Listening to his repertoire, one would never believe that young artiste Najeerii only started a career in music when the COVID pandemic hit in 2020.

The artiste, given name Najeeri Smart, told OBSERVER ONLINE that when schools started to close their doors to face-to-face learning he wrote his first song, and has not stopped since.

The 17-year-old is on par to make big moves as his three-year career has already seen him doing stage shows and making leaps in the industry.

Here are eight questions with up-and-coming artiste Najeerii:

1. When did you start doing music?

I started during the COVID pandemic when I stopped going to school. It was my first time experiencing music like this where me just start write a song because me did idle. I never thought about doing music before COVID, I only tried writing a song that one time and I haven’t stopped.

2. How did you know that music was the path for you?

Well after me write the first song me realise say me actually complete the song in a short amount of time and me did a pree that on a different level as a young song writer. So me did just write a next one and it got better, and me write a next one and it got better too and it kept getting better; I realised that I was outdoing myself. Everybody’s perception of me changed when they heard that I am an artiste though because I was a scholar, a top student at Calabar who everybody said was going to be a doctor or lawyer but here I am an artiste.

3. Would you classify yourself as a dancehall artiste?

No, I see myself as just an artiste because describing myself as a dancehall artiste means I only do dancehall but I don’t only do dancehall. I do other genres in the American field like I can also rap. I don’t have any songs out now where I am rapping but I have it on the list of songs to be done.

4. Since starting a music career in the pandemic how is it going?

So I started in about April 2020 and by April 2021 I was confident enough to know that I did have to get success [in music]. I see where I am growing and making money doing this already. It never just happened suddenly though, it took time and hard work so now I am getting a lot of stage shows and that feels good.

5. What has the response to your music been like?

The response has been wonderful, honestly, the people dem love it. If me never did decide not to stop doing music, the fact that the people dem love my music make it worse me nah stop.

6. How would you describe your style?

It is very unique based on my song structure, rhyming pattern, the topics I sing about overall. I say some things that people just never hear before. My creativity level is very high too because none of my songs don’t sound the same way each time. It is also one of the ways that I stand out from the crowd too. I bring more style, different voices, switching it up some times so it is never the same.

7. What does a future in music look like for you?

A future in music for me is international, and has me breaking barriers, travelling all over the globe for shows and performances, touring the world from start to finish.

8. What’s next for you?

You can look out for projects coming out this weekend— a single called ‘Goon’— and there is even more coming out for the summer so people can look out for them.