PsychoYP is a whole vibe, and he puts his all into his music. At only 23 years old, the rising star is already forging his path to becoming one of the greats in the music industry, one banger at a time. Hailing from Nigeria but now based in London, PsychoYP has even been deemed the Fresh Prince of Nigerian rap, straddling the genres of hip-hop, trap, grime, drill, and R&B.
Most recently, PsychoYP unleashed two highly-anticipated singles titled “Midlife Crisis” and “WYDTM,” both created with long-time collaborator and producer SCXTT — who’s worked with everyone from AJ Tracey to Timbaland. With the latter influenced by the UK Garage scene, PsychoYP showcases his talents as a recording artist, and his versatility to attend to all types of audiences.
This new release follows the success of his previous project titled Euphoria, which has accumulated over 3 million streams and landed the #1 spot on Apple Music NG Top Hip-Hop/Rap Album.
AllHipHop: How is it over there in London?
PsychoYP: It’s cold right now for some weird reason. I just came from Nigeria so it’s colder than usual for me right now. It’s like 10 to 12 degrees out here right now, crazy.
AllHipHop: Talk about being from Nigeria. When did you come to England?
PsychoYP: I grew up in Nigeria and England but I’ve got family everywhere. Being from Nigeria, you’ve always got a big family. I’ve also been to America alot with my family, my sister and my mom. In and out, I’ve literally been traveling most of my life. Nigeria’s home for me. I don’t make the type of music they make there, but I still consider it as home for me because that’s where I’m from. That’s where most of my fans are, that’s where my people are from.
AllHipHop: When did you fall in love with music?
PsychoYP: From a very young age because my mom always had music playing. My sister always had music playing. People around me always had music playing, and so I just fell in love with it that way.
AllHipHop: Any artists that influence you the most? Whether it’s US or Nigeria?
PsychoYP: I grew up listening to Young Money. I’ll always say that because I’m a huge fan of the whole Young Money. That’s literally all I was listening to growing up, as well as the classic that my mum used to play and everything.
AllHipHop: When did you realize you could do music for a living? Was there a turning point?
PsychoYP: I think when I put out my first body of work, people actually had positive reviews about it. It was just something I was doing for myself, but then hearing some of their reviews, I said “yeah, I just might be able to hack this.”
AllHipHop: How’d you get your name, PsychoYP?
PsychoYP: YP means young papi. I used to say it as an intro before, but then people didn’t know what I was saying. [laughs] It means young papi, I got the name a long time ago from some friends in school. Psycho came from that whole school era, it’s a long ass story. It’s from some friends in school.
AllHipHop: You just dropped “Midlife Crisis” and “WYDTM.” How are you feeling?
PsychoYP: I feel great, I feel very good. These are songs I’ve had for over a year. Finally being able to put them out, I’m so happy. Big up to Azanti for being on the second one, and the producer as well. This is the thing, I recorded these two songs, produced by my friend SCXTT in Sweden. It was meant to be a whole me and SCXTT collaborating, whatever. 2 or 3 days before the song dropped, SCXTT said he produced it with someone else. [laughs] There’s someone else who helped him produce it, crazy. Off of these two songs, We’ve done a whole project, there’s a whole project with me and him. We’ve been working together for years, and to be able to sit down and put this project together, put these songs together and watch ourselves grow from where we started to now is just crazy. That’s what these songs really mean to me.
AllHipHop: Why was now the right time to release?
PsychoYP: Because there were a lot of factors at play and other things we’ve been trying to put in place. I had to put my whole Euphoria project on pause to put out YP & Azanti Vol. 1, so that stretched things out. There are a lot of drops that were meant to happen last year that are just going to come out now.
AllHipHop: Was there a certain female that inspired “Midlife Crisis”?
PsychoYP: I recorded it in Nigeria, SCXTT sent me the beat. I was listening like “yo, damn. Okay, I have to tell a story on this. I have to go ‘King Von’ on this.” I don’t write my stuff, I just sit down and record. It was really more putting the story together in my head as I’m going along with recording this song, hearing the beat, and putting everything together. I literally go into that mode. After 20 minutes, it was done. Literally. [laughs] And I was like “Let’s keep this one for the safe”. This song was straight out of my head.
