hi everyone I’m so nervous right now
though army I don’t do that so my name
is Malika and I’m gonna be talking about
my life and how I found my truth one
continent 54 countries and thousands of
tribes and ethnic groups 27 percent of
the world is makeup made up of African
countries and yet one thing draws us
together and that’s resilience whether
it’s the the young girl from Kenya who
wants to be a neurosurgeon one day or
whether it’s the young boy in Yaba Lagos
Nigeria and who wants to be make it who
wants to be a computer engineer make it
to Silicon Valley one day or maybe it’s
the young British born Nigerian who
wants to be a music mogul and there and
be like PDD that young boy the last
young boy that I mentioned standing in
front of you right now my life started a
long time ago don’t want to reveal my
age I was born and said Thomas Hospital
in London and it wasn’t too long after
that I was three months I got shipped
back to Nigeria to live in the north I
was living in Kaduna with my paternal
grandparents on my family and yeah that
was like you know that’s where I spent
the early days of my life too early
years of my life you know we had Michael
Jackson playing in the house but Marley
my dad used to listen to a lot of Fela
you know I was always that kid who would
sit in front of the TV screen
just watching everything paying
attention I was so I was so attentive
and I will never forget it was Michael
Jackson Motown at 25 performance and
I’ll never forget watching Michael
Jackson and it was like magic I was a
kid and seeing the way this guy moves
seeing away performs in a way entertain
people
I was captivated and I remember every
every time after I saw that performance
I’d sit in front of the TV every time
Michael Jackson came on and literally
tried to mimic every move
the music seed was plighted very early
on I fell in love with music I fell in
love of pop I fell in love with my coach
my first word apparently was Michael
Jackson
apparently sorry mom and dad and I spent
the early years of my life there then by
the time I was 4 years old I went to
live in Lagos Nigeria of my maternal
grandma and my family and that was I
don’t know how many people here have
been to Lagos before but that was a
anybody Lagos Lagos at the house
yeah okay cool I’m not alone and that
was a big shift for me even though I was
still a kid but like I said I was still
so attentive and you know my grandma was
this high society woman and every
weekend we’d go to our hometown and
she’d had these like grand parties and
stuff and we used to call them oh and
their parties we still call them all and
their parties and my uncles and auntie’s
would dress up in this amazing Nigerian
traditional attire and my grandma would
have like in Nigeria musicians come and
play and they had this culture of
basically saying a family name in songs
so I got introduced to Fuji music
anybody knows Fuji music so the
barristers the k1 she know Peters I got
introduced to that side of things and I
was already starting to build layers
musically I was already starting to
train my ears I didn’t even know it I
had you know in my early years I had the
Michael Jackson the pop and now I got
introduced to this whole Fuji culture so
by the time I was six years old I moved
back to London I remember coming back to
London you know it wasn’t cool to be
African at all
you know the words African boo boo was
tossed around on the regular but how
many people could relate yeah you know
those words those phrases were tossed
around on a regular basis man and and
that was just because back then it just
wasn’t cool to be African like I said
and and you know people weren’t proud of
their culture
you know you had guys whose name who had
names like a d4 I did a lie and they
pretend their name is Aaron or something
I know some of you have guilty of that
but I wasn’t thanks to my parents I had
a very all right okay name you know was
difficult growing up and and like I said
just coming from Nigeria and having to
experience that thank God for my then
intimidating older brother who used to
fend off all the bullies any time they
tried to you know talk to the boy and I
got through primary school you know back
then everything was bashment heads I
kill already know so yeah it was mr.
