We were lucky to catch up with Czn Baby recently and have shared our conversation below.

Czn, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I was always told I had nice vocals growing up, I would always try to sing along with my sisters around the house. For the songwriting part, that took me while, I had to do a lot of listening and learning from a lot of artists, especially the ones I had the opportunity of being around while they created. Knowing what I know now, I definitely would’ve paid more attention to developing my vocals and vocal techniques, learn an instrument too. Well honestly, at the start I never saw myself singing , I wanted to do a bunch of things but definitely not music. However when i did pick it up, i never really had obstacle in the way of trying to learn. i tried to get as much as i could in the spaces i found myself in.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My real name is Christopher Essien but you can call me Cznbaby, I’m a musical artiste, a creative professional from Calabar, Cross River State, who is quite passionate about music. I started my journey proper in 2020,Lagos State. I had just rounded up the school I was attending at the time. At first i was just trying out a lot of things i thought i could do, or you could say i was enjoying my hobbies too. I really liked writing poems, short poems and i would post them up my social media alongside videos of freestyles and song covers. The comments and reactions were encouraging. most of the pieces i would write were about things i would be feeling or thoughts that have been lurking, it didn’t take long till the pen became an extension of my mind. Fortunately, efforts played out and i caught the eye of a music Exec who reached out and also offered me a space that i could develop my craft for a certain period, here I met artists, producers and other creatives. It was inspiring, the rush i got thinking of the possibilities, the things i could achieve just by being as good as they were, i was excited about the process. from that moment things just started looking up, God has been great.

my genre of music? I just express myself however i can, i like music as a whole and i feel genre’s are mood relative. But of course i do like me a bit of ‘Afro’ in the mix.

what makes me different from others? my sound, how i approach a beat, my choice of words. my creative steps too, i guess some people have their own ways and processes to creating.

one of my favorite proud moments, it’s a bit personal but i got a call from my mum. She sounded so excited, she called to tell me she heard my song on the radio and how she couldn’t stop smiling. It was a moment for me, in my mind anyone who genuinely would like to see me grow would have the same excitement she did, maybe not as much as my mum haha but yeah, that meant something.

to my potential fans and followers, i want to thank you for taking out time to read this, i promise you listening to my music would feel just as refreshing. There’s so much music and cool stuff to be put out. I’m a boy who wants to achieve great things and make great music. i want you to know that i won’t relent and i’d keep pushing myself to be better in my craft and most importantly i will stop trying to inspire others spread love and positivity through my music, and i would really love to do this with your full support and love.
My music is a reflection of my mind, my passion, and commitment to achieving greatness, i really hope i get the opportunity to create and collaborate with some of the prominent people in the industry.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

For me, it would be a bunch of things. The joy of creating something from nothing, the process of learning and developing, definitely collaborating too and the fact that you could reach out to so many people with melodies and words.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

After i stayed a few months in the space i was given to learn and practice my craft, there were a few obstacles that lead to me returning back to my home city, Calabar. That got me really sad, i went off grid, it felt like i was back to square one after making significant progress. i wasn’t writing as much, i wasn’t making music at all. This had me down for a while. some random day i went back to my old videos of when i just started out, watching myself in the studio struggle to record, or when i’d get frustrated being stuck on a line, that woke me up, it reminded me of how much i enjoy creating music. I prayed about it a lot. I and my friends around the block liked to freestyle too whenever we linked up so i guess that kinda kept the engine running. But more significantly, a friend that i made in lagos, a producer called and said he was in Calabar as well. We linked, he asked if i was down to create and that was how i went back to making music again, leaving Lagos at the time slowed down a lot of things for me, but i never gave up.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @cznbaby_
• Twitter: @cznbaby_
• Youtube: cznbaby
• Other: tik tok: @only1czn

Image Credits
mimi’s media darkiestudios