Getting Spiritual With BLESSED Over Plantain at Little Lagos

Little Lagos is the inner west’s prime dining location for Nigerian food. There’s a familial atmosphere that makes the dishes more homely, the drinks are good and the chicken stew (which I paired with fufu the first time I went there) melted off the bone and basically dissolved in my mouth.

So when the management team of Ghanaian-born, multi-city based artist BLESSED – it’s hard to describe where he’s from because he’s lived in almost every major city in Australia – suggested we go there, I was enthusiastic to say the least.

When I arrive I’m greeted by two of his oldest friends, Parmida and Leo. They’re here for moral support and in the end, join us for dinner. BLESSED enters the doors a few minutes later, his hair styled in dreads, a red-patterned bandana around his forehead and a puka-shell necklace around his neck. He has a calming quality – and this might sound corny – but a somewhat ethereal nature to him. He moves slowly through the restaurant until he sits slightly-slouched in the booth next to me.

One of the first things he tells me is that he’s been in Sydney only a few months, having lived in London for the past year or so. After 10 years of trying to push music culture forward in Australia – in his opinion, to no avail – he moved to the other side of the world to find a mentor, refine his craft and be embedded in the unbridled creativity of the British city.

In the time he was last in Australia, however, BLESSED concreted himself as a worthy collaborator and building-block in the careers of many Australian artists, most notably, Kid Laroi (who he met when Laroi was 12), Jaecy, Manu Crooks (the list goes on). The music itself is hard to describe: One part hip hop inspired, one part rock, a bit of punk, a bit of trap, basically a smorgasbord of sound. What’s not hard to describe are the themes he flits between.

An obvious deep thinker, his lyrics stretch societal issues of oppression, belonging, spirituality, love and lust. His most recent album Aussie Blackstar, speaks on climate change and racial justice inaction while providing melancholic sonics and vocals.

It’s an interesting juxtaposition between the person sitting beside me at Little Lagos who speaks on moving through life with a positive mindset. It’s this capacity to explore the more negative, and deep-seeded, issues of the world in his music – while keeping a happy mentality – that makes him such an interesting and thoughtful artist.

While eating jollof rice, we went a bit deeper on his upbringing, spirituality and how this mindest plays into his music.

VICE: So, do you guys come here a lot?

Leo: Often enough

BLESSED: For celebrations, yeah.

If we’re all sitting at a table together I’ll probably write you [Leo and Parmida] into the interview, but it’s all good if you don’t want to.

Parmida: We don’t have to. We’re here for support.

Leo: I’m happy with whatever. 

What do you usually order?

BLESSED: Well, I’m vegan.

Parmida: We all are.

BLESSED: So, plant-based is probably the way to go. I usually get the jollof rice, which is really good here, not gonna lie. But better at my mum’s house.

The first time I came here I got fufu.

Leo: Was it the first time you’d ever tried it?

Yeah, the first time. It was amazing. I’d actually seen it on Tiktok.

BLESSED: On Tiktok? Fufu’s blowin’ up on TikTok?

Leo: Yeah man, a lot of things are.

Parmida: It’s like a trend and then everyone tries it.

BLESSED: Wow. Damn, by the way, you have such a soft spoken voice.

Leo: Yeah, like you float.

I know, people used to say to me that I sounded like a stoner, but I think I’ve grown into it a bit.

Parmida: Are you a stoner?

Nah, not anymore. It’s been like 3 years.

BLESSED: I tried to stop this year.

You’ll feel a lot better.

BLESSED: I’ll hit you up when I hit my three years. Okay, I might get the fried rice. 

What’s the best way to get food here? The platters or–?

BLESSED: Well, I don’t really share food so I don’t know (laughs). I never share food, I’m kind of greedy like that. 

Okay, I’ll just get whatever you get.

Leo: You trust us?

BLESSED: Do you like plantain?

I’m pretty sure my mum likes it, but I’ve actually never tried it.

BLESSED: You’ve never tried it? You gotta try it. We’re getting plantain, we’re getting jollof rice. Have you had jollof rice before?

[shakes head]

BLESSED: Damn, I’m putting you on. Okay plantain, jollof rice. Do you eat meat?