AllHipHop: What about “WYDTM”?
PsychoYP: SCXTT sent this beat, he’s like “yo, this is not your sound but this will slap, it goes hard for UK summer type of vibe.” I didn’t record on it for a week or so. When I eventually recorded on it, I just ran through it. I sent it to the group chat with Azanti there as well. I can’t remember exactly if Azanti responded immediately or he waited a bit, but he surprised me with his verse, because we have so many songs together, it’s either one of those two ways we work [laughs] This song I wanted to make for feel-good vibes, because you need feel-good vibes. I listen to my own music a lot. I don’t think I have a lot of feel-good vibe songs, so doing this one definitely was a good vibe.
AllHipHop: You said you were inspired by the Craig David era. What was his influence on you?
PsychoYP: In Nigeria, he was everywhere. He was big. It wasn’t me listening to him personally. It was people around me like my mom, my aunts and the women around me. There were a lot of artists that came out of that era that I also used to listen to. That era was an era that stuck with me for a while.
AllHipHop: What is it you want fans to get from your story?
PsychoYP: This is the beginning of my story. My story is just starting now and it’s with all my people. This is the moment for everyone to just sit down and say, “yo this is where this guy’s career is starting from”. Everything before here was good and fine, but right now is the most important part of my career and I really just want to lock in and be true.
AllHipHop: One thing you want fans to get from Euphoria?
PsychoYP: If Euphoria doesn’t get the best Hip Hop album at the Headies, it’s rigged. [laughs] Come on, it’s the best rap album out. I don’t know who else dropped a rap album out of Nigeria, off my head, but I can tell you for a fact that’s what I’m going for. I told everyone “I’m literally putting out the rap project of the year, everyone watch out for it.” If you sit down and listen to it, I don’t think you’ll say otherwise.
AllHipHop: Why’d you name it Euphoria?
PsychoYP: Because it’s a project that I compiled and started putting together at a time where that’s what I felt, I was in a state of euphoria because of certain things. You could tell from the cover art that there’s something you’re trying to tell and get out of your head. That’s what it was for me: I was in a very euphoric state in that whole period of 3 to 4 months of compiling it.
AllHipHop: How did it feel to graduate from the University of Manchester?
PsychoYP: Man! That finally felt great because I graduated two years ago, but that’s when Covid hit so we couldn’t do a graduation. They emailed us and said they’re going to be doing the ceremony now. I came out for it. My whole family came through too, so that was really nice because they were waiting for it.
AllHipHop: What did you study?
PsychoYP: I studied planning and real estate.
AllHipHop: Are you going to be a real estate agent too?
PsychoYP: Maybe. [laughs]
AllHipHop: 3 things you need in the studio at all times?
PsychoYP: I need my drink, I need my charger, and I need my phone. A little alcohol, Magnum. Nothing serious.
AllHipHop: Talk about collaborating with Yung6ix on “I Can’t Sleep.”
PsychoYP: Yung6ix, we were trying to get a record in for a while. This is one that immediately when he sent it, I’m like “yo, this is the one.” I even still took time to record it. When I’m in Nigeria, I’m always going between Abuja and Lagos and I don’t really have time to sit and record, but immediately I actually sat down to record the verse, I sent it back and I’m like “bro, let’s get it out.” 6ix was like “Yes let’s drop it, no worries.” A week later, he sent the cover art, and a couple days after, he dropped it. He’s trying to do a video as well, so hopefully we can get that done.
AllHipHop: What do you like to do for fun when you’re not doing music?
PsychoYP: Netflix or Fifa.
AllHipHop: What shows do you like?
PsychoYP: I watch anything nice. I feel like I’ve watched everything [laughs] I’m just out there looking for new stuff to watch, and continuing the random old stuff. But these days, I don’t even have time to watch Netflix because I’m traveling and stuff.
AllHipHop: Any goals for yourself at this point in your career?
PsychoYP: Yeah, definitely. We’re trying to get a couple million streams on a couple of songs. I mean, if you don’t aspire to get a million streams each on like ten of your songs, then you’re not really thinking big. I want to take a look at my catalog and see that I’m doing a million streams on everything. That’s my goal right now, to get big numbers. Big big numbers.