Fireboy DML

“What If I Say” was originally written between 2016 and 2017. That was when I just left school at

OAU in Ife (Osun state), moved to Lagos, and was trying to find my feet. I was staying with a couple

of people in Ajah (Lagos) at the time. I think that was where I was when I recorded that song. I

remember I wrote it off one instrumental I found on YouTube. When I got signed to YBNL in late 2018,

after “Jealous,” there was that question of what’s next now. I remember I had a short meeting with

Olamide. We were in the car, and I just played the first version I had recorded, and he said, “This

is really special, I see a lot of potential here. I think if you get Pheelz or someone to reproduce

this, it could be crazy.” I re-recorded and reproduced with Pheelz, and the rest, they say, is

history. I had a great time making both versions of the song. It was two different experiences. The

first one was alone by myself, with my own little knowledge, the other one was with Pheelz and

Olamide. He was also in the studio a few times, because I remember I recorded at his home studio

back then. Olamide is a very spontaneous person, because the moment I recorded the song, he said,

“Fire, get ready, we are flying out of the country to shoot this video.” Before I knew it, he buzzed

TG Omori (video director). Myself, TG Omori and my manager back then flew to Seychelles, just the

three of us shot the video, straight up. The chant in the intro, at the time, I was always chanting

in my records, and most of my chants are usually half making sense and half gibberish. The only

thing that made sense in that whole chant is the “jowo malo sanle, jo pada wale (Please don’t run

from home, please come back home).” Everything else is gibberish. But it is the melody that matters.

I remember I wrote “Need You” and “What If I Say” at a very similar point in my life, on the ground,

hustling. I definitely knew that “What If I Say” was special when I wrote it. In fact, I preferred

the older version to the newer one that was released for a long time. I wasn’t sure I wanted to

release it because I’m always overthinking shit. I’m grateful to Olamide for being the hand that

always guides at the end.

Peru was written and recorded in San Francisco, California. It was my first time in the United

States. I had just flown into San Francisco from Miami. I was supposed to go and see my associates

at Empire (record label) and just pay a courtesy visit to Shizzi who produced the song in the

studio. At the studio that night, I was tipsy. I wasn’t supposed to record that day but I got in the

booth. He played the beats. I was like, oh, that's a vibe. 30 - 35 minutes, I was done. I was

literally just singing my story. It's just a young boy that found himself in a new place and is

willing to try out new stuff. Ed Sheeran heard the song and loved it. He was so excited about the

whole process, you know, the whole vibe of making the song. He asked for the lyrics, what every word

meant and all that. And, in 30 minutes, he was done with his own verse too.