How Laycon won the heart of Big Brother Naija fans and turned them to his music audience

Nigeria is a country blessed with so many varieties of talents, the competition is so tight that it’s really difficult to breakthrough into desired industry. Sometimes the amount of talent you possess might not be enough for you to hit the stardom, you need something that would catapult you into stardom and Big Brother Nigeria happens to be the biggest platform you can use as a stepping stone.

Over the years, Big Brother Nigeria has seen a lot of talents from different fields, it has produced a whole lot of celebrities we have today in Nigeria entertainment industry. The thing about Big Brother Nigeria platform is, you don’t need to emerge as the Winner of the reality show before you can make a name for yourself, in fact most of the ex housemates that went ahead to become big people after the show are not winners. Big Brother has been a steppingstone for aspiring Actors, OAPs and Models, but it’s a different story for Artistes. Artistes have gone into the house with the hope of using the platform as a lubricant to smoothen their journey to mainstream and become a household name. With the huge number of audience Big brother Naija has on lock, one would think it would be easier for artistes to have a breakthrough but instead it makes it somehow harder. The complexity of the matter is that, the responsibility that comes with going to the house can be really heavy for the neck to carry, converting Big Brother fans into music audience has proven to be a huge task for the artistes that have been to the reality tv show. It’s really hard to shed the Big Brother skin and wear the music industry outfit, people will always refer to you as an ex housemate before they refer to you as an artiste that you want people to see you as.

Artistes have passed through Big Brother Naija but I’m afraid life didn’t turn out for them the way they want it to. Big Brother Naija lockdown season is on the course to change the story, the artistes that went to the house are making a difference and Laycon the winner of the Big Brother Naija Lockdown season is in the spotlight for that.

They say records are meant to be broken and history can be rewritten, it’s really good to see an artiste make it out of the big brother show.

Laycon, a talented rapper is on the course to set the record straight, he has seen a significant growth since he won the reality Tv show. Right from his days in the house, his music has been spreading like wildfire, his EP “Who is Laycon” went viral few days after the beginning of the Big Brother Naija Lockdown show, the EP jumped from far behind to top 10 on Apple Music Nigeria album chart, it also garnered a million streams on Audiomack in a short period of time, people started talking about his rap, flows and bars, you could tell this man was destined for greatness. His single “Fierce” became a hit in a short period of time while he was in the house, you can hear everybody around you using the slang “Awa fierce”. I can’t imagine how proud he would have been if he had the idea of how things turned out for him while he was in the house. We all know Rap music has been struggling in Nigeria for years, seeing a Rapper become an household name right from his days in the Big Brother House is a beautiful sight to see, that tells you the amount of talent Laycon possesses.

Big Brother Naija gives the housemates so many gifts they will forever cherish but the best gift amongst them is the fanbase, and to be honest Laycon got one of the best fanbases named “iCONs”, they have been supporting him ever since he stepped into the house and it’s really good to see they are still standing like a vibranium shield behind him and his music career. One of the things that has proven difficult to do for the artistes that have been to the house is turning Big Brother fans into music fans, looks like Laycon has found the cheat code to that, the transition from Big Brother fans to Music fans hasn’t been a difficult one for iCONs.

There is no easy journey anywhere in this country, one way or the other, you will have to face couple of challenges and Laycon’s challenges have been the pressure mounted on him by Nigerian music audiences, people expected so much from him, there is always a price to pay for success and Laycon’s price was the pressure and criticism he has been getting. The same person everyone cheered while he was in the house is the same person people started to find fault in his music, this certainly made it clear that his talent was never in question, it’s more like a vendetta against him.

The responsibilities that await successful Big Brother housemates are not secret to anyone, you can imagine the responsibilities that awaits the winner. Laycon got tied up with the after show campaign but he still found a way to feed his fans with quality music, he hopped on DJ Neptunes smash hit single “Nobody” featuring Joeboy for the remix and it was really an impressive delivery from him, he dropped a single “Hip Hop”, he was featured on Mr Real “Baba Fela” remix and some weeks ago he dropped 2 singles “Wagwan” and “Fall for me” featuring YKB which turned out to be the lead singles off his sophomore album “Shall We Begin”.