I’ll eat whatever. I was a vegetarian for six years.

BLESSED: How’d that go?

I dated someone that ate a lot of meat and then I stopped.

BLESSED: It’s always the partners.

It’s hard when someone’s waving chicken nuggets in front of you all the time. Did you want to get drinks as well?

BLESSED: I don’t drink alcohol

Ah, true. So what are you going to London for?

BLESSED: I live there.

Oh, you live in London.

BLESSED: Yeah I moved there last year. 

Why was that?

BLESSED: Cause I wanted to find a mentor to help me make better music.

Who’s the mentor?

BLESSED: I haven’t found one yet.

Who would you want it to be?

BLESSED: Honestly I really want a guru, a spiritual, super esoteric guy or girl that smokes heaps of weed and does mushrooms and can help me transform my music.

Oh, I thought you just said you were quitting weed?

BLESSED: I won’t smoke, but they’re enlightened from the drug and then they give me that enlightened information to transform my life. That’s the goal.

Do you want someone that’s music-oriented?

BLESSED: Yeah, music-oriented, but it doesn’t have to be specific.

You should hit up Greentea Peng. I’ll show you. I feel like you would love her music. [shows song]

Oh dope, I’ll save that.

I would love to move over to London, I feel like the creative scene there is amazing.

I reckon Australia’s going to be like that in 15-20 years. It’s also less racist than Australia, which I love. I love that there’s so many ethnic people and people of colour that are in positions of power and are actually influential not only on a street level but also at a corporate level which is super important. Yeah, it’s almost been 9 months now.

Are you signed over there?

No, I’m actually signed here in Australia, to Rainbow Valley Records.

Oh, that’s Matt Corby’s label. Yeah, I read that and I was thinking, they explore such different genres but at the same time there’s something about their music that still ties it together. There’s an overlap.

BLESSED: Yeah, in a way. He’s also a very spiritual guy as well. Super soulful voice. He’s almost like a very, very old school black man in a white man’s body. Like when he sings, always captivating.

Do you have much contact?

BLESSED: We did when I first signed but not so much at the moment. I think he’s working on his album at the moment, really doing his thing. I don’t know if that’s even meant to be out there.

No, I think I read it online.

BLESSED: Okay cool, as long as I’m not breaking the news.

So what are we getting? Also this is all on me.

BLESSED: Oh really, okay then we’ll get everything on this side.

(laughs) If only.

BLESSED: Okay, we’ll get plantain, we’ll share it. We’ll get jollof rice. Do you feel like rice, like stew? How are you with spice?

I grew up with it.

BLESSED: nice.

Waitress: Are you ready to order?

BLESSED: Yep, with the plantain, how much comes with it?

Waitress: four.

BLESSED: We’re gonna need two plantains for sure. We’ll get jollof rice. I don’t know if you guys still have it anymore, but it’s the bean stew.

Waitress: It’s the second one [Ewa Agonyi].

BLESSED: We’ll get that one as well. I think that’s good. You’re not a big eater are you?

Nah, that should be good. You moved around a lot as a kid didn’t you? What was that like and around music as well?

BLESSED: Well, I grew up in a church so that’s why my family moved around a lot. My dad’s a pastor. They were missionaries in Africa, so they moved from Ghana (their homeland) to Zambia. Zambia to Melbourne. Melbourne to Canberra. Canberra to Sydney. Sydney to Perth. Perth to Melbourne. They moved around so much. 

For me, my musical journey started in church because it’s a pentecostal church which is the “Hallelujah”, really active singing, really spiritual one. And I played drums in church and I played guitar.

I actually read that when you were in Canberra you grew up with Genesis Owusu and Citizen Kay.

BLESSED: Yeah, we went to the same church. They were my lil bros, I used to – not babysit – I don’t want to say babysit cause they’re grown men now.

So what was that like?

BLESSED: It was cool, it was very community based, coming up in a black church, like a Ghanaian church in Australia, there’s not too many of us, so we are all still together. So I’d hang with them at Sunday school or go over to their house. 