Vegas with that culture was poppin now
and by the time I got to secondary
school most of the friends around me
were Caribbean and it still wasn’t cool
to be African at all and but how did it
know that I was still forming another
layer to my musical vocabulary I’ve had
the you know I’ve got the I’ve got the
Fuji I’ve got the Michael Jackson pop I
started my life with and now I’ve got
this dancehall sound system culture in
secondary school secondary school is
where I started to form my identity as a
musician by year nine a group of friends
me and a group of friends we started a
rap group in church I remember when we
first started we used to rap over jay-z
and Nas beats and you know we did pretty
well you know we’d perform around London
you know at different churches and
everything we built a name for ourselves
but it was only one problem we was
rapping over jay-z and Nas beats so one
day like I had a light bulb moment and I
said to myself hold on a second why
don’t I start making my own beats like I
mean the songs have become more original
and they’ll be sing alongs and you know
we wouldn’t have to rap over jay-z and
Nas beats and have all the uncles in
church looking at was funny so one day I
got my hands on a piece of software
called Froot Loops and you know I
started to teach myself how to produce a
myself had to write songs I taught
myself how to write hooks and before I
knew it I was the one that was pretty
much writing most of the hooks for my
group in everyday and while that was
happening there was another culture that
was bubbling while I was in secondary
school and that was UK garage culture
and that started to add another layer to
my musical vocabulary so by the time I
got to college now things have changed
it was a big change
actually there was actually core to be
African oh I don’t know what happened
but I have a feeling that was the music
we had the music now you know you had
guys like the band you had guys like to
face you had more hits and these guys
were becoming superstars not only in
Africa but internationally and they were
given Africans a sense of pride you know
and they definitely gave me a sense of
pride and I was I was seen like Ghana
and speaking true to each other niger
and speaker Euribor able to each other
and this gave me a sense of pride
because I’ve never I’d never seen
anything like that I mean I came I grew
up in South London and you had guys that
were African pretending to be Caribbean
and so this was new to me when I was in
college I didn’t really pay too much
attention to education because I was so
focused on wow I’ve got achieved his
dream I’ve got become this music mogul
this superstar one day and how am I
going to do is I was my my was
infatuated with success and becoming
that person I wanted to be when I was a
kid I had extracurricular classes as
well while I was in college I didn’t
take anything music related I actually
studied IT and business and college and
I’ll never forget mr. Winston thank you
so much if you’re gonna watch this he
was our music enrichment teacher and he
taught us very early on that the music
industry was 90% business and 10% music
so I started to take a keen interest on
the on the business side of things so
very early on I was reading books about
the music industry I was reading books
about publishing and distribution
finished college didn’t get the best
grades parents weren’t really happy by
the time I got to university by the time
I was about to get to university rather
I was having back on force of my parents
I didn’t want to go to university I
didn’t really see the point but I said
to myself you know my mom you know she’s
worked so hard for me
what’s a degree what’s a piece of paper
so I had a goal now when I started uni I
work as hard as I can get nothing less
than a 2:1 degree and I’ll be on my way
chasing my dream so I started uni and I
was seeing you know guys like me
Africans you know people from all over
Africa like graduating at the top of
their class and it gave me love you know
the sense of pride and an inspiration
like wow this is I’ve never seen this
before
and this is you know somebody coming
from the inner city of South London so I
started uni didn’t do any work on my
first year party throughout and by the
time I got to my third year I built this
habit it’s very important habit of
writing down goals 10 to 15 things I
wanted to achieve in that year and every
three months I’d we’ve like revised
those goals and I’d speak them out every
time I wake up in the morning and at
night when I sleep and that habit that I
picked up taught me one very important
thing that vision was more important
than sight and that would be literally
that phrase would literally be my guide
throughout the rest of my life and I
remember I got to third year I took a
placement year and I was working in
Cambridge I learnt to play the keys by
ear and during that year I’d sit in
front of YouTube and literally like I
was learning chords learning
progressions and music theory for the
whole year
so by the time I got to final year I
knew how to play keys to a decent level
