“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.