They always had the best games. Their dad would buy them – I think at the time it was like Playstation 1, Playstation 2 – but me and my brother would go over to their house and thrash them in NBA.

Wait, so how long have you all known each other?

BLESSED: 10 years plus

Parmida: You guys would have known each other for like 20. [points to BLESSED and Leo]

BLESSED: Yeah it would be getting up there.

Leo: Yeah, 16 years.

So did you guys live in Canberra as well?

LEO: We met in Sydney. I don’t remember meeting BLESSED for the first time. I was in my own world. You tell the story.

BLESSED: When I first met Leo, it was at church, like Sunday school. I don’t know if you’ve even been to church or Sunday school?

Yeah, I did when I was younger.

BLESSED: Yeah, okay, so picture this. In Sunday school, I’m a very obedient young lad because that’s how I was raised, and then this guy Leo is talking back to the Sunday school teacher, quarrelling, asking questions, giving her attitude and I’m like, “This is the coolest guy ever, he’s not afraid of her.” So we literally became friends.

Parmida: And then you [BLESSED] were the kid that showed up in skinny jeans and just dressed however you wanted to.

BLESSED: Yeah, I was the outcast. I used to wear skinny jeans, I used to skate, and being in the black community, that was not okay.

Did you also do the side-fringe with the straightened hair?

BLESSED: My parents would never let me straighten it but I used to pull my hair all the way forward until I made a fringe and it worked and then I started a trend. Ask the boys in Canberra – like Citizen Kay and Genesis – they used to try and do it too. It was just a straight fringe. You know how the white boys used to gel their hair.

Like straight out like this? [puts hands on forehead at 90 degree angle] I can’t even imagine that. 

BLESSED: (laughs) yeah.

Are you still religious?

BLESSED: I think at this point in my life, I don’t follow a religion, I follow intuition, I follow understanding of the universe. I believe that there’s something higher than all of us and I believe that we’re a part of that energy. We’re not separate from it. 

The idea of us being separate from it puts us in fear. And I’m not afraid of anything. At this point in my life, I believe that I’m so connected with what is above me that it’s inside me. And it speaks through my music, it speaks through my actions, it speaks through hanging out right now. Being positive and being uplifting is my purpose and that’s all encompassing with my beliefs. 

Your name, BLESSED, because it’s your christian name as well. Is there a story or a  lore behind that?

BLESSED: Kind of, but not really. I think my parents named me that basically because they were having trouble having kids in Zambia and there was this disease going around with the kids – every kid that was born in this village that they were staying in – they’d be born and then die later from having something, they didn’t even know what it was. 

And then before I was born my mum said that she had a dream or premonition that I was going to be a prophet and that I was going to speak truth and I was going to be something in the church and then my Dad was like, “we’ll name him Blessed because he’s our blessed child”. so that’s where my name came from. But to me I always hated that name as a kid, I’ve always hated it.

What would you rather have been called when you were a kid?

BLESSED: Like Timothy, Josh, like anything normal, anything that a white kid could have (laughs). But now I love my name. Names hold so much weight to your destiny, to your characteristics. 

Names are almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy? 

BLESSED: In a way it is, because I’ve had such a blessed life, not to be corny at all. I’ve been blessed with beautiful people in my life, I’ve been blessed with never having to worry about money, I’ve never been stressed about money.

Lucky you.

BLESSED: [laughs] I mean, just make sure your name is something like Blessed, then it will be good. You’ll have a blessed life. I’m not saying that my life’s been the easiest but because I have a lot of gratitude in my heart and I can see things for what they are, their life lessons are always blessings and they lead to something greater.

Well, I think there’s that thing of, if you’re feeling positive and you’re feeling connected with people, there’s a certain magnetism and openness to you that – in the end – results in more opportunities and more things coming your way. It’s a good mindset but it’s not always easy.

BLESSED: No it’s not, it’s not easy. It takes training. Because we were programmed to think in a certain way. We were programmed to almost feed off of our negativity, it’s so prominent in our time. You look at the news and it’s always telling you bad shit that’s happening in the world. 

