I suppose I’d better start by saying Happy New Year! We’re officially in February, so I don’t know if I’m still allowed to say that, but it’s my first Substack of the year, so I’m sure you can forgive me.
I hope your 2024 is off to a great start.
They say time flies when you’re having fun, but I think time also flies when you’re busy working.
I’m constantly striving to find the balance between being busy/productive and enjoying the present.
So why has it taken me so long to release a Substack?
In all honesty, I’ve been a very busy boy - writing academic essays and starting a new role has been demanding, to say the least. I also made a conscious effort to put my writing on hold to focus on the more pressing items - I have a tendency to procrastinate 😅.
In this time, I’ve also had some time to think - this never stops 😂. I’ve spent the last few weeks building habits and reflecting on my final words for 2023 - “real success is victory over self.” I’ve made a conscious effort to reduce the outside noise and focus on giving that internal voice a chance to speak up. In this time, I also made the decision that when it comes to writing for this Substack, I’m choosing to write for myself.
Allow me to explain
Sometimes when you are creating something and you think about the audience first, you end up creating what you think they want or what is trending rather than creating from within. This idea has also been influenced by Rick Rubin in some of his recent interviews where he speaks about the ‘audience coming last.’
This doesn’t mean that I don’t care about you - I really do, but I plan to write about what Otega wants to say, and if that resonates with you, great; if it doesn’t, that’s also great (Ciao).
So I bet you’re wondering what is ‘Sunday Snapshot’?
By the end of this article, you’ll see that I got very excited with alliterations 😝.
Sunday Snapshot will be composed of 3 core segments - music, thoughts/ideas, and pictures. In my efforts to create sustainable content, I thought it would be great to write about 3 things that are always a definite during my week/life. It also gives me an opportunity to summarise things that have had an impact on me during that week.
Let’s get into it!
Sonic sanctuary (music):
J Dilla - City of Boom (Instrumental)
Like any Soulection fan out there, I pay homage to one of the greatest producers to ever walk this planet. J Dilla is the living embodiment of the idea that we can communicate through different mediums. I won’t go into full fanboy mode, but he was skilled at mixing sounds and crafting the signature ‘Dilla’ sound as we know it today.
Learning about him making beats on his death bed as his health deteriorated demonstrates how dedicated he was to his craft. City of Boom is one of my favorite Dilla productions, particularly for its uplifting energy. It’s a track I would play if I wanted some motivation or to bop my head enthusiastically.
Listen here - Youtube
Skepta - Jangrova (feat Tribal Mark)
Like most Nigerians/British Nigerians, Skepta is the epitome of cool. I’ve been a fan of Skepta since my teenage years, and as I get older, I’m more impressed by the ceilings he continues to break and his perseverance and confidence to do things his way and inspire the next generation to follow in his footsteps. He is role model material (period).
In pushing his artistry to new heights by creating his first movie ‘Tribal Mark,’ it exemplifies for me the multi-hyphenate artist and how life is a journey, and you don’t need to have achieved everything by the age of ‘30’.
Your prime doesn’t have to be defined by a certain age.
The production on this song, like most Skepta songs, is 👌🏾 and his presence while rapping makes this a certified banger and one to add to your playlist when you need that ride or die energy.
Listen here - Youtube
Fatoumata Diawara - Nterini
If heaven sounded like this woman’s voice, I’d live in bliss forever.
Fatoumata hails from Mali, West Africa. I can’t remember exactly when I started listening to her, but it can’t have been much later than the release of her first album ‘Fatou’ in 2011. Fatoumata makes a style of music called Wassoulou, which is an African style of folk. You could try to compare it with the feels you get from Florence + the Machine, but to be completely honest, in my mind, there is no comparison.
She played in Manchester on Friday at New Century. I purchased my tickets in November and decided that I’d go on my own because it’s a special occasion and I wanted to experience it just for myself.
She did not disappoint.
Personally, I felt so moved by her performance in a way that not many artists can replicate. There was raw vulnerability on show as she demonstrated how important making music is for her and how much she needed it as much as us, the audience need to listen. She shared that music is her mechanism for dealing with the challenges life has in store. This was my second time seeing her live, and like the first time, she spoke to the audience about equal rights for Women and Pan-Africanism - both of which I advocate for. But at this show, she also spoke about Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and told us that it had happened to her. She discussed her near-death experience due to the loss of blood following the procedure. She chose to speak about it to raise awareness in the hope that it would stop.
Listen here - Youtube
The Socratic segment (thoughts/ideas):
‘Change is the law’ by Robert Greene
‘Change is the law’ is an extract from the book ‘The Daily Laws’ by Robert Greene. I’m a big Robert Greene fan because he has a breadth and depth of the human condition. This law resonated with me because for someone who believes they have a ‘growth mindset,’ I have witnessed recently that I can actually be quite fixed sometimes and resistant to change. This idea can be applied to one’s professional and personal life.
He reminds us that holding on to past ways of doing things is accepting failure and that you never lose a skill because you’re changing; you just learn to repurpose it.
“You are not tied to a particular position; your loyalty is not to a career or a company. You are committed to your life’s task, to giving it full expression. It is up to you to find it and guide it correctly.”
‘How to make a few billion dollars’ by Brad Jacobs
I came across the podcast ‘Founders’ this week. It’s a podcast by David Senra where he summarises ideas from the books/autobiographies of some of the most successful people in the world. I listened to the episode where he reviews the book ‘How to make a few billion dollars’ by Brad Jacobs.
There were lots of great nuggets in this episode, but what I took from it was the effort that one has to take to develop their mindset on the journey to success. It’s sometimes very easy to catastrophize and think of the worst thing that could happen, but he reminds the reader to develop an objective view of the world rather than what our brain tells us.
Another fascinating nugget was his suggestion of using negative thoughts as useful data rather than objective reality. I also started to ask myself ‘what if?’ questions to challenge thoughts that were not based on facts.
Listen here - Podcast
Akram Khan: the poignant story of a man who found his voice through dance on the Homing In podcast
The Modern House is not only a staple for interior design inspiration, their Podcast ‘Homing in’ is also a great listen. Host and co-founder Matt Gibberd does a great job of interviewing the human in front of him while anchoring the conversation on the idea of a home/building.
The episode with world-renowned dancer Akram Khan was a great listen. I found Akram to be a breath of fresh air because he had lived a fascinating life and like Fatoumata and J Dilla found an art form that allowed him to communicate with the world. His experience of racism in London and then seeing the culprits who are now elderly and have no supposed recollection of the abuse they inflicted on him/family shocked me and gave me a perspective I hadn’t previously thought about.
What I took from this episode was Akram’s stance on being an anti-horder and learning to let things go and not becoming attached to physical things. He spoke about giving items a 6-month limit before getting rid of them if they haven’t been used.
I’m a self-confessed hoarder - something I know comes from my parents and my Nigerian upbringing where things can be salvaged, and you’d better not be wasting something because people back home do not have it. It’s still something I’m working on, but listening to this episode gave me some motivation to let things go.
Listen here - Podcast
Seeing (images):
So there we have it, the first Sunday Snapshot comes to an end. It’s been a great week of experiences and lessons learned. I hope to take these lessons forward.