Ever since the end of the Big Brother Naija Lockdown season, Laycon has been on a successful run, he has won himself a lot of endorsement deals worth millions of naira, he got his own reality show on Showmax, and he has been very influential on every platforms he has been on, wherever he goes, his fans “iCONs” move with him.

When Laycon announced his debut album “Shall we begin” to be released on April 30th, a 12 track album, the whole twitter NG went crazy about it, some genuinely celebrated his growth and really wanted to see how big he has grown while some started asking questions and throwing criticism around, they felt it was too soon for him to drop an album. To grow in life, one has to believe in himself/herself and take risks, and that’s what Laycon did, he announced an album when people least expected him to.

“Shall we begin” Album dropped on Friday, April 30th as announced couple of weeks ago and it turned out so well for him, iCONs and music lovers took to twitter to celebrate the release of his sophomore album, Laycon’s growth is so obvious on every track on the album, his delivery, bars and flows have improved so much from his last project “Who is Laycon” EP. Laycon took this album personally, with the energy he put on this album, you can see how hungry he is to make his mark in the industry, he started the album with a sick intro “And So She Spoke”, he couldn’t have started the album better, the prayers from his mum is something every household would love to wake up to every morning. Then you move on to a melodious track “Verified”, Mayorkun delivered a soul piercing chorus and as expected Laycon ripped the beat apart with his bars.

One of the mistakes some artistes make is, they record album with the intention of getting hit songs on it, Laycon didn’t go down that route, he decided to record a cohesive album that would stand the test of time. This album proves that Laycon is not monotonous, he has range.

One of the outstanding songs on the album is “Fall For Me” featuring YKB, Laycon came through with an exceptional pen game and YKB delivered the hook so beautifully that you could feel their chemistry on the song.

One of the points of attraction on the album was the choice of artistes featured on the album, every featured artiste from Mayorkun, YKB, Terri, Teni to Joeboy brought their A game, despite doing different genres of music, they delivered beyond expectations. The album was perfectly executed, well arranged tracklisting and a solid production. It’s so evident that this album was well planned, it has a direction and the theme of this album was made obvious right from the intro to the last track.

This is the beginning of a long journey for Laycon because he has a long career ahead of him and things can only get better from here. The Album is doing amazingly well on streaming platforms, it peaked at number 2 on Apple Music Nigeria chart, number 1 on iTunes Nigeria chart, entered UK Apple Music top 300 chart and top 500 on US Apple Music chart, the album has charted on Apple Music and iTunes in 23 countries so far according to kworb. It’s not just the album having a good run, some tracks off the album are currently charting on Apple Music Nigeria daily top 100 with “Verified featuring Mayorkun” peaked at number 5 on the chart. This is a huge feet for Laycon and his fans, things can only get better.

When talking about Laycon’s success so far, you really can’t sideline his fans “iCONs”, they have been his support system right from his days in the house and they have been unshakably standing behind his music career. Things will always be much easier for you as an artiste if you have the fanbase that will always have your back, iCONs have been the arsonists spreading the fire of his album across social media platforms, most especially on twitter. They sent gift boxes to some people on twitter to celebrate the release of their favorite’s album “Shall we begin”.

iCONs have been doing just well but I believe they can do more than what they are doing right now, it’s not easy transitioning from Big Brother fans to music fans, they need to adapt to the space they find themselves now, find a way to make their streams count, talk about Laycon’s music, the details of each tracks and be coordinated with it. The thing is, this is just the beginning of a new thing for Laycon and he has the potentials to get bigger, however the bigger he gets, the bigger the responsibility and people’s expectations, iCONs should be his shield and be there for him always. They can learn couple of things from other prominent Music fan bases.

Laycon’s success as an artiste is something of note, for someone that passed through Big Brother Naija, people expected him to end up like his predecessors but he turned things around for himself. “As long as you see your potentials, there is no limit to what you can achieve”, Laycon believed in his potentials, his belief, resilience and hard work brought him this far.