But it’s like, if you look around, I’m sure there’s good shit that’s happening, but only if you choose to see it. Some people let the bad shit outweigh it: “My life sucks because of this and because of that, I don’t have this, don’t have that”, but look at all of the things you do have. 

You might have your family altogether, you might have amazing friends. You might have a dope job where you get to hang out with me and eat some random African food [laughs]. It’s the little things and that’s what I appreciate. 

Where do you think that mindset came from? Is it innate to your personality?

BLESSED: No, I think you develop it over time. Even for me I’ve had conversations with certain people, like even with Parmida, we’ve had conversations that have helped to sculpt my way of thinking in a way. Like I was saying before, with mentors, it’s like, in your life, some people come across and they’ll say certain things to you that might just click in your brain and you might have that moment of awakeness and awareness.

This is interesting because I was actually thinking about this the other day. My friend and I were talking about mental health and how it’s portrayed as a spectrum along a line when in reality it should be seen as different points on a sphere, and we had that moment in conversation. But yeah, you can read one line out of a book, or someone says something to you, and everything changes for you.

BLESSED: So you and your friends be having these retrospective deep conversations, hey?

Well, it always depends on the person. Sometimes you want friends that you can have a good time with, sometimes you want friends to have deeper conversations with. 

BLESSED: For sure, I think for me, it’s just the other one. Just deep conversations. I have a good time with myself, I’m a bit reclusive. I like to hangout by myself, make music, play video games, read books and then when I’m around people I really want to have conversations where I walk away and I feel fulfilled. 

Like, I feel like my cup has been filled. Full. Rather than hang out with people and feel drained like they’ve taken more from me. There’s nothing wrong with having a good time, though.

When I listen to your music, though, you do reflect on a lot of things that are happening in the world, so if you’re by yourself thinking about these things, how does that affect how you write songs?

BLESSED: I mean ,it affects it a lot. I live in two worlds. I live here in the real world and I also live in this nonlinear space between reality and my own mind. Everything that I digest from everyday life gets compartmentalised and then I go over things with my own thoughts when I’m going for a walk or something.

[Waitress brings over jollof rice]

BLESSED: Oh, thank you. My mind will just race towards things that I’ve thought on a subconscious level and it’ll come out on a conscious level. So that alone time is that time for me to really process and come to terms with why I feel certain ways about being in the world.

I’m interested to know how much of your observation in your music comes from the online world and then real life.

BLESSED: It’s mainly real life. What I get from the online world is from my girlfriend. My girlfriend is Gen Z, so she introduces me to everything, she’s like “have you seen this, this is what’s going on.” This is what’s happening. So my scope of everything…

[Waitress brings over Ewa Agonyi]

BLESSED: Yes [looks at food] we about to go in. Mmm – my scope of everything is physically-based. I’m super present. When I’m with people I’m not on my phone, I don’t touch it unless it’s an emergency. I’d rather be in this moment. These moments never happened before, it’s here and then it’s gone, so why not be in it. That’s what really translates into my music, that’s where I get all of my perspectives from – conversations. 

Most people don’t like to listen and I’ll listen to everything. There was this one dude that was talking to himself in Ghania and he was just like, “stay away from so and so”, and then as I was walking further on and something was happening – some kind of commotion – and I was like, “was he trying to tell me before it even happened?” If you pay attention to what people are saying sometimes they give you the clues or information that can help you in the long run.

It’s interesting, because I’ve been thinking about spiritual experiences, specifically meeting people that you’ve felt like you’ve met before but you can’t quite put your finger on it. I feel like that’s something that would interest you.

BLESSED: It really does. I’ve experienced that so much, so many times in my life. I feel like most of the people that I’m really close with, I’ve known from another life. It doesn’t make sense any other way. 

Do you think you’ve known Leo and Parmida?

BLESSED: Definitely.

What makes you say that though?

BLESSED: Well, the instant connection. I think when a connection, a real connection is so instant and so familiar that’s when you know on a spiritual level that your two souls have been connected in some way, in some form. And that has to do with deja vu as well, sometimes you’re in a place like this and then one of us is like “oh shit, I’ve been here before”, it’s like yes you have, because this happened before. Time isn’t as linear as people believe it is and it’s like we go through different states of consciousness and sleep and reality, and there’s this fine line where we all really exist. This conversation has probably already happened, so everything that I’m saying, you already know.

