Naira Marley, whose real name is Azeez Fashola, is a controversial Nigerian musician. He is a singer and songwriter that has many hit tracks spanning the period from 2017 to date.
Naira Marley has a strong following both offline and online, and they call themselves Marlians. The singer became widely known in Nigeria following his arrest by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in early 2019. Before we dig more into the biography of Azeez Fashola, let us first look at the 10 facts everyone should know about Naira Marley.
To know more about this talented young musician, continue to read Naira Marley’s biography below. But first
10 facts you should know about Naira Marley
- Naira Marley will be 26 years old in 2020 as he was born on 9th May 1994.
- His real name is Azeez Fashola.
- Azeez studied in London and has degrees in Business and Business Law.
- Naira Marley coined his name from Bob Marley’s who he said he looked up to while growing up.
- The artiste spent 20 days in EFCC custody from 1oth to 30th May 2019.
- His fans base, Marlians, are one of the biggest and most dedicated in the Nigerian music industry.
- Niara’s fist song in Nigeria, Issa Goal, was sponsored by Coca-Cola for a remix and the Nigerian national team adopted the remix as an unofficial 2018 World Cup song.
- He has four children from two different women.
- Naira Marley won the 2020 SoundCity MVP Awards Viewer’s Choice for Soapy, this is his first major award.
- Azeez Fashola announced starting his own record label Marlian Music in January 2020.
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Naira Marley Biography: early life and education
Azeez Fashola, popularly known as Naira Marley, was born on 9th May 1994 in Agege, Lagos State, Nigeria. Naira Marley’s parents are Mr and Mrs Fashola. Naira has at least one sister and two brothers (possibly more). He rarely shows off his family on social media and this makes it hard to confirm some facts surrounding his early life.
Although he was born in Nigeria and attended primary school in the country, he relocated at the age of 11 to Peckham, South London, England.
Continuing his education beyond the shores of Nigeria, Naira Marley attended Porlock Hall for some time. Then he went to Walworth School where he finished his secondary school education and obtained his General Certificate of Secondary Education. After that, he proceeded to Peckham Academy for his A-Levels. At Peckham Academy, he obtained a distinction in Business. However, Naira Marley didn’t stop there, he also attended Crossways College and obtained a certificate in Business Law. Note that Crossways College has been renamed as Christ the King Sixth Form College.
Looking at the educational background on the biography of Naira Marley, one can see that he has some good educational foundation. Now let us take a look at the beginning of his career and his introduction to music.
Naira Marley Biography: Music career
In an interview, Azeez Fashola revealed that from a young age, he had always wanted to be an MC and a voice-over artist. However, as life turned out he discovered his acumen for music in 2014.
His first major singing experience was a result of his friends urging him to fill a space left on a song. Fashola had been hesitant from the start because he was unsure of how he would do. But he decided to just flow with the beat and he ended up delivering a well-received verse.
Spurred on by what he saw as positive feedback from those who head the song, he gained the confidence to jump on another track. This time, it was on the track, Marry Juana, featuring Max Twigz, released in 2014. Max Twigz is a part of the Cannabis Boyz. Both artistes released No Manners together as well.
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Following another success with the releases, Marley went on to release Gotta Dance EP in February 2015. However, most of these early successes went unnoticed in the Nigerian music circle since he was unknown. It was not until 2017 that Naira Marley entered the Nigerian music industry.
Naira Marley music: 2017 – 2018
In 2017, Naira Marley teamed up with YBNL’s Olamide and Lil Kesh to serve Nigerians, Issa Goal. The catchy chorus and memorable hooks combined with electrifying delivery of the then trending dance steps, Shaku Shaku, made the song an immediate hit.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BjeqEXsAlU4/
It became a street anthem from the moment it dropped and it’s popularity spread out. Issa Goal was Azeez’s first song in Nigeria and most listeners associated more with Olamide and Kesh as well as the free-flowing of the beat to the staggering steps of Shaku Shaku than for Naira Marley’s performance.