that added another level to my musical
vocabulary got to final year finished
uni works as hard as I can
I’ve got my 2-1 degree in computer
science thank you
it was time for the real world I had
this plan after I graduated that I
wouldn’t work on nine-to-five I wanted
to chase my dreams like I said before
most of my peers had you know jobs in
finance jobs and law and there was me a
computer science graduate talking about
he wants to be in the music industry he
wants to chase his dreams
so everybody looked at me like I was
crazy I had a very start and maybe I was
crazy but I didn’t really care in it
really see it’s chasing a dream I was in
pursuit of purpose I started my journey
I made a decision not to do a
nine-to-five and I started working in
gap and every time I’d work in gap and
I’d work a couple of hours or whatever I
go back home and get back on my computer
and just like the produce beats till the
next morning and go into work the next
day and I did that grind every single
day for 18 months and I’d be in the
changing room speaking those same goals
that I used to write in university I
would speak them out quietly to myself
in the common room and I was literally
filling my subconscious mind with the
idea of who I wanted to become so I
finished gap did my thing and I remember
I told myself I wasn’t gonna spend more
than two years and gap it was 2000 2011
I went on a family holiday to Nigeria I
had my own motives behind that family
holiday I was going to find my route my
routes and there was this you know big
afro be afro pop culture going and I
wanted to go and find out where I fit
where I would fit in that whole culture
and while I was out there I got
connected with David oh he was like one
of the biggest artists in the continent
right now and you know we sparked up a
relationship we started to make music
together and through him I met whiz kid
you know so we you know we we sparked a
relationship and there was one thing
every single artist I met was saying the
same thing to me in different ways
like Malik your mango beets are amazing
like this this you have this distinct
sound you know it’s like a mixture of
R&B and make sure of hip-hop and a
mixture of the nigel kind of sound and
had a lightbulb moment again hold on a
second
maybe I meant to be that guy who’s meant
to be the bridge you know between these
different cultures between the UK
between Africa between us and I meant to
be that that guy who creates this
melting pot of sounds and who creates
this new sub-genre I didn’t know at the
time but I was starting to find my
calling I was starting to find my
purpose in this whole thing so I left
gap got an IT job I decided to use my
degree my parents were happy of course I
got an IT job in in North London
somewhere and I did my thing I did you
know I did my bit I worked very hard and
about a month and a half after I started
I got made redundant I wasn’t too sad
because I didn’t really want to be there
anyway but I took it as a sign like I’ve
worked in gap for so long I decided to
use my degree to work in this IT company
and I get made redundant about a month
later so I told myself you know what
maybe this isn’t a bad thing it sucked
the redundancy money and I was on my way
I remember man you know so many people
around me were like look listen Malik
just get a nine-to-five job I locked
myself away in my room for like two
years literally like I was still living
in my mom’s house and I would literally
at night just stop what I’m doing and
ask myself am I taking the right path
it’s just the right am I crazy am I the
one that’s crazy
like everyone around me has a stable
life like my friends are getting married
they’re buying houses and everything and
here’s me in my mum’s house sitting in
front of my computer computer trying to
be a superstar
but it’s that same resilience that kept
me going
that same resilience that’s been
instilled in me ever since I was born
that same resilience
that’s in every average African for
whatever and that kept me going I went
on to producing for some of the biggest
artists in Africa I created a name for
myself as a producer as a songwriter and
I had this plan that I would be the guy
who is the bridge between Africa and the
rest of the world and UK because
obviously I was raised in South London
so I’ve got represent so I continued and
I built a very good name for myself and
one of the hardest things I had to do
was making a transition from a producer
to an artist when I first started I had
people had so much opposition people
telling me like Malik are you crazy
bro like here goes another producer
trying to be an artist I had doubts I’ve
never doubted myself so much on to that
point in my life I look to myself in the
mirror one day you know brushing my
teeth and I said to myself how many are
on average do we have on this earth
really 80 if we’re lucky
85 blessed 90 if were anointed so I said
to myself what am I gonna lose if I
actually go ahead with this thing I was
so scared of failure the failure itself
wouldn’t actually make me a failure
there was the fear of failure that would
make me a failure so I said nah man I