So you’re a believer in the theory that the past, present and future are all happening at the same time?

BLESSED: All at the same time.

Parmida: Yeah I also believe in past lives. I know for a fact that I’ve known him before. From the moment I met him I felt safe. We barely have to spend time together. I reckon one way to know is if you feel completely comfortable being yourself. It’s rare.

BLESSED: It’s that communication or that flirtation. Talking to humans is like a dance, it’s like a tango, you can almost dance with anyone, but there’s certain people when you dance with them,  it’s effortless, it’s flowing. That’s the real dance of life. There’s so many people out there that are the life of the party, that get along with everyone, but those are usually the loneliest people because they can’t be with themselves. They’re for everybody.

I’m thinking I should probably ask you a question about your music now.

Leo: I think everyone should eat before it gets cold.

BLESSED: I was waiting for the plantain.

Are we sharing this or you don’t want to share?

BLESSED: I know I said I don’t like to share but I’ll share this with you. Take more, take more. That’s enough for you, you sure? You gotta have some of this as well.

I actually did have a question about Kid Laroi. Are you sick of answering questions about him yet?

BLESSED: Nah nah, I love the kid. We met – he was 12 turning 13 – now he’s 19. 

Manu Crooks was there as well?

BLESSED: Yeah, I’ve worked with him from the beginning, same with Laroi. I’ve worked with a lot of different artists, honestly. B.wise, too. 

Yeah, I was going through the list, there was Maina Doe as well.

BLESSED: Baby Prince. It’s a long list. And that’s always been my passion to work with talented humans, create, collaborate, inspire each other. 

How were you around those people in the first place?

BLESSED: I think it’s the energy I have. The way that I’ve always been I attract what I want. 

[Waitress drops off plantain]

BLESSED: Thanks. Chuck some of those on. Nice. But no… it’s just the energy. I’ve always come from a place of attracting the people, the opportunities and just the things that I desire. 

You know what I was saying “real recognizes real” it’s the same in my eyes as starseeds and people that are meant to make a difference though their art and music.

What’s a starseed?

BLESSED: I don’t want to be like “the chosen ones” but they’re people who have been brought onto this Earth with a task of helping push forward consciousness or awareness of self or positive energy. 

When you think about the people in the 60s and that revolution those were the starseeds of that generation and I feel like this time around it’s coming back. There’ll be a resurgence in positive energy and love. There’s too much negative shit going on right now so there has to be a balance.

Oh shit, I’ve completely forgotten to take photos. Mind if I take a few. The conversation was engrossing.

[takes photo of half eaten food]

[photo of BLESSED and I]

[photo of whole table]

What do you look for in a collaborator?

BLESSED: I look to be inspired. Not even just in music, but film, photography, if it resonates with me on a subconscious level. You know when you’re attracted to something and you don’t know why. Even with people. I’ve worked with a lot of people that I’m attracted to, not even in a sexual sense, but in an unearthly sense. It’s weird because I’ve never tried to articulate that.

BLESSED: What do you think of the jollof rice?

It’s really good.

[As the conversation comes to an end we move to BLESSED flying back to London the next day and what he hopes to achieve over there]

BLESSED: I’m a citizen of the world. I want to find that mentor. I want to hone in on my songwriting and I want to develop into one of the greatest artists to come out of Australia.

What do you consider a great artist?

BLESSED: Someone who pushes the boundaries of sound. Someone who influences a generation for the better, it can be for the worst as well. But in my opinion a great artist is someone who stands the test of time. 

I’ve made a lot of songs, but I don’t feel like my catalogue stands the test of time in my own opinion. My DMs have always been full of people that say “Your songs have helped me through a break-up, this song has helped me mourn the death of my brother”, and that means the world to me but I really want to take it to a level where it’s like the music quality and mixing, and my vocals, are projected the way that I articulate myself. It has to be at a standard where in 20, 30, 40 years time people can look back and say his music impacted people’s lives for the better.

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