Fifth gear

Hip Hop World Awards winner William Orioha, also known as 2Shotz, has a fifth studio album on the way, scheduled for a March 20, 2010 release. From his Mende home, the Umunnamu Music Group's chief executive speaks about the music and the other things he is involved in.

Why is the album called I am W.I.L.L.I.A.M.?

I sat down at some point and decided that I love my name; I got to really realize, in-depth, what my name means. All the people who had been called Williams; who they were and what they did. I see myself as a great person too and since I want to talk about myself a lot on this album and show the various styles about me, I decided to call it that.

Tell us about the album

There are a couple of styles that I started with initially and people seem to have forgotten; they think that 2Shotz is that pidgin and Igbo rapper, they have forgotten that I really know how to flow and do the freestyle thing. There are a couple of styles that I have developed over time, like my little singing skill and so on; I have decided to let people see it since I have it in me. I believe it will bring my fans closer to me and see another side of that. Some probably know but have forgotten and others never knew [they] existed.

Will the album boast of any international collaborations?

I'm looking forward to something like that but truthfully, there is nothing in the working just yet but I have a feeling that it could happen before the album is released as there are a couple of songs on the album I want to replace. I'm looking at doing an international collaboration but my spirit hasn't actually chosen who it will be.

The first single, "Oyoyo" contains some garage sounds not typical of your kind of music, are you rebranding?

I was tired of the regular Nigerian [dancehall drum beat] and when I travelled, I found out that there is a new kind of sound that people are actually enjoying, so I decided to fuse it with our own beat style. So I worked the beat out with eLDee and later decided to get YQ on it as well for the hook. Initially, I wanted Wande Coal but you know he's a very busy person and the whole Mo' Hits protocol, I just decided to use someone new, coming up and has a lot of fire in him; hence YQ. The track took about three months to get ready.

Lyrically, will the album contain the over flogged shayo, swagga and booty lines?

The truth is this new album has everything on it; even the type I call lazy songs, which is the type you spoke of. But it contains some serious songs as well, on the track "Whether You Like am", I really went deep on the song, talking about myself, how I started and what I'm about and what I want to be about.

It's been a while since you put something out; what happened?

I was used to people saying I was dropping an album like every year and I found out that sometimes I really don't put in my best, I just record anything and put them together. But now music has changed and also because I had a couple of other things that occupied my mind and time as well. Again, I need inspiration and it may take me a month to get inspiration for a song, so if it takes that long, so be it. This album took time because I took a more serious angle; it is going to be about serious issues. I didn't know it took that long but one day I just realised that it is about two years since my last album.

During this period, were you into other stuff?

Yeah, I run a bar in the UK and I'm working on setting up one here as well. The UK bar is called Base Bar while the one in Nigeria will be called ‘U Lounge'. Again, I just signed a new artist, Olstar, so I've also been busy with his project as well and I'm building a studio which I hope will be ready by January.

Going back to your roots with Da Trybe; is there anything you miss about the group?

Trust me, I miss Da Trybe every day of my life; I miss the whole family. I don't have that kind of family again. Sometimes, I wish I have that kind of group, you know? Knowing you have people that you can run to, where you guys can sit down and plan together, where people will be like, "okay 2Shotz, this is how we are going to do your thing today," stuff like that. I remember how easy it was doing things as a group because everybody is into everybody's business but now we are all alone. We tried to bring it back but apparently, some of us are too busy that inasmuch as we want to, we don't have the time to make it happen.

How would you rate the success of the other members of the group?

A couple of them who are where they are now, I always knew would get there.