ain’t no worse I’m gonna do this so I
kept on going and things started to
change those same goals I started to
write down when I was in university
started to come to pass one step at a
time
this is my story I wanted to come here
and talk about this elaborate idea about
how afro beats is touching the world or
wherever but I said you know what let me
just tell you guys about myself and I
hope you guys have been inspired I hope
you guys end up finding your truth one
day because when you find your truth
you’re halfway there
you’re literally halfway there across
the journey of life and that will give
you 20/20 vision so please I’m gonna
repeat again find your truth vision is
more important than sight and do not
rush the process my name is Malik
O’Connell I’ll show ya be popularly
known popularly known as Malik Barry and
thank you so much for having me
[Applause]
though army I don’t do that so my name
is Malika and I’m gonna be talking about
my life and how I found my truth one
continent 54 countries and thousands of
tribes and ethnic groups 27 percent of
the world is makeup made up of African
countries and yet one thing draws us
together and that’s resilience whether
it’s the the young girl from Kenya who
wants to be a neurosurgeon one day or
whether it’s the young boy in Yaba Lagos
Nigeria and who wants to be make it who
wants to be a computer engineer make it
to Silicon Valley one day or maybe it’s
the young British born Nigerian who
wants to be a music mogul and there and
be like PDD that young boy the last
young boy that I mentioned standing in
front of you right now my life started a
long time ago don’t want to reveal my
age I was born and said Thomas Hospital
in London and it wasn’t too long after
that I was three months I got shipped
back to Nigeria to live in the north I
was living in Kaduna with my paternal
grandparents on my family and yeah that
was like you know that’s where I spent
the early days of my life too early
years of my life you know we had Michael
Jackson playing in the house but Marley
my dad used to listen to a lot of Fela
you know I was always that kid who would
sit in front of the TV screen
just watching everything paying
attention I was so I was so attentive
and I will never forget it was Michael
Jackson Motown at 25 performance and
I’ll never forget watching Michael
Jackson and it was like magic I was a
kid and seeing the way this guy moves
seeing away performs in a way entertain
people
I was captivated and I remember every
every time after I saw that performance
I’d sit in front of the TV every time
Michael Jackson came on and literally
tried to mimic every move
the music seed was plighted very early
on I fell in love with music I fell in
love of pop I fell in love with my coach
my first word apparently was Michael
Jackson
apparently sorry mom and dad and I spent
the early years of my life there then by
the time I was 4 years old I went to
live in Lagos Nigeria of my maternal
grandma and my family and that was I
don’t know how many people here have
been to Lagos before but that was a
anybody Lagos Lagos at the house
yeah okay cool I’m not alone and that
was a big shift for me even though I was
still a kid but like I said I was still
so attentive and you know my grandma was
this high society woman and every
weekend we’d go to our hometown and
she’d had these like grand parties and
stuff and we used to call them oh and
their parties we still call them all and
their parties and my uncles and auntie’s
would dress up in this amazing Nigerian
traditional attire and my grandma would
have like in Nigeria musicians come and
play and they had this culture of
basically saying a family name in songs
so I got introduced to Fuji music
anybody knows Fuji music so the
barristers the k1 she know Peters I got
introduced to that side of things and I
was already starting to build layers
musically I was already starting to
train my ears I didn’t even know it I
had you know in my early years I had the
Michael Jackson the pop and now I got
introduced to this whole Fuji culture so
by the time I was six years old I moved
back to London I remember coming back to
London you know it wasn’t cool to be
African at all
you know the words African boo boo was
tossed around on the regular but how
many people could relate yeah you know
those words those phrases were tossed
around on a regular basis man and and
that was just because back then it just
wasn’t cool to be African like I said
and and you know people weren’t proud of
their culture
you know you had guys whose name who had
names like a d4 I did a lie and they
pretend their name is Aaron or something
I know some of you have guilty of that
but I wasn’t thanks to my parents I had
a very all right okay name you know was
difficult growing up and and like I said
just coming from Nigeria and having to
experience that thank God for my then
intimidating older brother who used to
fend off all the bullies any time they
tried to you know talk to the boy and I
got through primary school you know back
then everything was bashment heads I
kill already know so yeah it was mr.
