it is. I wasn’t trying to be clever. I wasn’t trying to use any kind of word play or symbolism. I was just saying how it happened. And that’s very rare for me, personally, because it takes me a while to get over major situations in my life. It was still pretty fresh in my mind, so it was very easy for me to just lay it all out. We finished that song there and then. The only thing that we added on later was the choir, but we finished that song [in] an hour max, so two hours [total] to finish.

Not only are you Billboard’s African Rookie of the Month, but you’re also up for Rookie of the Year at the 2025 Headies. What does that title mean to you?

It means I’m doing something right and I’m one of the new kids on the block, which I am to some extent. I’ve been making music for almost six years now, but I just had my moment last year and [there are] still a lot of moments to come this year, hopefully. I was super excited when I saw I had been nominated, but it still hasn’t really hit me what it means. All I know is something has to be clicking for them to see me and think this guy is one of the people that potentially deserves this award. Even the people I’m nominated with are some of the craziest artists out in Nigeria right now. It’s an honor to even have my name in the conversation.

What’s been the biggest “pinch me” moment of your career so far?

I met Burna Boy and he invited me to his house. Burna Boy is him. He’s one of the biggest African artists, not just right now, in history. Every time something like that happens, it’s like, “I have to be doing something right.” There’s that, there’s being nominated for the award, there’s that cover I did to BNXN’s song and he loved it so much that we started working together and we’ve been working together ever since.

I think that Burna Boy moment was insane, because we used to listen to Burna Boy when I was still in university, and we were seeing all these things happen in real time – dropping his Outside album and then Twice as Tall, doing all these stadium shows. Somebody who is at that level in this music thing that we’re all trying to do, telling me, “Oh, I like what you are doing. You should come to the house sometime.” Man, it blew my mind.

How did you and Eric Bellinger collaborate on “Backtrack” from his 2024 album It’ll All Make Sense Later?

My manager [Kolawole Omoboriowo] was an A&R on Eric’s project. They were looking for certain features [because] he wanted to make an Afrobeats album. My manager sent me a couple of the songs that they were working on, but “Backtrack” is one that really stood out to me – the way he was singing, the melodies, what he was talking about. It was super easy for me to blend on that. I did that, he loved it, and I ended up going on the album. We didn’t meet up until last month in L.A., but we’ve been talking over the phone. Eric is really cool, he’s the nicest guy you will ever meet — because you can tell that he really, really loves the music that he makes. It’s nice to have his energy around.

You posted on Instagram last month that you and Bas linked in the studio. How did that happen?

That was really crazy because I’m a huge Bas fan since I heard the Dreamville project a couple years ago. And there’s this song that Bas has with Ayra Starr on the Creed III soundtrack. Apparently, he was a fan of me, too. So it was really easy for us to blend and work together. We made a couple cool records. He and my manager had been talking, and Bas was telling my manager that he was a fan of my music. And my manager didn’t know that I like Bas as much as I do, so when he told me, I was like, “That’s very sick.” It was a very organic link. He’s such a nice guy. I love that he brings a whole new angle to the song.

Who would you love to collaborate with this year?

Lojay. I personally think he’s one of the best artists that have come out of Nigeria in a while. PinkPantheress. I’m such a fan. We could make some really cool stuff. Victony. His album last year might have been the best album that dropped out of Nigeria. There were so many crazy ones, but his really stood out. And if things go my way, because I feel like everybody in the industry would say this, but Rema is also one of my favorites.

What’s next for Taves in 2025?

A new project with a special twist, but I can’t let that be known right now. [It’s] an EP. It’s not album time yet, but everybody will know when it’s album time.