M. Mashal is the son of the legendary Fuji King, King Wasiu Ayinde Marshal. The singer/rapper who is in his 20s, and currently  pursuing  his musical career in Canada. He is bound to take the world by storm,as he  redefines the essence of music and the true meaning of the art. Excerpt
How would you describe your genre of music?

M.Marshal is  a writer and poet, who certainly believes music is a way to bring people together, no matter the colour and language. Music is an art of sound that expresses ideas and emotions in a significant form, through the element of rhythm and melody. M.marshal is born to household of fuji and the son of k1 de ultimate, whom is the epitome of greatness. M.marshal is currently on the verge of completing his degree from York University in Toronto, Ontario Canada, and his bound to take the world by storm, redefine the essence of music and the true meaning of the art.

My genre of music is hip hop, it  is also a mixture of my dialect, background and culture. This is because I’m one artiste who cherishes his dialect, loves to speak it and don’t look down on his culture. And that has everything to do with being raised by a Yoruba father.

You know! At first I wanted to be plain and just keep it more on the English side of my type of music, but a thought sprung in my head and reassessed my motives for really doing music and being part of the art. And it’s because I want to be able to relate with people, especially my fans. However, that doesn’t change my type of hip hop to something else. Instead it adds to the beauty of it and makes it easy for my country people to understand me.

M Mashal

If my own people can’t understand what I’m saying, how do I expect a foreigner to gravitate to the body of the work and get something much more than they are getting from the music. My type of music is hip hop and will have countless Nigerian slangs and Yoruba dialect.

When did you start your music career?

This date back to my childhood days. I use to dance a lot because music happens to be the only thing that gives me joy. But when I got to high school, I took it all to another level by performing and miming other peoples songs. In high school, my favorite artist then was Ja-rule and that’s the name everyone knew me and called me. Some didn’t even know my real name and don’t  bother because they like the name.

That was my name in high school and anyone who were present in my high school could testify to that. And I did a good job by holding down my high school, to the point that I became the only one everyone are waiting to see his performers anytime we have prom or end of. year parties, because I was a good performer that turned out to be great as years climbed on years. After high school, I took it an inch forward and started writing my own lyrics and that was a huge tough task but I overcame the difficulty and practiced hard. After many years of trying to gain my stand lyrically, in 2007 I finished recording my song  called “Almost famous”.

In that lp I had couple of tracks that were a little bit nice but not good enough, but there was one Song titled “play play” which was liked by a lot of people and got air play in naija radio and I Performed the song at felabration 2009.That’s where I met naeto c and ikechukwu for the first time.

The song “play play” didn’t catch fire and blow like we all thought it would, so I’m left to wait and work hard until the time is right. I performed songs off that cd in Toronto many years back but I got tired of repeating the same song because it felt like I was limiting myself. Many things occurred between then and now but it was a good drive to get to this one “fine works of spring”.

Being the son of K1, the fuji icon, do you think it will be easy for you to break into the music industry in Nigeria after a long stay in Canada?

Before I answer your question, I’m going to bring you close to some things that are certain and could bring one close to failure in life. That’s being too predictive of the future that only Allah knows. Even the meteorologist that reads the weather, they are only guessing and reading signs that might lead to the possibility of the result.

However, with that being said, I would affirm to you that there’s a possibility of an edge but that won’t determine the outcome of the success. I’m sure they are many Nigerian Musicians whom their children tried to take part in music but didn’t work. But my circle is where you find out that even dreams believe because sometimes dreams are not enough, you got to believe and work hard. If the music is good, nothing would stop it from getting to the top of the chart and stop fans from buying the record. I’m sure 2face, 9ice d’banj, P-Square, Dagrin(r.i.p) and Wiz kid, fathers are not musicians but are successful because they work hard.

Now I’m going to answer your question, with one answer that gives birth to a lot of things in life and that’ hard work. Hard work and those qualities might help and build a huge fan base and attract a lot of people because my father is known to do fuji and I’m rapping, which is different. It’s not so amazing but interesting because of what I’m willing to bring to the table. My swag too is unique though.

You are currently promoting a hot single titled ‘Dance’ Ft. Big Terry?
Yes. Me and big Terry , the producer, came up with an idea to stretch arms and create something dynamic and all I did was to do my part and my team and my PR Augusta Bernard  picked it up, choosing to promote that and take it to the moon.

I believe it’s going to do good on the chart but I can’t wait till everyone gets to hear the finished LP. It’s insane, with couple of hits and the one after that is also mind blowing. Can’t wait.

Are we going to see a video for the single ‘Dance’? 

Yeah. I was just talking to my childhood friend Faronbi in Atlanta two days ago and he’s asking me to fly down to Atlanta, because he’s willing to direct the video. He has a great idea for the video,using the skills he acquired in school while studying film in Art institute of Atlanta . He actually sent me couple of the video’s he edited and I’m impressed.

So I’m contemplating on going to Atl for the shoot but will be also hitting Nigeria to do Big terry’s part or figure something out because I really want Big terry in the video, because he did a marvellous job with the singing and production of the song.

A lot of rappers out there, what will you be bring to the audience, that will make you carve an nitche for yourself in the rap game?

I will just be me and stay real because I’ve been to a place of understanding and experience and not just imagining things. I will tell my story and continue to do my music with real passion I’ve always had for the art. I will do it from the heart, I will rhyme, I will flow and I will grow.

Ten years from now, where do you want to see yourself??
I see myself as a very good father to my kids and a very good husband to my wife ( a family man) and always put them first. Would have established

MARSHAL RECORDS   as a household name, have a lot of companies to create employment in Nigeria, giving back, because being successful to me is not about how much you have but how much you can give. Having many albums and be more focused on the executive side of the business because I can’t rap forever. Hip hop is a young man’s sport and all my life I’ve always known when to let things go because “lambs go to slaughter but man learns to walk away”

Which acts would you love to work with?

I’m really in love with Asa’s works and I have all her albums. Imagine, I was bumping her song “ maybe” in my car the other day and a non-Nigerian lady driving beside me asked me of the artist and where she can get the album. That’s incredible you know! I will love to work with her and I swear they play “fire on the mountain” on the radio here in Toronto.

I will love to work with 2face (I hail o 2baba), 9ice, p square and my dad k1.Something massive is coming from me and him and I’m excited about it and I’m sure you all will be pleased. Been talking about it for some time but now is the time because my school is the only thing in my way but that is coming to an end in a few months.

I will like to work with everyone out there but those artistes I mentioned are the ones I have something in my head for right now.