This is not to say that the Opotoyi singer did not hold his own verse-wise in the presence of seasoned lyricists like Olamide and Lil Kesh, but their popularity pushed the song farther.
It became so big that it was unofficially recognised as Nigeria’s national football team’s theme song for the World Cup in 2018. Many other popular artistes jumped on its Coca-Cola sponsored remix to further obscure Naira Marley’s full credit. Truly with Falz and Simi at the peak of their powers vying for relevance with Olamide and Kesh, Marley’s name on the track was just that – a name.
But this will not stand in his way. The next events we will describe seemed rather unfortunate but somehow helped Azeez reach the peak of his fame.
Naira Marley controversies and rise to fame in 2019
Back in April 201, Nigerian vocalist and songwriter Simi had pitched her tent on the side of the law after she openly stated that cyber fraud, popularly called Yahoo Yahoo is wrong. In her Instagram post, she boldly asked the Yahoo Yahoo fraudsters should stop buying her songs as well as desist from streaming them online.
Her post started a debate online with some people expressing a sympathetic view to the cause of internet fraudsters. Among such was Azeez Fashola, known commonly as Naira Marley.
In what was a bold retort the Naira Marley said: “If u know about slavery u go know say yahoo no b crime [sic].”
After saying this, Nigerians started to lash out at him for promoting a crime that was spoiling the image of the country abroad. The debate went on all through April 2019, a period when the EFCC was cracking down hard on alleged Yahoo Boys.
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Naira Marley, however, did not back down from his stand maintaining his stand. He also claimed that fraudsters were important to the economy. His Instagram post read:
“Where the fuck do you think it’s coming from? You think it’s coming from the government?”
On 9th May 2019, Naira Marley released the track, Am I A Yahoo Boy featuring Zlatan on the back of the whole controversy that he and Simi’s beef had generated.
Watch the video of the track below:
Naira Marley EFCC Controversy: EFCC vs Azeez Fashola
We will now give an insightful explanation of Naira Marley’s following the Yaboo Yahoo controversy described above.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested Naira Maira a day after he the song, Am I A Yahoo Boy. Although the reason for the arrest was not immediately revealed to the public, the acting EFCC spokesperson, Mr Tony Orilade, in an interview, confirmed the arrest to Premium Times. His words:
“Yes, he is with us. He’s not the only person; he had some other persons also arrested alongside [him]. They were arrested in relation to advance fee fraud — Internet-related cases and all of that.”
Azeez Fashola was arrested alongside another musician Zlatan (whose real name is Omoniyi Temidayo Raphael), and three others – Tiamiu Abdulrahman Kayode, Adewunmi Adeyanju Moses, and Abubakar Musa. The arrest was because of their alleged connection to online fraud.
But within five days, Zlatan and the three others regained their freedom. They were released on what the anti-graft agents called “administrative bail.” However, Mr Orilade told Pitchfork that they were still investigating the released men.
Meanwhile, Naira Marley was held back because according to a statement by the law enforcement agency, there was “strong evidence” against him. It was until 16th May 2019 that they charged him to court.
The 11 count charge pressed against Marley include the following amongst others:
- Allegedly had connived twice to use people’s credit card without authorisation.
- Had three credit cards that weren’t his own.
- Also possessed five fake credit cards with the intent of using it to defraud people.
During this period, the controversial track became a leading controversy both online and offline because of its lyrics. Young men and women picked it up and were singing it at every turn. Its popular retort, “See me see trouble o, am I a Yahoo Boy?” became a popular slang.
Other people immediately linked the words to Naira Marley supporting cyber fraud.
However, there was a school of thought (albeit not as vocal as the opposition) that defended the song claiming it was art and the artiste should be separated from his art.
But the singer had also made some statements online that were clearly sympathetic towards internet fraudsters. It was, therefore, easy to pronounce him guilty in the court of public opinion.
Naira Marley was granted bail om the same day he was arrested. his bail was set at N2,000,000 with his trial scheduled for 22nd October 2019.
