At the beginning of the month, Montreal artist Wasiu released a new single titled “Daddy Issues.”
The track was produced by Wasiu’s three go-to producers – Dear Lola, Thomas White, and WYLN – and tells the story of a first night out at a titty bar.
Wasiu has honed in on this ability to make a brand of rap that appears light-hearted and hype-y on the surface, but actually digs really deep into the human psyche. This particular record plays out as an anecdotal account of an emotionally-conflicted night at the strippers.
As the song progresses, Wasiu dives into a commentary on moral conflict. More specifically, the idea that life isn’t all black-and-white. Going to the strippers is neither A) a completely immoral, terrible, trash thing to do, nor is it B) a completely wonderful, pleasure-filled indulgence. It falls on the spectrum somewhere between the two… as does every situation in life. Check “Daddy Issues,” and read our in-depth interview with Wasiu below.
Q&A: Wasiu
HipHopCanada: Talk to me about what this song means to you on a personal level.
Wasiu: When I started rapping I had some reservations about subject matter and content. Coming from a religious family (on my mother’s side) I grew up going to church every Sunday. This shaped a lot of my thoughts and behaviours. But I was also a millennial with rebellious blood. So naturally I gravitated towards hip-hop. This started an inner moral conflict that I still struggle with today at times. But over the years, I’ve learned how to most effectively deal with it, musically. This song is the perfect example of it. I needed and wanted a stripper song but I knew I couldn’t make the typical stripper song. So instead I made an entertaining record about a morally conflicted person going to the strip club for the first time. Giving my take on serious matters without taking myself too seriously is the way I express myself the best.
HipHopCanada: I love how your music is so anecdotal like this. And I know you always have a reason for telling a certain story within a song. Tell me about this one.
Wasiu: I think I answered most of this in the first question. Although there were a couple of different reasons for the song the main one was addressing the cognitive dissonance we can feel in life.
HipHopCanada: As with most of your music, I appreciate the levels to this track. On the surface, it’s an easy-listen slapper about going to the strip club and having mixed feelings about the stripper experience. But on a larger scale, it’s actually hella psychological. Because it’s a commentary on people, and the duality to every situation we end up.
Wasiu: Yup… Not everything is black or white (ironically). This shit we call life is a whole bunch of grey area. Pleasure is never 100% pleasure. Pain is never 100% pain. Nothing ever feels completely right. Being the over-thinker that I am, my brain would never allow me to make a straight-forward stripper song.
HipHopCanada: What’s your own personal definition of “Daddy Issues”, and how do you see that play out for people (not just the strippers).
Wasiu: Saying a girl has daddy issues is a typical thing men joke around about when we think a girl is acting a certain way to subconsciously get their father’s attention. I did – however – subtly address the reverse as well. If she has daddy issues ’cause she wants to call me “daddy”, I must also have daddy issues if I make her call me “daddy” too. The second half of the hook [is] “Daddy issues so I make her call me daddy, aye!” as opposed to “…so she wanna call me daddy, aye!”, [which was the line used] in the first half.
HipHopCanada: Talk to me about the first time you actually ever went to a strip club. How old were you? Where did you go and who did you go with? What was the experience like?
Wasiu: I won’t say much about that right now. Lets just say it was a different story with the same moral conflict.
HipHopCanada: Let’s talk about the Montreal strippers for a minute. Because Montreal has a great strip club scene. Talk to me about your favourite Montreal strip club.
Wasiu: Oh there definitely are a lot of strip clubs here. I heard Solid Gold was good… Can’t confirm or deny.
HipHopCanada: On the production side of things, I love how this is like… peak Wasiu. It’s all your go-to Montreal producers on one joint. What was that process like, in terms of putting the song together?
Wasiu: Lola and TW had worked on this joint a couple of years ago. On our way to my first show in Toronto in 2015, Lola played it and I loved it. But he said the drums were outdated. It was called “the stripper joint” back then. A year later he sent it to WYLN and he made that shit BANG. Sent it back to me and I cooked it up.
HipHopCanada: This is just a personal observation but you and your team seem to have honed in on all the shock-value factors that catch people’s attention with popular music: bait-y track titles and highly suggestive political cover art. It’s like this winning formula for getting people to actually listen to your music in the first place. I see you.
Wasiu: Sometimes you gotta force them to shine the lights on you to show them something important.
Interview conducted by Sarah Jay for HipHopCanada