Vegas with that culture was poppin now
and by the time I got to secondary
school most of the friends around me
were Caribbean and it still wasn’t cool
to be African at all and but how did it
know that I was still forming another
layer to my musical vocabulary I’ve had
the you know I’ve got the I’ve got the
Fuji I’ve got the Michael Jackson pop I
started my life with and now I’ve got
this dancehall sound system culture in
secondary school secondary school is
where I started to form my identity as a
musician by year nine a group of friends
me and a group of friends we started a
rap group in church I remember when we
first started we used to rap over jay-z
and Nas beats and you know we did pretty
well you know we’d perform around London
you know at different churches and
everything we built a name for ourselves
but it was only one problem we was
rapping over jay-z and Nas beats so one
day like I had a light bulb moment and I
said to myself hold on a second why
don’t I start making my own beats like I
mean the songs have become more original
and they’ll be sing alongs and you know
we wouldn’t have to rap over jay-z and
Nas beats and have all the uncles in
church looking at was funny so one day I
got my hands on a piece of software
called Froot Loops and you know I
started to teach myself how to produce a
myself had to write songs I taught
myself how to write hooks and before I
knew it I was the one that was pretty
much writing most of the hooks for my
group in everyday and while that was
happening there was another culture that
was bubbling while I was in secondary
school and that was UK garage culture
and that started to add another layer to
my musical vocabulary so by the time I
got to college now things have changed
it was a big change
actually there was actually core to be
African oh I don’t know what happened
but I have a feeling that was the music
we had the music now you know you had
guys like the band you had guys like to
face you had more hits and these guys
were becoming superstars not only in
Africa but internationally and they were
given Africans a sense of pride you know
and they definitely gave me a sense of
pride and I was I was seen like Ghana
and speaking true to each other niger
and speaker Euribor able to each other
and this gave me a sense of pride
because I’ve never I’d never seen
anything like that I mean I came I grew
up in South London and you had guys that
were African pretending to be Caribbean
and so this was new to me when I was in
college I didn’t really pay too much
attention to education because I was so
focused on wow I’ve got achieved his
dream I’ve got become this music mogul
this superstar one day and how am I
going to do is I was my my was
infatuated with success and becoming
that person I wanted to be when I was a
kid I had extracurricular classes as
well while I was in college I didn’t
take anything music related I actually
studied IT and business and college and
I’ll never forget mr. Winston thank you
so much if you’re gonna watch this he
was our music enrichment teacher and he
taught us very early on that the music
industry was 90% business and 10% music
so I started to take a keen interest on
the on the business side of things so
very early on I was reading books about
the music industry I was reading books
about publishing and distribution
finished college didn’t get the best
grades parents weren’t really happy by
the time I got to university by the time
I was about to get to university rather
I was having back on force of my parents
I didn’t want to go to university I
didn’t really see the point but I said
to myself you know my mom you know she’s
worked so hard for me
what’s a degree what’s a piece of paper
so I had a goal now when I started uni I
work as hard as I can get nothing less
than a 2:1 degree and I’ll be on my way
chasing my dream so I started uni and I
was seeing you know guys like me
Africans you know people from all over
Africa like graduating at the top of
their class and it gave me love you know
the sense of pride and an inspiration
like wow this is I’ve never seen this
before
and this is you know somebody coming
from the inner city of South London so I
started uni didn’t do any work on my
first year party throughout and by the
time I got to my third year I built this
habit it’s very important habit of
writing down goals 10 to 15 things I
wanted to achieve in that year and every
three months I’d we’ve like revised
those goals and I’d speak them out every
time I wake up in the morning and at
night when I sleep and that habit that I
picked up taught me one very important
thing that vision was more important
than sight and that would be literally
that phrase would literally be my guide
throughout the rest of my life and I
remember I got to third year I took a
placement year and I was working in
Cambridge I learnt to play the keys by
ear and during that year I’d sit in
front of YouTube and literally like I
was learning chords learning
progressions and music theory for the
whole year
so by the time I got to final year I
knew how to play keys to a decent level
that added another level to my musical
vocabulary got to final year finished
uni works as hard as I can
I’ve got my 2-1 degree in computer
science thank you
it was time for the real world I had
this plan after I graduated that I
wouldn’t work on nine-to-five I wanted
to chase my dreams like I said before
most of my peers had you know jobs in
finance jobs and law and there was me a
computer science graduate talking about
he wants to be in the music industry he
wants to chase his dreams
