I started writing “Can’t Breathe” while I was in Abuja in 2023, then I finished it when I came back to Lagos. I was in Abuja, and I really couldn’t enter certain roads

because of bandits (local terrorist attacks). One of the stories I’ve never told about “Can’t Breathe” is that on one of the days when I was writing in Lagos, one of our

(Nigerian) artists was having an O2 London arena performance, and there’s usually big acclaim when a Nigerian artist is performing at the O2. The media and everywhere are

flooded with videos of the performance. Around 2 a.m. that night, I was outside trying to craft the song, so I was practically performing the song as I was writing it.

Especially with the “they want to hold me down” part, I was talking about how those people (other artists) were up there, and I was still where I was. With the way I was

writing and performing the song at the same time, anyone who saw me on the road would have thought I was mad because I had my band at my back (in my head) just like they had

at the O2 Arena. I had my crowd with me, and I was just visualizing it all.