so everybody looked at me like I was
crazy I had a very start and maybe I was
crazy but I didn’t really care in it
really see it’s chasing a dream I was in
pursuit of purpose I started my journey
I made a decision not to do a
nine-to-five and I started working in
gap and every time I’d work in gap and
I’d work a couple of hours or whatever I
go back home and get back on my computer
and just like the produce beats till the
next morning and go into work the next
day and I did that grind every single
day for 18 months and I’d be in the
changing room speaking those same goals
that I used to write in university I
would speak them out quietly to myself
in the common room and I was literally
filling my subconscious mind with the
idea of who I wanted to become so I
finished gap did my thing and I remember
I told myself I wasn’t gonna spend more
than two years and gap it was 2000 2011
I went on a family holiday to Nigeria I
had my own motives behind that family
holiday I was going to find my route my
routes and there was this you know big
afro be afro pop culture going and I
wanted to go and find out where I fit
where I would fit in that whole culture
and while I was out there I got
connected with David oh he was like one
of the biggest artists in the continent
right now and you know we sparked up a
relationship we started to make music
together and through him I met whiz kid
you know so we you know we we sparked a
relationship and there was one thing
every single artist I met was saying the
same thing to me in different ways
like Malik your mango beets are amazing
like this this you have this distinct
sound you know it’s like a mixture of
R&B and make sure of hip-hop and a
mixture of the nigel kind of sound and
had a lightbulb moment again hold on a
second
maybe I meant to be that guy who’s meant
to be the bridge you know between these
different cultures between the UK
between Africa between us and I meant to
be that that guy who creates this
melting pot of sounds and who creates
this new sub-genre I didn’t know at the
time but I was starting to find my
calling I was starting to find my
purpose in this whole thing so I left
gap got an IT job I decided to use my
degree my parents were happy of course I
got an IT job in in North London
somewhere and I did my thing I did you
know I did my bit I worked very hard and
about a month and a half after I started
I got made redundant I wasn’t too sad
because I didn’t really want to be there
anyway but I took it as a sign like I’ve
worked in gap for so long I decided to
use my degree to work in this IT company
and I get made redundant about a month
later so I told myself you know what
maybe this isn’t a bad thing it sucked
the redundancy money and I was on my way
I remember man you know so many people
around me were like look listen Malik
just get a nine-to-five job I locked
myself away in my room for like two
years literally like I was still living
in my mom’s house and I would literally
at night just stop what I’m doing and
ask myself am I taking the right path
it’s just the right am I crazy am I the
one that’s crazy
like everyone around me has a stable
life like my friends are getting married
they’re buying houses and everything and
here’s me in my mum’s house sitting in
front of my computer computer trying to
be a superstar
but it’s that same resilience that kept
me going
that same resilience that’s been
instilled in me ever since I was born
that same resilience
that’s in every average African for
whatever and that kept me going I went
on to producing for some of the biggest
artists in Africa I created a name for
myself as a producer as a songwriter and
I had this plan that I would be the guy
who is the bridge between Africa and the
rest of the world and UK because
obviously I was raised in South London
so I’ve got represent so I continued and
I built a very good name for myself and
one of the hardest things I had to do
was making a transition from a producer
to an artist when I first started I had
people had so much opposition people
telling me like Malik are you crazy
bro like here goes another producer
trying to be an artist I had doubts I’ve
never doubted myself so much on to that
point in my life I look to myself in the
mirror one day you know brushing my
teeth and I said to myself how many are
on average do we have on this earth
really 80 if we’re lucky
85 blessed 90 if were anointed so I said
to myself what am I gonna lose if I
actually go ahead with this thing I was
so scared of failure the failure itself
wouldn’t actually make me a failure
there was the fear of failure that would
make me a failure so I said nah man I
ain’t no worse I’m gonna do this so I
kept on going and things started to
change those same goals I started to
write down when I was in university
started to come to pass one step at a
time
this is my story I wanted to come here
and talk about this elaborate idea about
how afro beats is touching the world or
wherever but I said you know what let me
just tell you guys about myself and I
hope you guys have been inspired I hope
you guys end up finding your truth one
day because when you find your truth
you’re halfway there
you’re literally halfway there across
the journey of life and that will give
you 20/20 vision so please I’m gonna
repeat again find your truth vision is
more important than sight and do not
rush the process my name is Malik
O’Connell I’ll show ya be popularly
known popularly known as Malik Barry and
thank you so much for having me
[Applause]
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